Aly Ben Salem , Tunisian 1910-2001 Le Jardin d'Eden (The Garden of Eden) acrylic and gouache on paper
Provenance : Private Collection, Tunis
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Notes : Awarded the first prize for painting by the Tunisian government in 1936, Aly Ben Selem was also nominated as the Official Decorator of the Tunisian pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1937. His pride in his culture, and his strength of character is evidenced by his active participation in the liberation of his country. Feted for his role in the deliverance of Tunisia, he was awarded the title of Officer of Independence in 1980. Much like the iconic Tunisian painter Abdelaziz Gorgi, (Lot 202 in this sale) Aly Ben Salem is another bastion of the North African artistic movement. Inspired by the blue skies and artistic legacy of his homeland, Ben Salem's works are a unique homage to the cultural traditions of his country, and his Nordic wife, Kristen. "This is what I think I am. I am profoundly Mediterranean. I love living outside the walls, whilst cultivating, jealously, my interior garden." As remarked previously, Aly Ben Salem's work is a unique combination of local North African ethnography, and the influence of Nordic culture through his wife. He celebrates the customs and traditions of his country by painting scenes of daily life, cataloguing the rituals of his people with a warmth and regard that is hard not to find enchanting. In this example, Le Jendin d'Eden from 1938, a woman is raised on a pedestal, her honour and nudity protected by plants and enriched by the traditional jewellery of her rank and culture - the white pearls, and coral at her wrists and ankle. His debt to the tradition of Islamic miniature painting is exhibited in the treatment of his figures, their stillness, and perspective; however the attention to decorative detail and the typical light wash of his paint suggests a touch of Art Nouveau. From the 1950s his colour palette became increasingly alluring, blue with red and the appearance of mauve, yellow with blue and a particular soft green highlighting both sky and flesh; blending and blurring to become the "interior garden" of his Mediterranean. At this time, motifs such as the doe, the white horse and the gazelle came to feature in his work. Small flowers without stems float on the canvas, forming allegorical scenes that recall the works of Marie Laurencin. Later, the influence of his wife and the love he held for her came to bear, in the sea-change of his female figure from typically Arab to Nordic. Statuesque, with light eyes (as in his painting The Bewitched Regard) they were garbed in oriental dress, becoming a microcosm of his oeuvre and influences: a harmonious combination of the occident and the orient.
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