Description
Watermelon Flag by Khaled Hourani
We are excited to have this popular work “Watermelon Flag” by Khaled Hourani (@khaledhourani6) available in limited edition prints.
Khaled Hourani’s “Watermelon Flag” – a variation on the color of the Palestinian flag- , which tells the story of the Israeli occupation ban on using the colors of the flag in paintings at a certain period of history. After the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, Israel banned all public displays of the #Palestinian #flag and its #colors. Any outward show of the flag, from publications to advertisements and even old photographs, could result in imprisonment or worse. Watermelon — with its red, green, black, and white coloring — is a representation of the Palestinian flag, an artwork that tells the story of this period of history.
watermelon by Khaled Hourani
In the 1980s, Zionist forces shut down a major Ramallah art gallery and arrested three artists — Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, and Isam Bader — for incorporating the colors of the Palestinian flag into their artworks. Mansour, in a recent AJ+ interview, detailed how an Israeli police chief tried to bribe them into depoliticizing their art. “He was trying to convince us not to do any political art, saying to us, ‘Why do you do political art? Why don’t you paint nice flowers or a nude figure? It’s nice. I will even buy from you.” He then instructed the artists to present their paintings to the IDF for permission before exhibiting, stamping each painting as either good or bad. Anything that fell into the latter category would be seized.
watermelon by Khaled Hourani
Khaled Hourani is the former Director of Fine Arts for the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and a central figure in the revitalization of Palestine’s arts discourse. Along with Mansour and Anani, he co-founded the International Art Academy of Palestine. Hourani painted a large-scale version of the watermelon for an exhibition in Toulouse, France, and variations appeared at Darat Al Funun in Amman, Jordan, and the Center of Contemporary Art, Glasgow. In recent months, he claims, attacks on Gaza have conjured spirits of past generations through revivals of their artworks.
watermelon print by Khaled Hourani
“Art was remarkably present in this confrontation in songs, logos, and graphics,” Hourani told Hyper-allergic. “Art was recalled from history, media of years gone by. However, it was not only enlisted by people in Palestine, but by people everywhere. This was clearly reflected in the massive and unprecedented solidarity campaigns with Palestine and its just struggle.”
watermelon by Khaled Hourani
“The officer raised his voice and said, ‘Even if you do a watermelon, it will be confiscated,’” Mansour said. “So the idea of the watermelon came actually from the officer, not from us.”
watermelon by Khaled Hourani
