Maliheh afnan biography
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The work of Maliheh Afnan transcends and absorbs cultural references. Born in Palestine of Persian parents, educated in Beirut and Washington, she lived in Paris for more than twenty years before moving to London. Afnan had two solo exhibitions with England & Co (in 2000 and 2006) and her work fryst vatten represented in the Institute ni Monde Arabe in Paris and in the British Museum in London, where in 2006 she was included in the exhibition Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East.
Afnan travelled extensively in America, the Middle East and Europe. Her work has been described as appearing 'as a relic of an older civilization or an archaeological excavation into the collective psyche... The delicacy of Persian miniatures and manuscripts, which she remembers from childhood, is mirrored in her love for något privat eller personligt scale and the refined beauty of muted colour.'
Calligraphy plays an important role: images appear that suggest the written word. Her works on paper and her tablets of
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Maliheh Afnan 1935-2016
Literature
‘I call these images “Personnages” because they are no-one in particular. They are anonymous – figments of my imagination, based on all the faces I have seen in my life. Curiously, they are all male and almost always old. They seem to wear a map of their lives on their faces.’ – Maliheh Afnan, Traces, Faces and Places, Al Saqi Books and Beyond Art Publication, 2010
Maliheh Afnan was a painter of wonderful but somber artworks in earth-coloured tones, yet her life experience has been quite colourful. Many paradoxes surface in her life.
She was born to Persian parents in Haifa, Palestine, where she enjoyed a happy childhood until her family had to leave their home in 1948. Since then, she has lived the life of an exile – first in Beirut, where she spent her student days; then Washington DC, where she studied and graduated from the Cocoran School of Art. Then came Kuwait and back to Beirut, before leaving for Paris, where she
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Maliheh Afnan
Palestinian artistan (1935–2016)
Maliheh Afnan (Arabic: مليحة أفنان, March 24, 1935 – January 6, 2016)[1] was a Palestinian artist.[2][3]
Background
[edit]She was born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine, to Persian parents. She was the great-granddaughter of Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of the Baháʼí Faith, although she was not a member of the Baháʼí Community.[2]
Maliheh Afnan was exiled to Beirut with her family in 1949 during the Nakba. She received a BA from the American University of Beirut and an MA in Fine Arts from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C. Afnan lived in Kuwait from 1963 to 1966, in Beirut from 1966 to 1974 and in Paris from 1974 until 1997, when she moved to London.[4]
Afnan's work has been shown primarily in France and in London. Her first solo show, in a Basel gallery in 1971, was organized by the American artist Mark Tobey. Her work is included in the collection