Ibrahim El-Salahi Untitled from Prison Notebook 1976

  • MoMA, Floor 4, 420 The David Geffen Galleries

The Onset of the Nightmare

Ibrahim El-Salahi: A bird of evil hangs over your head continuously and reminds you that you will be caught, you will be taken again. It repeats the bitter experience you have been through and the worries you have. It is a terrible situation. That was the beginning of the nightmare I used to have. When I was released at last, every single night I woke up from these horrible dreams. That is what made me start making small sketches, small abstract works in full color.

Publication excerpt from Ibrahim El-Salahi. Prison Notebook, 1976. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2018.
Medium
Ink on paper from a notebook with thirty-eight ink on paper drawings
Dimensions
11 1/4 × 6 1/2" (28.6 × 16.5 cm)
Credit
Acquired through the generosity of Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin, Catie and Donald Marron, Alice and Tom Tisch (in honor of Christophe Cherix), Marnie Pillsbury and Committee on Drawings and Prints Fund
Object number
319.2017.21
Copyright
© 2021 Ibrahim El-Salahi / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London
Associated work
Prison Notebook
Department
Drawings and Prints
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