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Lot Essay
‘From a child’s scribbling, I slowly rose to the ranks of men. Persian poetry, Japanese philosophy had progressed within me. I yearned for the absolute, I recited Ibn Arabi, El Hallaj, Jallel El Din el Rumi and filled with their writings I wanted to know who I was, the inevitable quest of one’s self. So I started to liberate writing, I liberated the signs from their meaning, from their signifier, a quick and disjointed movement as if born of a trance. The signs converged towards and escaping centre. Despite this repetitive writing, this serial expression, the center was impossible to grasp. So I was turning around the absolute, I was lurking around the indescribable.’ (The artist in an interview with Marianne Catzaras, M. Catzaras (ed.), Céramique de Tunisie KHALED BEN SLIMANE, Tunis 2004, p. 40).
One of the most important contemporary artists from North Africa, Khaled Ben Slimane’s works are richly symbolic in merging both Islamic and North African cultures. Known to be one of the greatest ceramists of the region, his paintings are equally identifiable, retaining the same lyrical poeticism of his sculptures. A careful interplay between graphism, he carefully articulated letter forms and Qur’anic verses.
The present work embodies rhythmic movement, containing mixed lines, dots, splashes of black lines, very much reminiscent of the Asian calligraphy, all drawn to the magnitude of the centre of the word HUWA, (He) which evokes God. The word in its pure form of abstraction found in two letters in Arabic, ‘Ha’ and ‘Waw’, creating a harmonious balanced word. Seeking painting as a way to preserve a certain memory of his past, of the Andalusian themes and Berber traditions of his country, Slimane experiments with the symbolism of language and its ability to uphold meaning through signs. His travels across India, Pakistan and Japan laid the foreground for his exploration into finding meaning within signs. ‘I allow myself a certain freedom, I listen to what matter suggests, to the created shapes. Then splashes, blobs, convulsive shapes, aerial signs, unrestrained punctuation. I fill space no doubt to offset a certain existential happiness.’ (The artist in an interview with Marianne Catzaras, M. Catzaras (ed.), Céramique de Tunisie KHALED BEN SLIMANE, Tunis 2004, p. 41).
One of the most important contemporary artists from North Africa, Khaled Ben Slimane’s works are richly symbolic in merging both Islamic and North African cultures. Known to be one of the greatest ceramists of the region, his paintings are equally identifiable, retaining the same lyrical poeticism of his sculptures. A careful interplay between graphism, he carefully articulated letter forms and Qur’anic verses.
The present work embodies rhythmic movement, containing mixed lines, dots, splashes of black lines, very much reminiscent of the Asian calligraphy, all drawn to the magnitude of the centre of the word HUWA, (He) which evokes God. The word in its pure form of abstraction found in two letters in Arabic, ‘Ha’ and ‘Waw’, creating a harmonious balanced word. Seeking painting as a way to preserve a certain memory of his past, of the Andalusian themes and Berber traditions of his country, Slimane experiments with the symbolism of language and its ability to uphold meaning through signs. His travels across India, Pakistan and Japan laid the foreground for his exploration into finding meaning within signs. ‘I allow myself a certain freedom, I listen to what matter suggests, to the created shapes. Then splashes, blobs, convulsive shapes, aerial signs, unrestrained punctuation. I fill space no doubt to offset a certain existential happiness.’ (The artist in an interview with Marianne Catzaras, M. Catzaras (ed.), Céramique de Tunisie KHALED BEN SLIMANE, Tunis 2004, p. 41).