Biography
Tamam al-Akhal was born in 1935 in the harbour city of Jaffa, located in the southwest region of Palestine. Raised to middle-class parents, the family fled to Lebanon in 1948 when she was 13 years old after a large number of Palestinian villages were colonised. Before the war, al-Akhal’s formative years were spent in orange fields during the famed Jaffa harvest season (Al Bayarat). Jaffa, a prominent city deeply embedded in popular culture and imagination, has consistently been a central theme in al-Akhal’s life and paintings. From an early age, she interacted with fabric and found materials. In her initial years in Lebanon, al-Akhal took on numerous jobs, including designing drawings for embroidery in a textile factory. In 1950, she received a scholarship to the Madrasat al maqasid al islamiya lil banat (Islamic Maqassed Girls School in Beirut), part of a 17th century philanthropic association. This paved the way for her to engage in art exhibitions organised by UNICEF and UNESCO in Lebanon. Al-Akhal’s participation was well-received, and the organisations printed and distributed her artwork on postcards. This gained recognition from Stephan Lucas, a German jury member at UNESCO, who financially assisted her in her training. This encouragement enabled a transition in young al-Akhal’s curiosity and focus from drawing in watercolour and pastel to oil painting.
She also gained attention from renowned Lebanese painter Mustapha Farroukh (1901–1957), who recommended the school to be awarded a scholarship to pursue art in Egypt academically. This was a crucial period in her life. Between 1953 and 1959, at the Egyptian School of Fine Arts (Madrassat al-Funun al-Jamila al-Misriyya) in Cairo, al-Akhal established long-term relationships with renowned art teachers at the time like Ragheb Ayad (1892-1982), Gazbia Sirry (1925-2021), Hussein Bicar (1913-2002), Gamal el-Sagini (1917-1977), and Zeinab Abdulhamid (1919-2002)..). Concurrently, al-Akhal followed the works of Lebanese novelist Jurji Zidan, co-founder of the popular Lebanese cultural journal Al Hilal, and known for his Al Nahda (Arab Awakening) political views. These contributed to her views in shaping the Palestinian modern art movement. Among her classmates, she forged a strong friendship with Wafa Barakat, the daughter of a women's rights activist with close ties to feminist leader Huda Sharawi. During this time, al-Akhal encountered Ismail Shammout (1930–2006), a fellow Palestinian artist whose artistic perspectives and advocacies resonated with her.
In this period, al-Akhal employed watercolour and oil to depict pre-Nakba (the catastrophe) Palestine and everyday narratives. Her work from the 1950s showcased simple town landscapes from Lebanon and Egypt, and refugee camps alongside realist portraits of ordinary working-class individuals. This period of artistic development coincided later with numerous political conflicts that surrounded al-Akhal, including the Algerian War, religious conflicts in Lebanon, the Suez crisis in Egypt, and the Khan Yunis massacre in Occupied Palestine. These events left an imprint on her work alongside her ongoing aesthetic explorations, such as in the famous work The Massacre of Khan Younis, which captures the agony of violence's aftermath. The painting is dominated by the colours of night, dark blue set against a stark background. The gathered figures merge, and their faces reflect a horror that expresses their collective shock. The Massacre of Khan Younis is significant in portraying the raw immediacy of violence while going beyond the immediate, engaging with historical trauma. This approach has remained a consistent theme throughout her career.
In 1954, al-Akhal was invited by her professor, Fawzi al-Ghussein, to participate in an exhibition alongside Ismail Shammout. Titled The Palestinian Refugee, the show highlighted the Palestinian struggle under Israeli occupation and advocated for their liberation. This significant exhibition, inaugurated by the then-Egyptian president, Gamal Abdul Nasser, amplified al-Akhal's artistic style of narrative symbolism within the academic and creative community. On campus, al-Akhal was also an active participant in gatherings organised by the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPs), an organisation founded in Cairo that led to the creation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). During these student gatherings, al-Akhal chose not to become a union member, as she wished to remain politically and artistically neutral. However, in subsequent years, a student member of the union, Yasser Arafat formed a friendship with the couple. When Arafat became the Chairman of the PLO, he appointed al-Akhal and Shammout as directors of the cultural section of the PLO’s media department, and fellow Jordanian artist Mona Saudi led the Plastic Arts. The couple served in Amman and then in Beirut until 1983. Al-Akhal’s primary responsibilities included acquiring and collecting traditional dresses for the organisation's cultural preservation initiative. She also organised travelling exhibitions to promote traditional arts.
In 1957, a group of student artists from Egypt, including fifteen Palestinians, were invited to participate in the 6th World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow. Among this delegation was al-Akhal, marking her initial engagement with the USSR. In 1959, al-Akhal joined her life with Shammout. By then, he was gaining regional recognition and working on designing children's books in Beirut. The couple started showing their art together, beginning in Beirut at the Arab Cultural Club.
Additionally, they hosted numerous gatherings at home, inviting writers, politicians, artists, and journalists, cultivating an intellectual community that deepened artistic endeavours and solidarity. They also embraced working together until later years. They created work in conversation, with Shammout’s political art using magic realism and al-Akhal's expressive figuration. One of their famous works is Palestine: The Exodus and the Odyssey, which contains 19 pieces produced between 1997–2000.
Al-Akhal’s exploration within this historical political context continued beyond her artistic work. During this period, she received an offer to teach art at Beirut's United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school. Soon after 1962, she was also invited to instruct art in Palestine. While in Gaza and Ramallah, she became captivated by local weavers' work and started accumulating a collection of their embroidery pieces. The unique political symbolism of this embroidery is reflected subtly in her paintings and later appears within industrial themes that pay tribute to textile workers. In Ramallah, she lived near artist Samia Halaby (b.1936), who deeply admired al-Akhal’s work –a sentiment that persisted even after Halaby left Palestine.
Meanwhile, al-Akhal and Shammout embarked on a series of travelling exhibitions across the United States in 1964, touring 12 states with support from the Arab American Students Union. The same year, they showcased their work in Jerusalem at the Arab League Summit. The Six-Day War of 1967 expanded Israeli settlements and caused heightened political tensions in the region. In reaction, the PLO arts section amplified its cultural initiatives, increasing cultural production and advocating for international solidarity. Al-Akhal and Shammout took part in them. In 1968, Arafat asked the couple to select artists to participate in the International Youth Festival held in Bulgaria. This marked a significant milestone for al-Akhal, unveiling her work in a further international setting among political artists. Subsequent invitations paved the way for exhibitions across Europe and in countries such as China, Iraq, Japan, and Tunisia. Al-Akhal also resided briefly in the German Democratic Republic and was supported by the German government, which arranged their travelling exhibition in 1975.
Despite the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the Union of Palestinian Artists, under Shammout’s leadership and the help of al-Akhal, opened an art space called Dar Al Karama in Beirut. Situated near the Beirut Arab University (Jamiaat Beirut Al Arabiya), the venue hosted several key exhibitions until it was closed in 1982. Despite the war, the couple continued to meet with artists and international delegations from around the globe. Al-Akhal's involvement in exhibitions persisted in the late 1970s, with notable shows in Moscow, Berlin, and the UN halls in Beirut.
Al-Akhal’s artistic approach in the 1980s and 1990s is marked by imagery of Palestinian communal gatherings of children, women harvesting, and nostalgic scenes of historical sites. She also portrayed elements of hope and resistance by introducing surreal landscapes. Her embedded symbolism deepened into capturing the intimate roots of one’s environment connected to Arab culture. As she moved into the 2000s, this experimentation took an innovative perspective, suggesting a dual temporal gaze. Urban landscapes contrasted sharply against traditional settings. New modes of abstract narratives, such as calligraphy and semi-abstract animals, like horses signifying honour, emerged in the layering technique of her visual storytelling.
After the Lebanese war, al-Akhal relocated to Kuwait in the 1980s. She contributed to the local arts community, met with artists, including Nabil Kanso (1940–2019), and taught until the early 1990s. The onset of the Gulf War (1990–1991) prompted her next move. First, she travelled to Cologne and then, by invitation from Suha Shoman (1944–), the co-founder of Darat al Funun in 1994 and with the support of princess and artist Wijdan Ali (1939) in 2000, to Amman. The passing of her husband in 2006 left a mark on al-Akhal. This event marked a shift in her artistic expression, and she introduced writing as an additional medium to document her life through the written word and the continuous craft commitment to abstract realism. Al-Akhal continues to contribute to the art community, amplifying voice for her generation and beyond. She continues residing and working in the Jordanian capital, Amman.
