Note Type
Historical NoteNote
Kamal Boullata (1942) is an abstract Palestinian artist and art historian. Born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, Boullata grew up in the Christian Quarter of the Old City. Because there was no formal art school in Jerusalem, Boullata taught himself to paint scenes from life around him, and also attended icon painting workshops of Khalil al-Halabi. By selling painting at exhibitions in Jerusalem and Amman, he was able to travel to Italy and graduate from the Academia di Belle Arti in Rome (1961-65) as well as study at the Corcoran Art Museum School in Washington, DC (1968-71). His art focuses on divisions of Palestinian identity, exploring representations of separation from homeland.
In 1974, he served as Beirut's appointed art director of the Palestinian Planning Center's Dar al-fata al-'Arabi publishing house. In 1993 and 1994, Boullata spent his time as a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellow researching Islamic art in Morocco and Spain. He pursued field research again in 2001, studying post-Byzantine painting in Palestine with a grant from the Ford Foundation. His English and Arabic articles have been published in catalogues, anthologies, and academic journals, such as The Muslim World, Journal of Palestine Studies, Third Text, Cuadernos de Arte, Peuples Méditerranéens, Mundus Artium, and Michigan Quarterly Review; his writings have been translated into French, German, Italian, Hebrew, and Spanish.
Boullata's art is featured in various collections across the world, including the British Museum; the Museum of the Alhambra in Granada; the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris; the New York Public Library; the Bibliothèque Louis Notari in Monaco; the Zimmerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, NJ; and Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman.