Rachid Koraïchi

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

Condition: This work is in very good condition.
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The artist's own pictograms

There are arguably few highly accomplished sculptors in the Middle East, but Koraichi is firmly placed in this pantheon with this outstanding work of art – his largest sculpture ever to be offered at public auction. Simultaneously imposing, intellectual and spiritual, it is one of his most important works to date and is truly of museum quality.

Throughout the region, artists of the mid-twentieth century were inspired by local culture. In North Africa Berber symbols, magical insignia and Islamic motifs were incorporated into mainstream art. In keeping with the hurufiyyah movement, Koraichi utilises symbols, words and talismanic squares taken from local culture that draw upon the Islamic tradition of magic bowls and talismans, protecting the wearer from harm and black magic, as well as absorbing west and north African indigenous icons and beliefs. Yet Koraichi looks outside the boundaries of his immediate locale and is inspired and influenced by extensive international travel, with clear parallels to Far Eastern pictograms notably the phonetic Japanese alphabet Hiragana.

In 1980 Koraichi began developing an etching inspired by Ahmad al Azaatar, a poem written by the celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, that paid tribute to the struggle within the eponymous refugee camp during the Lebanese Civil War. In August of 1976, this camp was destroyed and the number of victims reached the thousands. Koraichi's etching and Darwish's poem were both published in Une Nation en l'Exil and were conceived as a eulogy to those who lost their lives (Edition Fondation Shoman, Amman). In 2009, Koraichi revisited his iconic symbol and completed the work he had begun thirty years before by casting the sculpture as he had always intended.

In creating this highly individual and esoteric symbol, emblematic of revolution, of peace, of loss, of magic and spirit, of Arabia and the Orient, the artist frees the letter form - creating something that is conversely, not esoteric at all. In its lack of linguistic sense, in its liberated form, this becomes a universal symbol: a pictogram that can be appreciated by any viewer and any culture, both for what it is and what it is not. Whilst his inspiration is deeply rooted in his Algerian heritage, Koraichi is truly an international artist whose works speak to a global audience.