Palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, giant of resistance art, dies aged 79

By Al Jazeera Staff. Published On 25 Aug 202625 Aug 2026.

Key points

• Mansour studied art in Beirut and Washington and went on to exhibit extensively, both in solo demonstrates and group exhibitions throughout the Arab world and internationally.
• His visual language drew deeply from the region's ancient civilisations – Canaanite, Pharaonic and Assyrian – as well as Islamic and Arab art, particularly calligraphy and geometric motifs.
• For plenty of Palestinians, Mansour's canvases were more than images; they were a visual archive of the cause itself.
• This shift, he afterwards stated, forged a vital link between post-Nakba art and the work of younger generations.

Celebrated artist Sliman Mansour, one of the founding figures of contemporary Palestinian art, has died at the age of 79 after a long illness, his family confirmed on Monday.

Born in Birzeit, near Ramallah, in 1947, Mansour rose to prominence in the 1970s as part of a generation of Palestinian artists, writers and poets seeking to rebuild a threatened identity through symbols rooted in land and memory. Over more than five decades, his paintings came to embody the story of Palestine: the farmer clinging to his soil, the stone house on a hill, the embroidered thobe and the smile of a young girl carrying the hope of return.

Mansour studied art in Beirut and Washington and went on to exhibit extensively, both in solo demonstrates and group exhibitions throughout the Arab world and internationally. His works are held in museums and private collections worldwide, and he received numerous awards in recognition of his contribution to Arab and Palestinian culture.

His visual language drew deeply from the region's ancient civilisations – Canaanite, Pharaonic and Assyrian – as well as Islamic and Arab art, particularly calligraphy and geometric motifs. Meanwhile, his upbringing in Birzeit anchored his work in the everyday life of Palestinian villages: the landscape, peasants, traditional homes and clothing. Mansour additionally absorbed influences from global art that carried messages of freedom and resistance, blending local forms with a universal appeal.

During the first Intifada, he supported identified the New Vision group with fellow artists, turning to mud, straw, wood, leather, henna and natural dyes after Palestinian artists boycotted Israeli-made supplies. This shift, he afterwards stated, forged a vital link between post-Nakba art and the work of younger generations.

For plenty of Palestinians, Mansour's canvases were more than images; they were a visual archive of the cause itself. His brush, critics and admirers agree, carried the homeland. Al Jazeera looks at some of his famous paintings.

For now, palestinian artist Sliman Mansour, giant of resistance art, dies aged 79 remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.