Amidst the avalanche of deadlines rushing towards me with increasing ferocity is an article on war and the Palestinian art scene, a subject that is proving more in-depth and fascinating by the day.

Indeed, the problem that was once how to reach the meagre 2,000 words required for a small article has now morphed into one of containing all the relevant information within 8,000, as every artist and each decade yield a wealth of imagery, symbolism, and insights.

Of the artists, one has stood out substantially, and though preliminary Googling has resulted in little material, a small booklet cast from the Arab Documentations Unit of my former University has proved invaluable.

Oblivious to any limits of depths to which I shall plumb to gather books, the faded, yearless, green book comprising twelve pages of illustrations rendered by the Palestinian artist, Jamal Al-Afghani has captured my eyes ever since.

His images are complex, tragic, profound and evocative of the period from which the pamphlet takes its title, Pictures from Beirut: The Hot Summer, of 1982.

From Ain al-Hulweh to Abu Omar Saida, and The Silence to Unity, Al-Afghani’s images are melded together to provide a plethora of visions.

Indeed, it is the manner in which certain images are merged that evokes the close, opressive terror of the war that unfolded around the people of Lebanon during that year.

As Ghaleb Halasa, the late Jordanian author, notes in the introduction to the booklet:

A factor worthy of noting in Aphagani’s [sic.] paintings is that the elements are full of rich firm life. Faces turn into rocket launchers without losing their human glow and presence. Amputatd legs seem to have regained their true function once amputated: RPG propellers. Arms have turned into guns and cannons.

To be sure, the images can often be as shocking as they are tragic; nevertheless, such truthfulness in Al-Afghani’s works only serves to render the horrors of war more tangible.

Al-Afghani’s work is incredible, and I can only hope to unearth further information on the artist, so that he might rank as prominently as the great Naji al-Ali and Suleiman Mansour in the final article.

[Featured images: The Rocket Launcher (July 15, 1982) and Unity (June 30, 1982), respectively.]