Salah El-Mur (Sudanese, born 1966)The Green Forest
signed and dated 'S. ELMUR/ 2016' (lower left)
oil on canvas
137.5 x 138cm (54 1/8 x 54 5/16in).注脚Born in Khartoum in 1966, Salah El Mur studied at the College of Fine and Applied Art at Sudan University. Following his graduation in 1989, he spent a number of months travelling across East Africa and the Middle East. El Mur was profoundly influenced by the people he encountered during this period, and their relationships with their environment.

This being said, El Mur's works are characterised by the artist's incorporation of Sudanese visual vocabulary: the synthesis of personal memories with collective myths and folklore. El Mur describes the impact of his childhood and his exposure to age old traditions as being critical to his creative process:

"I was born in one of the villages of the western bank of the blue river Nile...I grew up on crochet designs knitted by my mother; imaginary animals...men and women in love...circles and triangles in an endless integration with colours no one but me could see...That's how my eyes were opened.

As a child, I started to scribble before saying my first words; I used to see words' characters in circles and triangles of my mother's.

I get inspired by everything around me; a woman moaning or making joyful sounds – music playing in a cab - pale drawings painted in white chalks on a white wall by a passer-by. Unfinished drawings of a child - a woman's cloth challenges the road and another one walking timidly- A man's Jalabyya perfectly or recklessly plant-embroidered on the sleeves...All that and other (memories) come to me while in front of the white canvas."

El Mur's work has been shown at celebrated national and international exhibitions. He is also known as an illustrator of children's books, and is active as a filmmaker. His film 'Heaven's Bird' won the Jury Prize at the International Short Film Festival in Ethiopia (2010).