Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Ibrahim El Salahi was influential in shaping the development of modern art in Sudan during the mid-twentieth century, particularly as a leader of the Khartoum School that was comprised of a group of modern artists working in Sudan from 1960–75. As a leading modern artist from Africa, El Salahi’s impact on modernism is wide-ranging and extends beyond the African continent. Male and Female illustrates the distinctive style of El Salahi’s paintings to join Arabic calligraphy
with motifs that draw upon global imagery as he looks outside of Sudan and the African continent especially Islam, Arab, and European references. El Salahi made this painting around 1950, which was at the beginning of his career and possibly when he was arts student; he studied at the Gordon Memorial College in Sudan from 1948–57 and then the Slade School at the University College London from 1954–57.