Visual Art for Palestine is an ongoing archive and resource.

The website for Visual Art for Palestine (VA4P) highlights painters, designers, illustrators, filmmakers, photographers, and more.

With each person or project’s story, the art and personal background gives an insight into different parts of Palestinian culture, history, traditions, struggle, resistance, strength, unity, and sumud.

Art has been a meaningful tool over time for Palestinians in their homeland – whether in Gaza, the West Bank, the ‘48 territories, or the diaspora – through their occupation, ethnic cleansing, and displacement.

The fight for liberation has also been a cause that many other international artists have brought into their work.

The Role of Palestinian Artists
Samia Halaby’s book, Liberation Art of Palestine: Palestinian Painting and Sculpture in the Second Half of the 20th Century, calls out visual art specifically.

She brings up a 1980s newspaper article where the Palestinian critic Muhammad Al Batrawi asked: “Have the visual arts been able to give form to the ambitions of the masses? Have works of art themselves been able to reach deep into the consciousness of the people?”

Al Batrawi went on to share his perspective on how artists’ conditions under military occupation, even ruling over what colors they could use, must be considered in their work and difficulty of life.

After citing this, Samia Halaby notes:

“At the very heart of the Palestinian painting movement of the second half of the twentieth century, the artists of the Intifada within the homeland clearly stated that their work was an art of resistance and that creativity lies within the ambition of liberation.”

As time has gone on and the occupation has continued, artists have continued to make work under brutal circumstances in Palestine and as refugees. However, some have questioned the act of creating, feeling that it may be in vain.

The impact of this throughout the arts was questioned more recently in a September 2023 article, What role does culture play in Palestinian liberation?, written for Mondoweiss by Palestinian writer and poet Mohammed el-Kurd.

In his deliberation, el-Kurd interrogates the question and his own role in the Palestinian struggle. By the end of it, taking into account many perspectives and sides of the argument, he comes to a conclusion that can be applied to all involved:

“The role of the artist in a liberation movement is the same as any member of that movement. Accept the obligation to participate in the climb.”

Art is not a solution in itself, but the cultural front is one of many that can – and should – be pursued for the Palestinian cause.

In Solidarity
The 1978 International Exhibit of Art for Palestine was one of the most powerful displays of collective support for Palestine with 200 artists from 27 different countries – Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Romania, Spain, Syria, US, Venezuela, and Yemen.

One of these artists was Roberto Matta from Chile – the Latin American country known for its close ties with Palestine, home today to half-a-million refugees.

Matta, a prominent 20th century painter, wrote in the 1978 exhibition catalog about his perspective of the need to create art for people to see the life Palestinians are forced to endure under occupation.

In discussing the role of the artist in this, part of Matta’s statement read:

“The artist is like a fish in the water. Our water is the time, the history, the struggles that we live with... So, all art is political because to paint a king is to celebrate his being.

To paint decorative forms is to celebrate the status quo as the best of all worlds, an art that keeps people content. The very conformity of academic art is political.

On the other hand, there are fish that would like a change of water – who would like to swim and live in clean water.

All through history revolutionary art has been a provocation to the forces of authority to accept new ideas and, if possible, to impose a new culture… If the military has to use force, a cultural front should open your mind.

I believe that the main purpose of such a cultural front is to unite people all over the world; people who have suffered a great deal and are suffering still from false humanism.

We must try and cultivate a creative sense of solidarity, a new human being dedicated to a new love…To create a new water and to keep the water clean, this is the task of the artist.”

Institutions Must Change
The Turner Prize is an annual award presented to a British visual artist. In December 2024, Scottish artist Jasleen Kaur won and accepted the award at the Tate Modern museum in London.

Outside, Pro-Palestine protestors rallied to demand the institution cut their relationships with organizations financially tied to “Israel.”

Kaur acknowledged them – saying she stood in solidarity with the protestors outside that included artists, cultural workers, Tate Modern staff, and students. She added her own words that included:

“This is not a radical demand. This should not risk an artist’s career or safety. We’re trying to build consensus that the ties to these organizations are unethical…

I’ve been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life, we are shut down.

I want the separation between the expression of politics in the gallery and the practice of politics in life to disappear. I want institutions to understand that if you want us on the inside, you need to listen to us on the outside.”