A Century of Modern Visual Arts in Sudan (1920–2020)

Art Practices and Historical Roots

Visual arts—particularly fine arts—have long been practiced across Sudan over millennia. While the label “modern visual art” often refers to art practiced after the 1898 English conquest, this framing is imprecise. Sudan had rich longstanding traditions of artistic expression that predate colonial institutions. From the ancient kingdoms of Nubia and Meroë to Christian Nubian states like Alwa, Makuria, and Nobatia, art flourished in both elite and popular contexts, depicting biblical narratives, saints, and holy figures.

Art was practiced in daily life: households painted and decorated walls, artisans wove and dyed palm fronds in the north, adorned bodies and faces in the Nuba Mountains, and crafted leather and pottery in western Sudan. Nomadic fabrics and tent decoration were practiced in the east. Educated communities cultivated Arabic calligraphy and manuscript illumination, alongside the craftsmanship of furniture and traditional dress.

These traditions persisted through Ottoman rule (1821–1885) until British colonial rule in 1898 introduced academic art by specialists disconnected from the living cultural practices of Sudanese society. Consequently, modern art inherited issues of poor reception and limited resonance with the everyday reality of Sudanese life.

Local Modern Visual Arts (1920–1940)

During the 1920s, painting of natural scenes became common in cafés and restaurants and was used in festivals, especially during the Prophet’s birthday celebrations where portraits of religious figures adorned gathering spaces. Portraiture also gained popularity in private homes, spurred by illustrated foreign newspapers and magazines. Several artists made names for themselves in these genres.

In the 1930s and ’40s, Ali Osman was active in Al-Khandaq (Northern State), later moving to Khartoum where he worked as a designer for the Ministry of Health. His works adorned public venues including cafés, restaurants, and shops across the three capitals: Omdurman, Khartoum, and Bahri. Musa Gasm Al-Sayed Kazam (nicknamed Jiha) became known for portraits of political leaders, Sufi sheikhs, and women in traditional dress—wearing the “mizhat” hairdo, “fedo,” and “zummam”. Other notable artists like Ahmed Salim and Abu Al-Hassan Madani painted rural life scenes and nature—depicting villages, rivers, and animals.

Their artworks decorated cafes where civil servants and workers gathered during lunch and evenings, reflecting a city culture uniting diverse regional communities and a rising middle-class aesthetic. Additionally, their art was used on packaging for sweets, perfumes, and other manufactured goods.

Emergence of Academic Art in Sudan (1940–1950)

In the mid-1930s, art education was introduced formally via the curriculum development and teacher training division known as “Bekht Al-Rida” within the Ministry of Education (then the Ministry of Knowledge). Teachers in primary schools were taught art basics. Subsequently, the School of Arts and Design was founded and later integrated into the Khartoum Polytechnic, becoming the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

After Sudan gained independence in 1956, intellectuals, artists, and writers sought to express a distinct Sudanese identity in modern art. In theatre, for instance, Khalid Abu Rous staged plays drawing on oral history. Musicians produced modern genres combining Western instruments. Literary groups like “The Forest and the Desert” symbolically represented the hybrid culture of central Sudan—desert and forest—followed by “Abadamack” (named after the lion god of the Meroitic civilization), led by Yousif Aydabi. In literature, Al-Tayeb Salih emphasized the Sudanese attachment to land and cultural heritage.

Formation of Art Schools and Styles (1960–1980)

In the post-independence fervor, Sudanese visual artists sought national self-expression. The mid-century saw the rise of several schools and currents, including the Khartoum School, the Crystal (Crystalline) School, and the Aesthetic Current. An “art school” denotes a collective style and philosophical-social vision shared by a group of artists. Below are summaries of these schools:

• Khartoum School (1950–1970)

English instructors taught at the College of Fine and Applied Arts through the late 1960s, including critic-historian Denis Williams (from Guyana, of African descent), who studied African artists’ identities and recognized a distinctive visual language shared by Sudanese artists—particularly Ibrahim El-Salahi and Ahmed Shibrin, who incorporated Arabic calligraphy in art. Williams coined the term “Khartoum School” for artists exploring African mask-like faces and earthy tones (brown, ochre) and Islamic letterforms. Later artists joined the trend—Osman Wagi Allah, Magzoub Rabah, Taj Al-Sir Ahmed, Salih Al-Zaki, among others. A second generation, including Ahmed Abdel Aal, Ibrahim Al-Awam, and Otaybi, added animal motifs and ornamental gates, forming a decorative visual vocabulary characteristic of the school.

• Crystal (Crystalline) School (1975–1980)

This was the only Sudanese art school that published a manifesto—released in Al-Ayyam newspaper on January 21, 1976—and signed by artists Kamala Ibrahim Ishaq, Mohamed Hamid Shaddad, and Naeila Al-Tayeb (plus two non-art members). They argued that the world is like a crystal: transparent, with interdependent components. They rejected singular objective truth in favor of multiple truths intertwined with perception, feeling, and pleasure. This school was the first in Sudan to call for liberating the mind through art and interrogating reality by visually reconfiguring it.

• Aesthetic Current (1975–1980)

In the early 1970s, young artists criticized the Khartoum School for aligning with post-independence regimes’ ideologies. They formed an aesthetic movement led by Abdallah Ahmed Al-Bashir “Bola”, Hassan Muhammad Musa, Salah Hassan Abdullah, Al-Baqir Musa, Hashim Muhammad Salih, and Abdallah Bardus. Bola defined visual art as “the composition of visible forms in new relationships.” He argued that visual artisans collectively shape new structural relationships in their work, and that meaning resides in these holistic interactions rather than in individual symbols. This group criticized the symbolic use of color in the Khartoum School—like brown hues symbolizing Sudanese soil—and rejected attempts to mold indigenous visual culture into Western forms for exhibition.

Non‑School Trends (1950–1980)

Art historians have often focused on artists affiliated with formal schools, overlooking numerous independent artists working parallel to them. Despite lacking formal alignment, these artists—such as Abdel Razak Abdel Ghafar, Hussein Sharif, Taj Al-Sir Ahmed, Hassan Al-Hadi, Hussein Jamaan, Omar Khairy, and others—had profound influence on subsequent artistic generations.

Decline of the School Ideal (1980–2000)

In the 1980s, individual styles dominated. Artists developed hybrid forms blending abstraction and realism, decorative motifs with figurative imagery. The era included figures such as Rashid Diab, Hassan Ali Ahmed, Essam Abd-Alhafiz, Saif Eldin Latuta, Salah Ibrahim, Abdalrahman Shangal, and others who pioneered experimental painting. In the 1990s, Ahmed Abdel Aal drafted the “School of the One” statement, but it made no lasting impact. By then, the era of the unified school had ended. Instead, art collectives emerged—each artist maintaining a personal aesthetic but exhibiting together—such as the Omdurman Group, the Khartoum Art Work Collective, Waaw Group, the Sudanese Art Society, and the Sudanese Women Artists Association, alongside branches of the Sudanese Artists Union across cities.

The Third Millennium (2000–2020)

Art college graduates multiplied, and new specializations emerged—interior design, fashion design, photography, digital arts, and 3D forms like sculpture and ceramics (e.g. works by Layla Mukhtar). Sudanese artists succeeded abroad—like Mutaz Al-emam, Abusharia Ahmed, Al-Tayeb Daw Al-Bait, Islam Zain Al-Abidin—and saw active artists inside Sudan such as Elhassan Elmuontasir and Hazim Al-Hussain. Numerous galleries and art institutions emerged, enriching exhibitions and elevating the curator’s role in organizing shows and forums: galleries like Dabanga, Shams Gallery, The Muse, Downtown, and Jaloos.