Born in 1930 in Lydda, Palestine, Ismail Shammout and his family were forced to settle in Gaza as refugees from 1948. Shammout’s unwavering commitment to his country is manifest in his artistic production, which offers a profound aesthetic interpretation of the experience of Palestinian history, both during and after 1948 and the subsequent displacement of the Palestinian people. His work confronts themes of memory, longing, and pride, and as such he is recognised as the country’s leading modernist and the “artistic face” of the Palestinian Freedom Struggle (Ismail Shammout, online: https://ismail-shammout.com).

Ismail Shammout in his studio in Beirut, Lebanon in 1975. Image courtesy of the Shammout Family.

The 1960s onwards marked a radical shift in Shammout’s work as he became actively involved in regional politics as resistance grew palpably; after moving to Beirut Shammout became Director of the Department of Arts and National Culture of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO). His engagement with the PLO inspired an activistic approach in his artistic output, which spoke to the resilience of the Palestinian people. The Mother (1965) handles clear symbols of conflict with sensibility, making what can be a deeply uncomfortable and sensitive subject matter beautifully poignant in its artistic rendering. The painting is well balanced with vibrant hues of red and orange and graced with sensitivity to emotional expression. Shammout’s narrative painting unites universal themes of determination and resistance with symbolism bound to the Palestinian experience;

“He transformed his previous somber color palette into a vibrant one and replaced the grim figure of the refugee with a young and robust fighter (…) As expressed by Palestinian art historian Tina Sherwell, Palestine came to be represented as both a mother and a virgin, simultaneously nurturing, life-sustaining, and possessed of honor that required defense.”
- Dalloul Art Foundation, online: https://dafbeirut.org/en/ismail-shammout

The strength of this outstanding work lies in its ability to portray sophisticated artistic prowess whilst aptly recalling the both tender and fierce commitment Shammout had for his homeland and people.