“Art was recalled from history, media of years gone by. “Art was remarkably present in this confrontation in songs, logos, and graphics,” Hourani told Hyperallergic. In recent months, he claims, attacks on Gaza have conjured spirits of past generations through revivals of their artworks. Hourani painted a large-scale version of the watermelon for an exhibition in Toulouse, France, and variations appeared at Darat Al Funun in Amman, Jordan, and the Center of Contemporary Art, Glasgow. Along with Mansour and Anani, he co-founded the International Art Academy of Palestine. Hourani is the former Director of Fine Arts for the Palestinian Ministry of Culture and a central figure in the revitalization of Palestine’s arts discourse. Khaled Hourani, “The Story of the Watermelon” (2007), silkscreen (courtesy the artist) He later isolated one silkscreen and titled it “The Colours of the Palestinian Flag” (2013). Hourani incorporated a thin line of black seeds and shadows along the rind to make it look three-dimensional. Standing upright, the watermelon slice appears highly pixelated, conveying an innocent nature, yet it emanates a rosy pride against a stark white background. This satirical work is receiving newfound attention for its subversive simplicity. In the aftermath of the Second Intifada, Khaled Hourani crafted a cute but powerful silkscreen series, titled The Story of the Watermelon (2007), which appeared in the Subjective Atlas of Palestine. In the decades since, Palestinians have reclaimed the watermelon as protest art against acts of Israeli terror. Palestinians would distinguish between locally grown watermelons and those grown in Israeli greenhouses, saving the former to eat and using the latter to throw at IDF tanks. Farmers and agriculturalists still remark on the impressive size of Palestinian watermelons and their popularity as exports to Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. As Israel Defense Forces (IDF) started occupying Palestinian neighborhoods, settler authorities brought in their own seed companies and flooded the market, driving the Palestinians out of competition. “So the idea of the watermelon came actually from the officer, not from us.”Ī post shared by B E E S A N A R A F A T the Nakba in 1948, Palestine was world-famous for growing succulent watermelons in Jenin, the Jordan Valley, and Arabet Al-Batouf. “The officer raised his voice and said, ‘Even if you do a watermelon, it will be confiscated,’” Mansour said. Anything that fell into the latter category would be seized. I will even buy from you.” He then instructed the artists to present their paintings to the IDF for permission before exhibiting, stamping each painting as either good or bad. “He was trying to convince us not to do any political art, saying to us, ‘Why do you do political art? Why don’t you paint nice flowers or a nude figure? It’s nice. Mansour, in a recent AJ+ interview, detailed how an Israeli police chief tried to bribe them into depoliticizing their art. In the 1980s, Zionist forces shut down a major Ramallah art gallery and arrested three artists - Nabil Anani, Sliman Mansour, and Isam Bader - for incorporating the colors of the Palestinian flag into their artworks. Even holding a slice of fresh watermelon outside became an act of protest. Watermelon - with its red, green, black, and white coloring - became a subtle method for Palestinians to display national pride. Any outward show of the flag, from publications to advertisements and even old photographs, could result in imprisonment or worse. A post shared by Hanan Alsagoff the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israeli government banned all public displays of the Palestinian flag and its colors.
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