Prison Drawing: Ibrahim El Salahi in Al Nimeiry’s Sudan, 1970s
‘Two years after its political independence from Egypt and Britain in 1956, Sudan witnessed the first of many military coups that have been a recurring feature of the country’s postcolonial history. In this lecture, I focus on the calligraphic figuration of Ibrahim El Salahi (b. 1930), the country’s leading modernist and onetime political prisoner. I show how the sophisticated formalism of Salahi’s drawings constituted a meditative critique of General Jaafar Al Nimeiry’s dictatorship (1969-1985), which survived multiple coups d’état, by stoking religious and ethnic crises, and systematic suppression of all political opposition.’
Date:
17 February 2023, 17:00
Venue:
Examination Schools, 75-81 High Street OX1 4BG
Speaker:
Chika Okeke-Agulu
Organising department:
Department of History of Art
Organiser:
Alexander Stavrou (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
vrc@hoa.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
Slade Lectures 2023: African Artists in the Age of the Big Man
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
AB Siegenthaler
