On September 16, Oslo’s Munch Museum announced New York-based Palestinian artist Samia Halaby as the winner of its annual Munch Museum Award. Now in its second year, the NOK 300,000 (USD 30,300) accolade is dedicated to honoring artistic freedom of expression.

Born in 1936 in Jerusalem but displaced from Palestine at age 11, Halaby is an internationally renowned pioneer in abstract visual art whose works blend elements of Islamic geometric traditions with the Russian avant-garde and Western modernism. During the 1950s, she was formally trained in abstract expressionism in the American Midwest, earning an MFA in painting from Indiana University in 1963. In 1986, Halaby ventured into digital art, using self-taught coding techniques to create kinetic paintings on an Amiga computer. 

Alongside her six-decade-long creative practice, Halaby has established herself as a scholar and staunch advocate, writing and organizing around issues of class, race, and the Palestinian struggle. Her 2002 book Liberation Art of Palestine, for example, remains a seminal documentation of 20th-century Palestinian art. She also worked at the Yale School of Art as its first full-time female associate professor for 10 years and was instrumental in setting up an undergraduate studio art program in art departments across Midwestern institutions. 

In a press release, the jury praised Halaby for her “visionary and enduring artistic practice,” further commending her devotion to social justice: “[She] has been a vocal critic of censorship in the arts for decades, which she herself has faced and overcome.” Last year, Halaby’s retrospective at Indiana University Bloomington was abruptly canceled due to unspecified “safety concerns,” though many believe the decision stemmed from the university seeking to “distance itself from the cause of Palestinian freedom.” 

An official award ceremony will take place on October 22 in Paris during Art Basel, and on October 24 at the Munch Museum.

Yuqian Fan is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.