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Striking elegance: the Sudan art form




In the Khartoum Rashid Diab Art Centre is pure elegance. The strikingly simple and strikingly elegant shapes are the women of Sudan.

The Sudanese artist, born in Wadi Medani, is worldly, having lived in Madrid since 1982, and exhibited in Africa, Asia, and Europe, but his finest works are those of the people of Sudan, his homeland.  His use of colour is his strength – combining the brightness and lightness of Madrid, Sudan, and Africa – you can almost see the sun’s influence in all of his works. Earthy and bold colours appear in layers, like folds of material, juxtaposed with dark and mysterious shapes.


 The objective of Diab’s attention champions the Sudanese cultural identity and form through art, showing women’s beauty subtley and quietly, mysteriously and classically, but also showing the starkness of the environment in which they live – as if the glare of the sun burns away the the superfluous and the surplus. All that remains is the the pared down form.

His current works show the sylphlike, willowy style and grace of the Arab woman – the Sudanese woman of the north. Slender forms appear against a simple background – spotlighting the graceful forms with no background distraction.Symbolic, serene, referential, and simplistically quiet yet powerful in their presence, the forms of women make a distinctive statement on the canvas.





MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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  1. Martina NicollsOctober 14, 2013 at 6:54 PM

    Dear Emilio,
    First - thank you for reading my blog and for writing your letter. I found it very interesting because I used to be a stamp collector - and I still love seeing stamps on a real letter! I have also been to Madrid which I thought was fascinating and rich in history, art, colour, and light.
    Second - I would be pleased to add you to my list of contacts to whom I write real letters and postcards. As I travel around the world I will find time to write to you - and to be sure that there is a stamp attached.
    Best, Martina

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