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School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk

Display artist/maker:

Siddiq A El Nigoumi

Born: 1931, Sudan Died: 1996

Ceramicist. El Nigoumi claimed he enjoyed playing with the mud on the banks of the Nile, believing this is what kindled his interest in pottery. He trained at Khartoum Art School (1952-55) and became a calligrapher. He studied in London shortly after at the Central School of Art, returning to Sudan to teach.

As a teacher in Khartoum, he encouraged his students to look towards their own culture and traditions, often bringing his classes to analyse shapes at the Ethnographical Museum. He settled in England permanently in 1967, finding it a more creative environment. He continued to teach in the UK and featured in the Aberystwyth Ceramics Festival in 1987.

He threw mainly stoneware pots as well as using traditional African techniques such as burnishing and the colours of Nubia House decoration. He used charity shop-bought knitting needles to score designs on his pots that often display his calligraphic skills and incorporate British graphic designs that interested him, such as the Guardian Crossword, the CND or the Rolls Royce logo. His signature was the symbol of a scorpion, a reminder of his desert home.