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Aleef's
paintings revive old Palestine
By Ghia Osseiran
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George Aleef's watercolor paintings, reviving a Palestine of
yore before the Nakba, were on display in "Palestine Remembered,"
an exhibition organized by the Art and Palestinian Cultural
Clubs at Ada Dodge Hall last week. The Russian artist, George
Aleef, served as Tzar Nicolas's bodyguard until the Bolshevik
revolution broke out in Russia abolishing tzardom in 1917. Consequently,
Aleef left Russia for Palestine, where he remained until the
Nakba. There he painted a Palestine that elderly Palestinians
attending the exhibition could identify still, painting by painting.
Aleef's paintings depicted historical moments such as General
Allenby's entrance into Jerusalem on foot, marking the end of
four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule and the threshold of
another encroachment. The Palestine Aleef portrayed is a Palestine
of Arab identity, an Arab capital of coexistence. The exhibition,
as Raghid Al Hassan, the president of the Art Club explained,
comes at a time at which Jerusalem's identity as the Arabs had
known it is abating. It also portrays an epoch of peace and
coexistence as he emphasized, alluding to paintings of Omar
Mosque and Al Aqsa Mosque juxtaposed with the Scottish church
and the Mary Magadelene Church along with Solomon's Pool, David's
Tower and Jacob's Well. This was the Palestine remembered, the
Palestine that captivated this artist's imagination up until
his exile from Palestine in 1947. Because of the Nakba, Aleef
escaped to Lebanon where he painted postcards and sold them
to make a living. In 1975 he met Lebanese artist Fouad Al Hassan,
to whom Aleef presented his collection of paintings shortly
before his death. Raghid, Fouad Al Hassan's son, lent the collection,
in turn, to the Palestinian Cultural Club for this exhibition.
"We cannot fight with guns nor with stones and so this is our
contribution in the struggle," explained Raghid. "This is to
confirm the presence of the Palestinian person," affirmed Tarek
Musa, the president of the Palestinian Cultural Club. |
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