Abdelaziz GORGI (Tunis 1908 - 2008)

Female nude, (19)49 Pen drawing 39.5 x 29 cm à vue Signed and dated in Arabic and French, lower right. This sketch was made in 1949, when he was a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Tunis. *** Ink drawing Signed and dated in Arabic and French, lower right. This sketch was made in 1949, when he was a student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Tunis. Provenance : Private collection, France. Born in 1928, in the heart of the Medina of Tunis, Abdelaziz Gorgi studied at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts in Tunis in 1949, then joined the École de Paris, where he pursued his artistic career with the Plisson and Fernand Léger studios. On his return to Tunis, he became involved and engaged with painters such as Ammar Farhat, Yahia Turki, Jellal b. Abdallah and Pierre Boucherle in the creation of an artistic movement in Tunisian painting, the École de Tunis. This new movement brought together artists who exchanged innovative ideas and asserted their claim to an authentically Tunisian art through committed works highlighting Tunisia's heritage and traditional popular culture. Gorgi's work is highly diverse and prolific, encompassing oil painting, watercolor, tapestry, ceramics, sculpture and drawing. His work reflects a rich and full life, a diversity of techniques that allow him to put forward a plastic language in many forms, and whose main source of inspiration has been the Tunisian population and Sidi Bou Said. "...Abdelaziz Gorgi's life as an artist has produced a complex body of work that has made a major contribution to the in-depth reinvention of traditional Tunisian narrative through the originality of his approach and technique." From 1959 to 1983, he taught drawing, ceramics and painting at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts in Tunis. In 1973, he set up his own art gallery, Galerie Gorgi, in Tunis. He exhibited both in Tunisia and abroad, and remained one of the most influential figures in Tunisian culture. *** Born in 1928, in the heart of the Medina of Tunis, Abdelaziz Gorgi studied at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts de Tunis in 1949, then joined the École de Paris where he pursued his artistic career in the Plisson and Fernand Léger studios. As soon as he returned to Tunis, he became involved with a number of painters, including Ammar Farhat, Yahia Turki, Jellal b. Abdallah and Pierre Boucherle in the creation of an artistic movement in Tunisian painting, the Tunis School. This new movement brought together artists who shared their innovative ideas and demanded an authentically Tunisian art through committed works that highlighted Tunisia's heritage and traditional popular culture. Gorgi's work is highly diverse and prolific, encompassing oil painting, watercolour, tapestry, ceramics, sculpture and drawing. His work reflects a rich and full life, a diversity of techniques that allow him to put forward a plastic language in several forms, whose main source of inspiration has been the Tunisian population and Sidi Bou Said. "Over the course of his life as an artist, Abdelaziz Gorgi has produced a complex body of work that has made a major contribution to the reinvention of traditional Tunisian narrative through the originality of his approach and technique. From 1959 to 1983, he taught drawing, ceramics and painting at the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts in Tunis. In 1973, he set up his own art gallery, Galerie Gorgi, in Tunis. He exhibited in Tunisia and abroad and remained one of the most important figures in Tunisian culture.