Synopsis

Mahjoub Ben Bella, born 1946 in Maghnia, but actually lived and worked in Tourcoing. “ At nineteen, he left Algeria to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tourcoing, France, then attended the École des Arts Décoratifs and École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He estab­lished him­self inter­na­tion­ally as a diverse and expan­sive artist who paints not only canvas but also ceramic pieces, fab­rics, tiles, walls, everyday objects such as plates, and Métro sta­tions. Ben Bella also uses color to invent a new lan­guage of signs. Working from his uncon­scious, he cre­ates spon­ta­neous images based on instinct and memory. The pro­cess and the resulting art­work there­fore emerge from a trance ­like state. His work evokes both Arabic cal­lig­raphy and European abstrac­tion, the signs and sym­bols mate­ri­al­izing out of com­po­si­tion and rhythm. Throughout, the move­ment of let­ters and cal­lig­raphy of sym­bols, tra­di­tional or invented, sig­nify an explo­ration of the senses, of colour, and of form.” (Metropolitan Museum, N. Y.)
Provenance, From a Belgian collection.