Hind Mango Nasser is a well-established artist, an inspiring patron of the arts and a cultural activist who lives and works in her home country of Jordan. Liberated from dominant art trends in cultural capitals, her work has been one in continuous movement filled with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Far from being static or satisfied with itself or its own autonomy, Hind’s work has been at every moment unintentionally questioned.

It is not willingly that Hind deliberately rejects the standard that she has attained, but rather by an inward voice, an answering concern for what is happening in the canvas, for what gives it life and for what will follow next. This facilitates an easy and fast movement from one idea to another with a constant flow of new ideas. Predominantly, these ideas take an abstract form that ranges from free, spontaneous works to more static, precise ones.

Her work is a dialect of interior and exterior landscapes. The landscapes which surround her are those of an oriental country, while clear, unmixed primary colors dominate her landscape paintings. A big part of her abstract work is in oil paintings or paper works, dominated by dark colors and energetic gestural movements: circling, spiraling, curving lines which, avoiding ornamental embraces, dance together into monumental, even threatening ciphers.

The interior landscapes are dramatic while the exterior ones seem to reflect the color schemes of Mogul paintings and miniatures. With great inventive force and discipline, she covers a wide range of images of the inside darkness of the soul and the outside beauties of the world.

“This strong tie between nature and I is my primary inspiration,” says Hind. “I find refuge in its continuous change. It is the world of the unknown, the divine and the ultimate, that’s what my relentless mind keeps fighting for.”

With great sensitivity and force, Hind experiments in different media on canvas and paper and works very comfortably with all the colors of the spectrum. She is propelled by an instinct that is as imperious as that of maternity. It is impossible to stop contented, unless it were easily understood and clear. Probably without knowing it, Hind puts into practice the profound thought of the French Philosopher, the late Gilles Deleuze who, in his book on Francis Bacon wrote: “In art, in painting as in music, it is not a matter of reproducing or inventing forms, but of capturing forces.”

Hind Mango Nasser graduated with a BA in History and Politics in 1961 from Beirut College for Women (presently Lebanese American University). She started studying painting under the artist Fahrelnissa Zeid in 1976.

Upon graduating, one of her most defined aims was to develop the cultural scene in her country. She started teaching and established the Alumnae Club of her college, a Children’s Club for cultural activities mainly in theater and arts, The Jordan Crafts Council with a marketing outlet for the traditional and modernized local crafts and the Jordan Ikebana chapter for the art of flower arranging. She was one of the founders of the National Music Conservatory of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and Chairperson for 15 years and one of the founding members of the Jordan Museum for Archaeology. 1n 1995, Hind started her own project the Jordan Arts and Crafts Center, Artisana, and later established her own gallery, Gallery 14.