Born in August 1934, Tag Elsir Ahmed lost his father early in his life and was raised by his mother and uncle, who might have originally suggested the name TagElsir. However, according to the issue “Jahannam” written by Hassan Musa, Tag Elsir wasn’t very fond of his name.

Tag was a child full of imagination and loved reading and painting from a very young age. His favorite hobby was getting magazines and books with his limited weekly allowance. Later in his life, he maintained a huge collection of books, a home library in his residence. His biggest collection of books is at his house in Khartoum 2, where he spent most of his adult life.

However, it is suggested that Tag’s childhood was spent in another house in downtown Khartoum (on a street that used to be called Al-Sultan street). His painting “The Empty Courtyard, 2002,” which is currently on display at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, is most likely a representation of the childhood house rather than his adult house in Khartoum 2.

Later in his time in London, he was known as T.S. Ahmed, and most of his artworks were signed the same way on the back, reflecting Tag’s humility and possibly indicating the complex relationship he had with his name. During his stay in Nairobi, he was referenced as Tag Ahmed, a graphic designer, in the book “Lamu: A Study of the Swahili Town” written by architect Usam Ghaidan. The book contained many ink illustrations and aerial drawings of the city created by Tag.

One of Tag’s greatest influences to paint during his early school years was a British art teacher. This nameless teacher saw a talent in Tag and invested time to nurture it. Later on, Tag continuously talked about the influence of this teacher on his career. It is important to note that in the 1930s and early 1940s, the college of fine art did not exist as we know it today. There were courses and initiatives to train teachers on how to teach the arts in schools. The College of Fine and Applied Arts was established only in 1946 with the remarkable efforts of Jean-Pierre Greenlaw. [reference: https://art.sustech.edu/about/history/]

Moving to the UK

After graduating from school, Tag initially enrolled in the College of Law at University College Khartoum (known today as the University of Khartoum). Some details are missing, but Tag shortly terminated his law school attendance to study architecture in the UK at the University of Sheffield on a full scholarship.

Soon after, Tag transferred to the Royal College of Art in London. He graduated with a silver medal in art in 1962 and was a batchmate of the famous British painter David Hockney. A few years later, upon returning to Khartoum, David Hockney gifted Tag a painting as a wedding gift. The painting displays flying horses and women in a desert-like background, but no photo of the painting is available.

Return to Khartoum

Tag lived in the UK for around 10 years and returned to Sudan in the mid to late ’60s to care for his elderly mother. Upon his return, he worked at Maslahat al-Thaqafa alongside the poet Mohamed Abdelhai.

It is important to note that Abdelhai was one of the founding fathers of the “forest and the desert” literary concept, which unified a collection of artworks advocating for the equal identification of Sudan as both African and Arab. It is yet to determine whether or not this concept inspired visual artists and writers to advocate for Sudan’s diversity and create an inclusive expression of identity. On the contrary Tag was against establishing the Khartoum School of Art (Madrasat al-Khartoum), an art movement or concept associated with Ibrahim El-Salahi and Ahmed Shibrain. He is known for the famous statement “Stop this dance in the jungle!”. [source: Jahnnam by Hassan Musa]

الليلة يستقبلني أهلي:
خيل تحجل في دائرة النار
حراس اللغة المملكة الزرقاء
ذلك يخطر في جلد الفهد
و هذا يسطع في قمصان الماء
(‘Abd al-Ḥai, 1999:14)

“The same idea is expressed by Muhammad Abd al-Ḥai in the Fifth Anthem, الصبح] The Morning] of his poem سنار إلى العودة] Sinnar a Homecoming]. Features of the Arab-African intermix are evident in the reception festival on his return to Sinnar, the capital of the first Muslim Kingdom in the Sudan. The most prominent of these features are the horses trotting in the circle of fire, and one of the guards of the Kingdom of Sinnar walking proudly in his leopard skin. Horses are very important elements of Arab life, while the leopard is an African symbol.” (Thorraya Soghayroon, 2010)

Tag also worked as a graphic designer for the magazine “Khartoum,” produced by Maslahat al-Thaqafa. Tag taught English at the Technical School in Khartoum (today known as Sudan University of Science and Technology). Additionally, he joined the University of Khartoum as a full-time faculty member, likely in the School of Architecture.

The move to East Africa

A few years later, Tag was offered the opportunity to teach in Uganda at the Department of Art at Makerere University in Kampala , and then at the University of Nairobi in the early ’70s. These years likely mark the most prolific period for Tag, during which he produced a significant number of paintings and shipped them back to Khartoum around 1975. One of his most important works from his time in East Africa is probably the painting “The Volkswagen in the Garage.” Tag owned a gray Volkswagen car in East Africa, which he adored immensely. The painting was gifted to or purchased by the writer Ali Almak, who was a dear friend of Tag and one of the greatest local collectors of art at the time. Tag had a very close friendship with the famous Sudanese writer Ali Almak. Tag’s daughter remembered spending some Fridays at Ali Almak’s house in Omdurman.

During the East Africa period of his life, Tag achieved various accomplishments worldwide. Some of these include participating in the Sudanese pavilion at the New York International Fair (1964), the Contemporary African Art Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute (1965), the Dakar Art Fair (1966), and the exhibition of contemporary African art held at the Camden Arts Centre in London (1969–1970), which also included Ibrahim El-Salahi and Kamala Ishaq.

Video: https://britishpathe.com/asset/241453/ // https://cutt.ly/HeqnYA37

Although not famous for it, Tag loved photography and was a natural with the camera. During his stay in East Africa, he created several albums of pictures that narrate his experiences living in these two countries. Tag’s artistic practice later on would further exploit his love for documenting the things happening around him. It is easy to say that his work resembled a memory — memories of Khartoum and its neighborhoods, of conflicts and deaths, and many other subjects. Tag mentioned in a conversation with Hassan Musa, that he was never interested in painting still life and that the richest stories to him came from the people he encountered. He also mentioned that he never painted live models or traced; instead, he preferred to paint from memory. [reference: Hassan Musa’s Facebook publication]

Tag moved from Kampala to Khartoum with his family mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, his mother’s health was deteriorating, and secondly, due to the instability Uganda was facing with the overthrow of General Idi Amin. So, he and his family moved back and occupied the house in Khartoum 2 again, along with his mother. His twin daughters were born upon his return to Khartoum in 1976.

Tag stayed and worked in Khartoum till the mid 80s. During this period, he had multiple projects that involved traveling a lot to the UK, Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, & and other Gulf countries for art related projects.

One of Tag’s favorite family activities after returning from his short trips was placing all the pictures he took from his travels on projector slides and enjoying them alongside his family. Tag loved photographing urban architecture and the small alleys of the cities’ downtowns. He was particularly in love with the “Harat,” or the tight neighborhoods of Cairo, and would continuously dream of moving there.

Tag’s teaching career became more solidified when he took on the role of lecturer for “Basics of Design” in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Khartoum. During this period, he also managed multiple side projects, including work on the presidential palace during the presidency of Gaafar Nimeiry. Tag’s daughter Azza recalls a fascinating childhood memory: he once brought her and her twin sister inside a section of the palace which featured a large neem tree carved into a chair facing the Nile, along with a tennis court and a swimming pool.

Tag overworked himself during these years, managing many projects in parallel with his teaching career. He also designed an extension of his house from scratch for his family. The stress overwhelmed him, especially with the passing of his mother followed shortly by a heart attack that forced him to travel to the UK for surgery. While life in Sudan was generally deteriorating during the final years of Nimeiry’s presidency, Tag’s personal life also faced significant challenges. After his heart surgery and amidst the economic downturn, Tag was compelled to move to the Gulf countries — a move he had resisted for years. In 1984, he relocated to Saudi Arabia to work at King Saud University as part of a professor transfer program between that university and the University of Khartoum.

The years Tag spent in KSA were the most challenging of his lifetime, primarily due to severe restrictions on his family’s freedom and mobility, as well as his inability to pursue painting as he wished. He endured this period because he believed that returning to Sudan under the rule of Omar Al-Bashir would be even worse. Tag was also labeled as an opponent by the National Islamic Front, which later became the National Congress Party. Subsequently, he was expelled from the University of Khartoum with a written statement citing the “common good,” known in Arabic as Al-Salih Al-Aam. During his time in KSA, he completed several projects and paintings for the Sudanese Embassy in Riyadh.

Tag moved to Jordan as an art history lecturer around 1994, following his unmemorable stay in Saudi Arabia, and immediately returned to intensive painting. During this period, art became a significant emotional release for him. His daughter Azza recalls that he always wore a hand-tailored Dammourya — a form of untreated cotton cloth with larger gaps between threads, similar to the Ethiopian Gabi — pair of pants and a shirt at home and whenever he painted.

The paintings Tag created during this time were heavily influenced by the political situation in Sudan. One of his most notable works was “The Massacre of Al-Ailfoun,” which measured around two meters in length and one meter in height. The massacre occurred in 1998 when a group of high school students rebelled at a national service camp in the Al-Ailfoun suburb east of Khartoum, refusing to remain there. This led to a clash with security forces who opened fire on them, resulting in the deaths of over 100 high school students. Their bodies were only buried 22 years later in 2021 ([reference (LINK)]). Tag gifted this painting to his friend Adil Mustafa, an architect who was the head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Khartoum and later moved to Jordan for a teaching position.

Many other paintings produced during this period were also given away as gifts. Tag primarily brought books back from Jordan to Sudan for his final stay. Additionally, some of his paintings were donated to the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, where he held a part-time consulting position during his last years in Jordan.

Another important piece Tag produced during this time was “The Wedding,” a painting depicting his daughter’s wedding. He also created a piece titled “Kutcheena,” which was originally gifted to Rasheed Beheiry. There are multiple versions of these paintings; for instance, the one in Beheiry’s house in Jordan features different colors.

Several versions of these paintings were displayed in Tag’s retrospective exhibition at The Jordanian National Gallery of Fine Arts in 2010 and have since become part of their permanent collections.

Tag’s most significant piece would probably be “Al Moulid” which was carved on wood. The painting was discussed a lot by Sudanese artist and critic Hassan Musa where Musa debated that the painting should have never left the custody of the artist as he considered it to be a national treasure. [Discussions can be found in “Jahannam”].

Tag Ahmed moved back to Sudan in early 2013. During this last stay in Khartoum, he didn’t paint much but did organize an exhibition at the French Institute. He passed away at the age of 84 in Khartoum in August 2018

The following are a collection of artworks by Tagelsir Ahmed that no sufficient information were found for.

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