Jabra Ibrahim Jabra

Jabra was born in Bethlehem in 1920. He finished his high school education in Jerusalem before going to Cambridge University. After his return to Jerusalem, he taught art at Al-Rashidiyyeh School and founded the Art Club in Jerusalem. In 1948, he fled to Baghdad. He was awarded a fellowship to Harvard University in 1952. Upon his return, he founded the Baghdad Group for Contemporary Art and held the post of editor in chief of the Arab Art Magazine and was the President of the Association of Art Critics in Iraq.

In 1983, he was awarded the Taraga Europa prize for culture by Inter Art Forum in Rome and received numerous other awards for his work and achievements. Jabra was not only known as a painter, but as an acclaimed novelist, poet and critic. His publications include seven novels, an autobiography, three collections of poetry , and eight collections of essays.

Jabra died in Iraq at the age of 74.

(Source: Forgotten Scene: Pioneer Artists from Palestine).