Ibrahim El-Salahi

Untitled from Prison Notebook

1976

Ink on paper from a notebook with thirty-eight ink on paper drawings

Not on view

People and rocks

People and rocks

People and rocks

People and rocks


Ibrahim El-Salahi: “People and rocks. People and rocks. People and rocks.” I kept repeating this almost like a prayer, trying to see how in certain situations you can be petri ed, you can become static. At the same time, you are a human being. You have a heart, you have a mind, you have a brain. You have an apparatus within you that can show you the right way and the wrong way, so you can maneuver your destiny as you go along. But sometimes it takes you back. By the actions of others, you are made into a stone to protect yourself, to protect your innocence. You petrify yourself because of the situation.

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 5/8" (28.6 × 16.8 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 319.2017.7
Associated work Prison Notebook
Department Drawings and Prints

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