One of the 39 ink drawings by Ibrahim El Salahi, made during house arrest after he was released from Kober prison in 1976. His drawings are compiled in 'Prison Notebook', published by Sharjah Art Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. All images of 'Prison Notebook' courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York
One of the 39 ink drawings by Ibrahim El Salahi, made during house arrest after he was released from Kober prison in 1976. His drawings are compiled in 'Prison Notebook', published by Sharjah Art Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. All images of 'Prison Notebook' courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation and The Museum of Modern Art, New York
El Salahi writes" 'This represents the tyrant who ruled at the time, and how he tried to deceive the people and had to appear to them.' The artist was held without charge in Kober prison for six months after being accused of anti-government activities
El Salahi writes" 'This represents the tyrant who ruled at the time, and how he tried to deceive the people and had to appear to them.' The artist was held without charge in Kober prison for six months after being accused of anti-government activities
In this drawing, El Salahi recalls a nightmare where he tries to escape prison through underground tunnels, only to find that the guards had closed them off
In this drawing, El Salahi recalls a nightmare where he tries to escape prison through underground tunnels, only to find that the guards had closed them off
In his notes for this drawing, El Salahi writes: 'This bird is a sign of hope. But sometimes it is like a conscience, talking to you.' His 'Prison Notebook' has been republished by Sharjah Art Foundation
In his notes for this drawing, El Salahi writes: 'This bird is a sign of hope. But sometimes it is like a conscience, talking to you.' His 'Prison Notebook' has been republished by Sharjah Art Foundation
After his release, El Salahi left Sudan and eventually settled in the UK. His work 'Untitled - Yellow Tree' (1977) was on show at the Ashmolean Museum in 2018 in Oxford, England, where he lives
After his release, El Salahi left Sudan and eventually settled in the UK. His work 'Untitled - Yellow Tree' (1977) was on show at the Ashmolean Museum in 2018 in Oxford, England, where he lives
'Self-Portrait of Suffering' from 1961. In 1960, El Salahi co-founded the Khartoum School, a group of artists whose works melded traditional Islamic calligraphy and motifs with modernist abstraction. Courtesy Shubbak festival
'Self-Portrait of Suffering' from 1961. In 1960, El Salahi co-founded the Khartoum School, a group of artists whose works melded traditional Islamic calligraphy and motifs with modernist abstraction. Courtesy Shubbak festival
In his work, he fused Arabic script and abstract forms, making him a pioneer in modernist art from the region. The painting is titled 'The Last Sound' (1964). Courtesy Barjeel Art Foundation
In his work, he fused Arabic script and abstract forms, making him a pioneer in modernist art from the region. The painting is titled 'The Last Sound' (1964). Courtesy Barjeel Art Foundation
This untitled work from 1976 shows El Salahi's use of warm tones and his patchwork style developed during his time in prison. Courtesy the artist
This untitled work from 1976 shows El Salahi's use of warm tones and his patchwork style developed during his time in prison. Courtesy the artist
in 2012, a major retrospective of El Salahi's work was shown at Sharjah Art Museum before travelling to the Tate Modern in 2013. Courtesy the artist
in 2012, a major retrospective of El Salahi's work was shown at Sharjah Art Museum before travelling to the Tate Modern in 2013. Courtesy the artist

Art

'Prison Notebook': How Sudanese artist Ibrahim El Salahi transformed his suffering into seminal works

The modernist's incredibly important series of works has been translated into English by Sharjah Art Foundation

Alexandra Chaves
Alexandra Chaves

August 19, 2020

  • English
  • Arabic

On a sweltering day in September 1975, without charge or explanation, renowned modernist artist Ibrahim El Salahi was arrested and taken to prison.

He recounts details from that day clearly, from the puffy cheeks of one of the security officers who detained him to the bare floor of the room in Khartoum's Kober (Cooper) prison, where he would spend the next six months and eight days without trial.

At the time of his detention, El Salahi – who turns 90 next month – was working as an undersecretary in Sudan's Ministry of Culture but was accused by the Jaafar Nimeiri regime of being involved in a coup attempt.

After his release, El Salahi was placed under house arrest. During this period, he began creating a series of 39 pen-and-ink drawings – his first group of works in black and white – to record his prison experience. These works, compiled in the 1976 publication Prison Notebook, contain haunting and surreal self-portraits alongside Arabic poetry and prose written by El Salahi as well as Quranic verses.

Sharjah Art Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art republished these drawings in 2018, translating his writing and commentary into English for the first time. The slim volume documents how transformative this period was for El Salahi, personally and artistically. Years earlier, in 1957, he had returned to Sudan after studying at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, completing a scholarship programme in the US and touring the world to represent his country at cultural festivals.

Ibrahim El-Salahi is co-founder of the Khartoum School
Ibrahim El-Salahi is co-founder of the Khartoum School

Intent on making his name in Sudan, El Salahi turned to styles that would resonate with his countrymen. In 1960, he co-founded the Khartoum School, a group of artists whose works melded traditional Islamic calligraphy and motifs with modernist abstraction.

Born in 1930, he was in his forties when imprisonment disrupted his life and career. The works in Prison Notebook illustrate the anguish and pain of El Salahi's experience in Kober. He recounts not only physical hardship – sleeping in a cell with 10 people "packed like sardines" with no beds – but also the emotional turmoil of hearing prisoners being hanged in the early hours of the morning and the fear of being next.

In one drawing, he depicts prison guards lining up inmates for body searches at dawn. "Lucky is the one who would be brought back to jail," he writes in a poem.

When I was released at last, every night I woke up from these horrible dreams

Deprived of the materials needed to create, El Salahi cut up cement bags and drew on them with a pencil. He would bury these drawings in the sand, knowing that punishment would come if they were discovered. This process of piecing together scraps of sketches forged a new approach to his work.

“That gave me an idea, which I used later in my work: the organic growth of a picture,” El Salahi writes. “I worked on a nucleus, something in the middle. Then I added one piece to the right, the one piece to the left, one piece above, one piece below, until the picture grew into another image.”

The most striking element of the artist's prison drawings is his use of metaphorical motifs and his recollections of the nightmares that plagued him after his release. The Onset of the Nightmare shows a "bird of evil" hanging over his head, representing trauma and the lingering fear of returning to prison. "When I was released at last, every night I woke up from these horrible dreams," the artist writes. It was from this point, he says, that he began making small abstract works in full colour.

In this drawing, El Salahi recalls a nightmare where he tries to escape prison through underground tunnels, only to find that the guards had closed them off
In this drawing, El Salahi recalls a nightmare where he tries to escape prison through underground tunnels, only to find that the guards had closed them off

In the pages of Prison Notebook, El Salahi documents an existential reckoning, an encounter with his spirit that became integral to his survival. "Jail is what is accepted by oneself. There are different ways that a person can accept what is happening to him or to her. If you accept it for yourself, you are imprisoning yourself. But you can be free," he writes.

In one of his final poems in Prison Notebook, he refers to his experience as "The Third Birth", spurring a renewed sense of life, marked also by a new phase in his artistic development. Several lines in the accompanying poem express this: "With my own hands, I shall open the future's curtains / With my own hands, I shall write my poems / With my own hands, I shall write the pronouncement for my last day / I shall illustrate the shape of words / With my own hands."

From a broader view, the book's editor Salah Hassan, a curator and art historian, says El Salahi's ordeal also demonstrates the significance of prison resistance culture in postcolonial Sudan. Political prisoners, specifically intellectuals and activists, made the prison "a place of knowledge, community and solidarity in the struggle for democracy". Hassan says the work is a reminder of an artist's capacity to transform suffering into empowerment and to fight for social justice.

When his house arrest ended, El Salahi left Sudan and essentially lived in self-imposed exile, initially spending more than two decades in Qatar before moving to Oxford, England, where he lives to this day.

His pioneering role in Arab and African modernist art was recognised in a retrospective curated by Hassan in 2012. It was shown at the Sharjah Art Museum with the support of Sharjah Art Foundation president Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi before travelling to the Tate Modern in 2013, making El Salahi the first African artist to stage a retrospective in the UK institution.

'Prison Notebook' is available at Sharjah Art Foundation. More information is at sharjahart.org 

Trump v Khan

2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US

2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks

2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit

2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”

2022:  Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency

July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”

Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.

Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”

Desert Warrior

Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley

Director: Rupert Wyatt

Rating: 3/5

Episode list:

Ep1: A recovery like no other- the unevenness of the economic recovery 

Ep2: PCR and jobs - the future of work - new trends and challenges 

Ep3: The recovery and global trade disruptions - globalisation post-pandemic 

Ep4: Inflation- services and goods - debt risks 

Ep5: Travel and tourism 

The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative 

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

While you're here
On Women's Day
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES

Saturday (UAE kick-off times)

Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)

Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)

West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)

Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)

Sunday

Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)

Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)

Everton v Liverpool (10pm)

Monday

Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)

Five films to watch

Castle in the Sky (1986)

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Only Yesterday (1991)

Pom Poki (1994)

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

Profile

Company name: Marefa Digital

Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre

Number of employees: seven

Sector: e-learning

Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019

Investors: Friends and family 

Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill

Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.

Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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While you're here

Jawab Iteiqal
Director: Mohamed Sammy
Starring: Mohamed Ramadan, Ayad Nasaar, Mohamed Adel and Sabry Fawaz
2 stars

The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six

Power: 650hp at 6,750rpm

Torque: 800Nm from 2,500-4,000rpm

Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto

Fuel consumption: 11.12L/100km

Price: From Dh796,600

On sale: now

Yahya Al Ghassani's bio

Date of birth: April 18, 1998

Playing position: Winger

Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda

Who was Alfred Nobel?

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.

  • In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
  • Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
  • Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
UK’s AI plan
  • AI ambassadors such as MIT economist Simon Johnson, Monzo cofounder Tom Blomfield and Google DeepMind’s Raia Hadsell
  • £10bn AI growth zone in South Wales to create 5,000 jobs
  • £100m of government support for startups building AI hardware products
  • £250m to train new AI models
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
While you're here
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The specs

Engine: 5.0-litre supercharged V8

Transmission: Eight-speed auto

Power: 575bhp

Torque: 700Nm

Price: Dh554,000

On sale: now

The specs

Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors

Transmission: two-speed

Power: 671hp

Torque: 849Nm

Range: 456km

Price: from Dh437,900 

On sale: now

Neighbourhood Watch
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