ABDERAZAK SAHLI (1941-2009)
Tunisian painter and visual artist — inventor of a sensory and material universe
Born in Hammamet, Abderrazak Sahli followed solid training at the École des Beaux-Arts de Tunis (painting, 1969), then at the Université de Paris 8 (visual arts) and the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (printmaking, 1974). He stayed in France until 1987 before returning permanently to Hammamet, where he continued to create until his passing in 2009.
Sahli stands out for an innovative approach to materials: no support, object, or tool is foreign to him, which he transforms with genius into a work of art. Inspired by the everyday and by Claude Viallat's "support-surface" method, he explores the repetition of modules, color saturation, the collage of varied textiles — worn bedsheets, burlap, old clothes — and the absence of a frame, creating living compositions open to the imagination.
Born in Hammamet, Abderrazak Sahli followed solid training at the École des Beaux-Arts de Tunis (painting, 1969), then at the Université de Paris 8 (visual arts) and the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris (printmaking, 1974). He stayed in France until 1987 before returning permanently to Hammamet, where he continued to create until his passing in 2009.
Sahli stands out for an innovative approach to materials: no support, object, or tool is foreign to him, which he transforms with genius into a work of art. Inspired by the everyday and by Claude Viallat's "support-surface" method, he explores the repetition of modules, color saturation, the collage of varied textiles — worn bedsheets, burlap, old clothes — and the absence of a frame, creating living compositions open to the imagination.
His creations transcend the trivial: the Kortass, a modest kraft paper bag from the corner grocer, becomes structure, volume, and support, sometimes integrating the artist's vocal performances. Similarly, the large olive harvest canvases or domestic wooden tools metamorphose under his creative gesture, revealing a world where matter and sensation intimately dialogue.
Abderrazak Sahli leaves a unique pictorial heritage, where the force of invention and the richness of textures transform the everyday into material and visual poetry, making him one of the most daring and influential artists of the contemporary Tunisian scene.
Abderrazak Sahli leaves a unique pictorial heritage, where the force of invention and the richness of textures transform the everyday into material and visual poetry, making him one of the most daring and influential artists of the contemporary Tunisian scene.
Exhibitions
