Maliheh Afnan: Google dedicates doodle to Palestinian-born artist

Google Doodle celebrates Palestinian-born artist Maliheh Afnan, who is widely regarded among the most significant Middle Eastern artists of the 20th century. In what she called “written paintings,” her artifact-style mixed media explores themes such as exile and displacement while acknowledging Middle Eastern conflicts and the influence of her cultural heritage.

The Institute of Contemporary Arts in Milan featured Afnan’s 1979 piece “Wartorn” in a virtual group exhibition “The Symmetry of Fragility,” which ended on this day in 2020.

Maliheh Afnan was born in Haifa, Palestine on March 24, 1935, before her family sought refuge from war in Beirut, Lebanon in 1949. She was the great-granddaughter of Baháʼu'lláh, the prophet of the Baháʼí Faith, although she was not a member of the Baháʼí Community.

Afnan was fascinated with written language as a child and filled pages with imaginary text and numbers, developing a striking style of abstract calligraphy.

Maliheh Afnan moved to Beirut with her family in 1949. She received a BA from the American University of Beirut and a MA in Fine Arts from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, D.C. Afnan lived in Kuwait from 1963 to 1966, in Beirut from 1966 to 1974 and in Paris from 1974 until 1997, when she moved to London.

Afnan graduated from an M.F.A. program in 1962, during which her infusion of Arabic and Persian script into assignments motivated a teacher to introduce her to American calligraphic artist Mark Tobey.

Afnan's work has been shown primarily in France and in London. Her first solo show, in a Basel gallery in 1971, was organized by the American artist Mark Tobey. Her work is included in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum in London, the Written Art Collection in Germany, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris and the BAII Bank Collection in Paris.

She returned to Beirut in 1974, but the civil war forced her to move to Paris before finally settling in London in 1997. 

Today, Afnan’s collections can be found in galleries across the Middle East, in numerous European museums, and in New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. She died in London at the age of 80 on January 6, 2016.

Here’s to you, Maliheh Afnan! Thank you for writing a new script for future generations of artists.

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