Abdallah Benanteur

Private Collection, France

This work is in good condition. There are few very light drying marks in various areas along the upper centre area. Upon closer inspection there is a minute chip on the right edge centre of the canvas. The colours in the catalogue illustrations are fairly accurate with the overall tonality tending towards a softer hue in the original work.
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In 1966 the Tunisian government invited Abdallah Benanteur to participate in a solo exhibition of his paintings. During his stay, the artist visited important historical sites, and was particularly enamoured by the architectural decorations of the Kairouan Mosque with its magnificent domed ceiling, brilliant interior ornamentation and grand columns. On his return to France the artist employed his highly distinctive style and a bedazzling palette to depict Golden Domes with an astonishing depth, recalling his voyage to Tunisia.

As a key figure in North African abstraction, it is intriguing to observe hints of semi-figural silhouettes rippling across the canvas plane. “Among the contemporary painters of the Maghreb, Abdallah Benanteur occupies a singular and exemplary place from an international point of view, through his legitimate and radical refusal of any form of academism, be it figurative, abstract, or post-modern, as well as any folkloric arrangements which would betray the authentic Arabic-Islamic tradition, which invariably ends up within a reductive and normalising impoverishment of genuine popular creativity. On the other hand, he called upon painting, to endow it with a gesture taken from calligraphic principles, and which he always maintained concise, dense, imperiously rhythmic, never tempted to let itself be enclosed or subjected to the sign ... Its only aim being to awaken in each of us the celebration of the imaginary” (Marc Hérissé, Claude Lemand, Benanteur Peintures, Paris, 2002).  

Through the use of vibrant yellows, brilliant blue pigments and intense hints of pink and red, Benanteur references the natural landscape of his native Algeria. “The palette is iridescent, diaphanous, airy, transparently vibrant, maintained through a very sure touch, masterly, poetic and virile. Flashes of light, be they sunny or stormy, take you beyond the painting's confines. One is reminded of Turner when faced with these shimmering lights. It is quite another world, but it holds the same magical quality” (ibid.). In his instantly recognisable style, the artist’s vivid colours elegantly dance across the canvas plane: the brushstrokes, although free and light, are purposefully applied to create the monumental compositions. His illustrations are derivative of Algerian music, the richly lyrical tone of which is an evident inspiration within his works.

Typical of his style, the present work, Golden Domes, shies away from precise definition, neither figurative nor abstract. It is instead rooted in the elements of nature, a theme which Benanteur continually explores throughout his oeuvre.  Utilising an intriguing combination of personal memories, visions of indigenous landscapes and monumental architectural structures, Benanteur creates a powerfully illustrative remembrance. Void of direct references to historical, symbolic or folkloric aspects, his paintings are unique and confront the viewer with overwhelming sensual scenery, evoking a deep sense of nostalgia whilst transcending the traditional limits of painting.