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New Visions (Arabic: نحو التجريب والإبداء) was a Palestinian art movement that was founded by the four artists Sliman Mansour, Vera Tamari, Tayseer Barakat and Nabil Anani in 1987.

The movement resisted the Israeli occupation at the time of the First Intifada by boycotting Israeli art supplies and using only local natural materials, thereby making the process of the production of the art part of its intended meaning tying it to both the land and the struggle. The art created within New Visions moved away from the symbolic to more abstract art. It had the ambition of having its political message reach an international audience beyond the Palestinian public.

Materials

The movement focused on use of natural materials such as straw, mud, leather and plant-based dyes such as coffee, henna, tea and spices.

Both Mansour and Tamari worked with clay with added hay for consistency. Mansour calls mud "the basis for human life in many cultures and religions as well as an actual piece of Palestinian land." Mansour intended to have "captured the essence of Palestinian rootedness as well as the fragmentation in the Palestinian political landscape and geography — echoed in the cracks growing in the mud as it dries." Barakat used wood and fire as his primary art materials. Anani focused on leather dyed with tea, coffee, henna and spices.

Influence

New Visions had an important influence on Palestinian art. The movement was a turning point in Mansour's art production and of influence to the larger movement of Palestinian art towards a more contemporary art practice. Mansour says: “The intifada mainly liberated us. Our art became more expressive of ourselves and more abstract. We were no longer limited to the traditional way of doing art to please a specific public. For example, I began working with clay and this made me engage in sculpture. I believe that was the link between traditional and modern art that the younger generation is producing now.”