Rafik El Kamel

Rafik El Kamel (1944 to 2021) was a Tunisian artist who worked in painting and collage in Tunis. His subjects range from laughing faces and street scenes to abstract structures of colour and light. He was among the first painters in Tunisia to move into abstraction, alongside Hedi Turki and Edgard Naccache. He often painted in large formats, with a physical approach. For his collage method he painted sheets of paper, cut them up and fitted the pieces together like a puzzle. He then repainted the composition on canvas at a larger scale.

He finished his studies at the Institut supérieur des Beaux-Arts, Tunis, in 1966, then studied at ENSAD, Paris. From 1967 he opposed the dominance of the founders of the School of Tunis. He belonged to Nouvelles Conceptions, a movement set against the neo-orientalist figurative painting of the School of Tunis. From 1971 to 1998 he taught at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Tunis. The Fou rire series shows laughing faces with open mouths on dark grounds. Transfiguration (1989) and Transfiguration turquoise (2009) are acrylic on canvas. Late works use cut-out forms, imprints and stencils, with white silhouettes ringed with red.

Solo exhibitions included Fregnac Gallery, Paris (1980 and 1987), and Renate Seeger Gallery, Munich (1982). Le Violon Bleu Gallery, Sidi Bou Saïd, showed Transfiguration 1 (2009), Transfiguration 2 (2014) and PARCOURS (2026). He took part in the Salon de Mai, Paris (1970), and Quatre peintres arabes at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (1988). The Kuwait Exhibition for Arab Artists awarded him first prize in 1985. Collections holding his work include Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, and Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. His estate is listed by Selma Feriani Gallery, Tunis.