Khalil Rabah

Untitled (All is well)

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Artwork Details

Artist

Khalil Rabah

Title

Untitled (All is well)

Date

2017

Medium

Oil on canvas and easel

Dimensions

200 x 200 cm

Credit Line

Art Jameel Collection

Work Description

Untitled (All is well) references one of the most iconic images of the Palestinian struggle. In 1973 Palestinian artist Sleiman Mansour created Jamal Al Mahamel, a painting of an elderly porter carrying the Dome of the Rock and the city of Jerusalem on his back as he takes a step forward. The painting would be reproduced countless times and hung in homes, schools, shops and offices across Palestine. The original painting was gifted to the then ruler of Libya Muammar Qaddafi and kept at his compound in Bab al-Aziziya, until 1986 when it was destroyed by American bombing on Libya. 

Rabah discovered a small photograph online of the artist’s studio where Mansour attempted to repaint the work by observing a commercially available reproduction. This thumbnail has been enlarged and painted, so we view a version of the painting within the artist’s studio. The original is hung on a wall behind and again repeated in a smaller scale behind Rabah’s new figure, for whom while the load of Jerusalem gradually disappears, the buildings becoming white and less visible. These subtle amends prompt reflections on shared histories of struggle and their impact on the present. The wooden easel in the painting is replicated in the physical way Rabah’s painting is displayed in a gallery setting. In his wider practice, Rabah focuses on debates about cultural organisations by questioning the social, cultural and political value attributed to artefacts, seeking to provide an alternative vision that challenges public perceptions. By drawing on different methodologies to engage with themes of displacement, memory and identity he examines the relationship between humans and their surroundings as well as the nature of the global human condition.

Artist Biography

Khalil Rabah (b.1961, Jerusalem, Palestine) lives and works in Ramallah, Palestine 

Using narratives that hover between fiction and reality, Khalil Rabah produces installations, objects, videos, actions and interventions that articulate the very real situation of occupation experienced by Palestinians. He studied fine arts and architecture at the University of Texas (1991), has shown in major biennials worldwide and has held solo exhibitions at venues such as Fondazione Merz, Turin (2024); Sharjah Art Foundation (2022); Casa Árabe, Madrid (2016); Kunsthaus Hamburg (2015); e-flux, New York (2013); and Beirut Art Center (2012). Over the years, his work has been acquired by major institutions including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; MACRO, Rome; the British Museum, London; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi; Mathaf, Doha; Kunsthaus Zurich and the Sharjah Art Foundation. Rabah is the initiator and artistic director of the Riwaq Biennale and a co-founder of Al Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in Jerusalem. He served on the curricular committee of Ashkal Alwan’s Home Workspace Program in Beirut from 2011 to 2015.

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