Issam Bader’s contribution to Palestinian visual culture extended beyond artworks, exhibitions and teaching. Through publishing, journalism and documentation, he participated in recording and debating Palestinian artistic activity as it was developing.
This page brings together publications and texts attributed to Bader, alongside interviews, statements and records of his editorial work. Authored texts are kept distinct from interviews and quoted statements so that different forms of archival evidence are not treated as interchangeable.
Documented writings & publications
The Joint Exhibition of Israeli Artists and Artists from the West Bank
c. 1983 · Issam Bader · Signed article · Originally published in Al-Fajr; reproduced in Palestinian Visual Art in the Occupied Territories, Gallery 79, Ramallah, 1984, pp. 64–66.
«المعرض المشترك لفنانين إسرائيليين وفنانين من الضفة خطوة رائدة… ولكن…»
Bader responds to the debate surrounding the 1982–83 joint exhibition involving Palestinian and progressive Israeli artists. He considers artistic cooperation, occupation, political responsibility and the conditions under which cultural exchange could take place. The 1984 book confirms his authorship with the byline «بقلم الفنان: عصام بدر».
Palestinian Visual Art in the Occupied Territories
1984 · Nabil Anani and Issam Bader · Book · Gallery 79, Ramallah.
الفن التشكيلي الفلسطيني في الأرض المحتلة
The publication documents Palestinian artists, exhibitions, cultural organizations and artistic activity during the 1970s and early 1980s. Its biographies, photographs, exhibition records, reproduced documents and artworks make it an important primary source for the history of Palestinian visual culture under occupation.
Preface to Palestinian Visual Art in the Occupied Territories
1984 · Issam Bader and Nabil Anani · Jointly authored preface · p. 5.
مقدمة الكتاب
Bader and Anani explain the need to document the Palestinian visual-art movement while acknowledging the limits of the surviving record. They describe the book as an attempt to preserve and organize information scattered across exhibitions, newspapers, magazines and other sources rather than as a definitive history.
The preface is important evidence of how the two artists understood documentation itself as part of building a historical record for Palestinian art.
Interviews & statements
Interview with the Artist Issam Bader
1 July 1981 · Interview / archival publication · Al-Aqlam, year 16, no. 7, pp. 112–115.
«حوار مع الفنان عصام بدر: قصة اللوحة التي صادرها دايان لأنها ملونة بألوان العلم الفلسطيني»
The publication preserves an extended conversation with Bader about his artistic development, his studies in Baghdad, Iraqi modern art, Palestinian artists and institutions, criticism, education and the relationship between artists and the public.
Because the surviving publication combines interview and editorial material, it is catalogued as an interview and primary source rather than as a sole-authored essay by Bader.
Interview published in Al-Bayader
Before July 1981 · Interview with Issam Bader · Original issue and page numbers not yet identified.
An earlier Al-Bayader interview, later reproduced within the 1981 Al-Aqlam material, records Bader discussing his beginnings in Hebron, his education in Baghdad, Jawad Salim, Faiq Hassan, Ismail Shammout and the development of Palestinian visual art.
Locating the original issue remains an archival priority.
Statement on the purpose of Gallery 79
January–February 1982 · Quoted statement · Shu’un Filastiniyya, nos. 122–123.
A contemporary account quotes Bader explaining that Gallery 79 developed from the need for a permanent space for Palestinian visual-art activity, regular exhibitions, artistic development for children and greater public engagement with art.
Because Bader’s words appear within another author’s text, the passage is catalogued as a quoted statement rather than an article written by him.
Journalism & editorial work, 1979–1981
PASSIA records that Issam Bader edited the fine-arts pages of both Al-Fajr and Al-Quds between 1979 and 1981. This places journalism and editorial work among the most important documented parts of his contribution to Palestinian visual culture.
The 1984 book provides one concrete link to this newspaper activity: Bader’s signed article on the joint Palestinian–Israeli exhibition had previously appeared in Al-Fajr.
Individual contributions from these newspapers have not yet been systematically reconstructed, so the archive distinguishes Bader’s confirmed editorial role from texts whose authorship still requires verification.
Current research priority: locating the 1979–1981 runs of Al-Fajr and Al-Quds and identifying signed articles, interviews, reviews, artist profiles and editorial material connected with the pages Bader edited.
Research in progress
The bibliography remains incomplete. Current research includes Bader’s Al-Fajr and Al-Quds work, the original Al-Bayader interview, Gallery 79 documents, Birzeit University collections, the Palestinian Museum Digital Archive, the Wasiti Archive at Al-Hoash and additional Palestinian and Arab periodicals.
New records will be added only when their source, date and relationship to Bader can be established with sufficient confidence.