“My mother tongue is a fountainhead merging within its flow all dualities and differences between the hidden and the manifest. The contemplation of its very structure continues to reveal to me the origins of Arab aesthetics. That is how Arabic never ceased to lure me as a painter into rereading my visual environment.”
Kamal Boullata
Kamal Boullata, Al-Alif wa-l-Ya (“The alpha and the omega”) -Ibn Arabi, 1983
Al-Alif wa-l-Ya (“The alpha and the omega”) -Ibn Arabi, Kamal Boullata, 1983, silkscreen, 52 x 52 cm, © the artist, courtesy taswir projects
Kamal Boullata
Born 1942 in Jerusalem, Palestine, died in Berlin 2019.
Graduate of the Accademy of Rome and the Corcoran Art Museum School, Washington, DC.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2014 Meem Gallery, Dubai
2013 Wiensowski & Harbord, Berlin
2009 ArtSpace Gallery, Dubai
2002 Musée du Château Dufresne, Montreal
2002 Bibliothèque Centrale, Grenoble
2001 Galerie d’art contemporain, Palais de l’Europe, Menton
1999 Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris
1998 Patronato de la Alhambra Islamic Museum, Carlos V Palace, Granada
Selected Group Exhibition
2015 Adventures of the Black Square: Abstract Art and Society 1915-2015, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2014 Tariqah, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
2013 Changing Agents, Alāan Artspace, Riyadh
2012 Meem Projects 2012. Abu Dhabi Art Fair, Meem Gallery, Abu Dhabi
2009 Palestine. La création dans tous ses états, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2009 D’Orient et d’Occident, Galerie Jacques Leegenhoek, Paris
2009 Art Dubai, ArtSpace Gallery, Dubai
2008 Modernité plurielle. Art arabe contemporain, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2006Word Into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East, British Museum, London
2002 L’œuvre en cours, Musée du Palais Carnoles, Menton
Selected public collections
British Museum, London
Institut du Monde Arab, Paris,
Patronato de la Alhambra Islamic Museum, Granada
Jordan National Gallery, Amman
Bibliothèque Louis Notari, Monaco
Museum of Modern Arab Art, Doha
New York Public Library, New York
The Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman
Sharjah Art Museum, Sharjah
Selected publications
Palestinian Art. From 1850 to the Present, London: Saqi, 2009.
Between Exits. Paintings by Hani Zurob, London: Black Dog Publishing, 2012.
Editor: Belonging and Globalisation. Critical Essays in Contemporary Art and Culture, London: Saqi, 2008.