On a lazy afternoon on July 22, 1987, iconic Palestinian political cartoonist Naji Al Ali was walking towards the offices of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas in southwest London when he was gunned down.
He was holding a cartoon he had just drawn illustrating the image of a fatally wounded man along with Handala — a ten-year-old Palestinian boy, barefoot and dressed in rags — a figure he had created to represent Palestinian defiance.
The crumpled cartoon, bearing the harrowing memory of that fateful day, along with dozens others is displayed at ‘The Witness’ – an exhibition recently opened in Katara.
“The look on the man’s face in this drawing bears quite a resemblance to his when he was shot. In a way he already knew that he was going to be killed,” said Iraqi artist Hani Mazhar, Al Ali’s colleague and close friend. The exhibition is also showcasing some of Mazhar’s paintings inspired by Al Ali and his works.
Twenty-five years after his death, Al Ali continues to live in people’s memories through his political caricatures, which have now become works of art, thanks to Katara’s recently opened exhibition that pays homage to his admirable life and exceptional achievements.
But who else can best tell about Al Ali’s illustrious life cut short by an assassin than Mazhar.
“We worked together in Al Qabas newspaper and he was a very close friend,” Mazhar told The Peninsula before the opening of the ‘The Witness’, where dozens of Al Ali’s caricatures are being showcased alongside Mazhar’s paintings.
Asked about his best memory of Al Ali, Mazhar said: “Many things. We talked about many things. But because we are both artists, we always talked about art.”
For the first time in the Middle East, a huge number of Al Ali’s cartoons are being showcased along with 20 newly commissioned paintings by Mazhar, in the month-long expo at Katara Gallery Building 18.
The exhibition is being held by Katara with support from Al Markhiya Gallery and Bissan Gallery.
The exhibition intersperses the wide range of cartoons with paintings by Mazhar, breathing new life and meaning into the caricatures not merely at the political level but at the aesthetic level as well.
“These paintings are aimed at paying homage to Naji Al Ali. I want to show the people the aesthetic side of his cartoons, not only the political message, which is very important to me because Naji Al Ali’s image in the media was limited to being a cartoonist only, not as an artist. For me it is very important to show his other side,” said Mazhar.
Inspired by Al Ali’s life and works, Mazhar’s acrylic paintings on display sometimes resemble the cartoons themselves, just in a different way. He paints in bold colours highlighting the symbolic quality of the images, resulting in the emergence of new layers of meaning.
Born in Iraq in 1955, and of British nationality, Mazhar draws inspiration for his work from diverse sources, including Mesopotamian myths as well as Arab and Andalusian literature. He has also been inspired by Latin American and Japanese literary sources. His use of colour along with the repetition of oriental motifs reflects his cultural background in a sophisticated and cosmopolitan manner.
Mazhar has held solo exhibitions in galleries across the world over the past few decades, and his works are included in the collections of the British Museum, Mexico National Print Museum and Modern Art Museum of Cartagena, Columbia.
Naji Al Ali’s career started in 1963 as a caricaturist for the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Tali’a, and eventually included over 10,000 drawings published in newspapers throughout the Arab world. In his lifetime, and posthumously, he was awarded many prizes, including the prestigious “Golden Pen of Freedom” award from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers. Naji was the first ever caricaturist and Arab journalist to have won this prize.
Al Ali died five weeks after he was shot in the face. Three years before his death, he was described by The Guardian as “the nearest thing there is to an Arab public opinion”.
Mazhar said Al Ali would always occupy a place in the hearts and minds of people in the Arab world through his thousands of cartoons, which effectively helped crystallize public opinion during his time and remain an inspiration to journalists and media practitioners across the Arab region.
“To this day, his cartoons are still published in the Arab media. You can see many newspapers still publishing his cartoons and people are looking at them as if he just died yesterday,” said Mazhar.
Al Ali’s cartoons, according to Mazhar, would remain political, but they are also valued for their artistic quality.
“The political message is still there, but looking closely one can see his artistic side. Normally, cartoons are created only to send a particular message, but in the case of his cartoons, they can be taken as fine art also, that’s why his cartoons are alive till now,” he added.
Naji’s iconic cartoons focus mostly on the plight and resistance of the Palestinian people. His cartoon character Handala is now an icon for Palestinian defiance.
“The Palestinian struggle was the number one subject for him, but of course he drew about many other things from other parts of the world, like Latin America, Far East, everywhere. But in general, Palestine was foremost for him. Nothing has changed for many years now; Palestinians still struggle,” he said.
Compared to Naji’s times, the impact and influence of caricatures is now somewhat diminished, Mazhar noted.
‘The Witness: An Exhibition by Naji Al Ali and Hani Mazhar’ is open until January 12 at Katara Art Gallery Building 18.The Peninsula
