@tate

🎨 Today on #WorldRefugeeDay we're celebrating refugees, and shining a light on artists who fled conflict or persecution – and went on to become trailblazers. Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi worked in Sudan’s Ministry of Culture. In September 1975, he was arrested and imprisoned for six months, falsely accused of plotting against the government of the military dictator Gaafar Nimeiry. After his release he was forced to leave Sudan. He moved to Qatar, and eventually to Britain. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 'Today we seem to drift endlessly, driven by impulses and whims, within unstable circumstances that constantly change’, he reflected. ‘I see no glimpse of hope in this ordeal but to return to the centre of authenticity within each one of us, artist or not, each according to his or her potentials and capabilities. Only by persistently following that course can we gradually steer humanity, against all odds, back to its original freshness and youth.’ Ibrahim El-Salahi is widely considered as one of the pioneers of modern art in Africa. He is known for work that combines elements of Arabic calligraphy and African ornament and sculpture. By the early 1960s, when this work was was made, he was painting with sombre tones (black, white, grey, yellow ochre, burnt sienna and deep red) to reflect the colours of the Sudanese landscape. Ibrahim El-Salahi, Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I 1961–5, on free display at Tate Modern.