Draft:Abdel Raouf Shamoun

Abdel Raouf Shamoun (Arabic: عبدالرؤوف شمعون) (1945-2024) was a Palestinian-Jordanian painter, art critic and writer. He is widely considered as one of the most important and prominent Jordanian visual artists. Between 1972 and 2018, he held and participated in several solo and group exhibitions in Jordan and the Arab World.

Early life
Shamoun was born in 1945 in Tal AlTurmus, a village in Gaza, Palestine. At just 3 years old, he was expelled from his hometown, along with its entire population, by the Israeli army during the Palestinian Nakba. His family, who became refugees of the Palestinian diaspora, finally settled at Al Wehdat Refugee Camp in Amman, Jordan, where he received his schooling and lived his early years.

He received a BA from the University of Jordan in 1968 after which he worked as a schoolteacher in Saudi Arabia for 3 years.

Career
After years of painting privately and creating countless sketches and artworks, Shamoun finally held the first exhibition of his works in 1972 at the University of Jordan Alumni Club. He was active as an artist for more than five decades, until his death in 2024, completing hundreds of paintings, sculptures and sketches, most of them at his home studio in Amman. He worked closely with many of Jordan's leading artists, most notably Muhanna Al-Durra.

During this period, he held and participated in around 17 exhibitions in Jordan and the Arab World. His last solo exhibition, titled 'Unity and Diveristy', took place in 2018 at the Orfali Art Gallery in Amman. From 1971 and 1997, he held ten solo exhibitions.

During his career, Shamoun was awarded with various awards and decorations, most notably the Jordan National Encouragement Prize of Arts in 1990, as well as The International Sharqua Bienname Prize in 1993. He was also a member of the Jordanian Plastic Artists Association.

In addition to his career as a painter and artist, Shamoun was a respected art critic and writer, and a member of the Jordanian Writers Association. He worked as an art teacher at multiple high schools during his life, and founded the art and music department at Cambridge High School, Amman, where he worked from 2005 until 2020.

Shamoun's paintings are held in the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.