Artist Abou Bakr Al-Sherif's 🇸🇩 Mosaic Art | A Contemporary Sudanese Artist | ArtLiveAndBeauty

 

Abou Bakr Al-Sherif's Mosaic Art

A mosaic artist from Sudan breathes new life into a dying art form in his nation.

Sudanese artist Abu Bakr Al-Sharif's attempts to popularise mosaic art among his people in a nation where it is not widely practised were motivated by love and passion.

Since 2010, the Sudanese artist has been teaching this painting technique to art students and hobbyists.

And, in a country where there aren't many mosaics, Al Sharif wants to work with artists and businesses to fill public areas with mosaics of major national icons.

Abou Bakr Al-Sherif hopes that he and other artists who are interested will be able to finish these masterpieces.

"Unfortunately, we have no interest in mosaic art in Sudan, and it is nearly non-existent," he adds, "but thank God, I started as much as I was able to propagate this art in Sudan and started educating students, and they started creating really wonderful work." I'm pleased with them. Regrettably, the murals are a work of art. We go to other countries to look for murals and paintings of national figures, but we don't have anything like that here."

"From here, I appeal to corporate social responsibility," he continues. If each corporation sponsored four people and created murals for them, and we picked the locations and worked on them... After five or six years, we will discover that our country is brimming with patriotic, national, and religious people, whom we will get to know. After the painting is finished, we may add a marble at the bottom with the character's biography.

Abou Bakr Al-Sherif believes that the raw materials he utilises to create mosaic pieces, particularly various types of glass, are difficult and costly to get since he must import them from overseas. Ceramics are being used by Abu Bakr al-Sharif since they are less expensive and easier to come by in Sudan.

He clarifies, "Unfortunately, the ingredients are not readily available and are prohibitively expensive. Even when we buy them, we pay a lot of money for them. We deal with ceramics and other alternative materials "..

For 17 years, the 46-year-old artist has been constructing and creating mosaic artworks, and for over 12 years, she has been teaching art to students and enthusiasts.

According to college dean Abdel Rahman Abdullah, mosaic art has been taught at Sudan's College of Fine Arts since 2005.

Despite Abu Bakr al-efforts Sharif's and the inclusion of art in fine and applied arts curriculum, al-Sharif claims that art is uncommon in Sudan, however it is more common in North Africa and places dominated by the Roman Empire at some point in history.

"This is an art that began 3500 BC in the country of Mesopotamia in Iraq and continued after that in the Roman and Islamic times, in Africa, East Africa, Central Asia, and in fact in Sudan," Al-Sharif continues.