BEIRUT — “Palestinian art has always brought the struggle for freedom and the [Israeli] occupation to the people of the world,” Vera Tamari, a multidisciplinary artist, said to Al-Monitor. “A lot of the art that came out in the 1970s and 1980s reflected this through the symbolism of the time, but there has been a change of representation in Palestinian art. It has become more authentic in many ways.”

On April 30, the Beirut-based Dar El-Nimer for Arts and Culture, a Palestinian cultural organization, hosted four prominent figures and founders of the Palestinian contemporary art scene — Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, Tayseer Barakat and Tamari — to discuss the movement. Of particular focus was how their works had changed after the first intifada, the five-year-long uprising that began in 1987, two decades into the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights and Gaza stemming from the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. 

“Our perception of art changed during the intifada,” Mansour told the audience. “When we started, we were very young, in our early 20s, and we wanted to set up a group for artists. The occupation forces were completely against this association,… but we were young and revolutionary and had lots of energy.”

Their energy was channeled into a string of galleries and artist associations. The outfits would periodically ran into trouble with Israeli authorities, so names were often changed and locations moved to avoid suppression.