The Estate of Rafik El Kamel Tunisian, 1944-2021

Born in Tunis, Tunisia (1944-2021) 

Lived and worked between Tunis and Maamoura, Tunisia 

Rafik El Kamel was a pioneering figure of modern Tunisian art and one of the first artists of his generation to turn toward abstraction, as part of the “Nouvelles Conceptions” movement that challenged the neo-orientalist figuration of the School of Tunis. His paintings are characterised by compositions conceived as an exchange between space, colour, and light. Throughout his career, he sought to render an inner reality invisible to the naked eye, articulated through assembled and recurring forms that structure his pictorial language and occupy a middle ground between abstraction and figuration. By painting graphic forms in clusters and chromatic fields, he presented a dynamic world, powerful yet fragile, where the equilibrium appears constantly threatened by an underlying chaos ready to claim back its force. Never abandoning abstraction, El Kamel progressively deconstructed the opposition between abstract and figurative categories, shifting attention away from the object itself toward the structures generated by light, shadow, and composition. Through this approach, he described life in abstract terms; by eliminating traces of nostalgia, he expressed a certain solitude in which the artist faced a necessary urge to reveal. 

El Kamel’s work has been shown in several international institutions, including the Salon de Mai in Paris; the Biennale of young artists (1977 and 2002), Paris; the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, France; Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden, Marrakech, Morocco; the Guggenheim Museum, UAE; Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE; Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, Lebanon; and Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Paris, France. 

His works can be found in several prestigious collections including the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Barjeel Art Foundation, UAE; the Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, Morocco; and the Khalid Shoman Foundation: Darat Al Funun, Amman, Jordan. 

He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Tunis in 1966. He continued his artistic training at the School of Decorative Arts in Paris. Between 1967 and 971, he discovered the refined expression of painting during his stay in Paris. Upon his return to Tunis, he taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was a Professor at Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Tunis from 1971 to 1998. 

In 1984, he was awarded the first prize from the city of Tunis and the first prize from the annual exhibition of contemporary art in Tunis.