Art Dubai | Modern: 2018

For its sixth consecutive year of participation in Art Dubai Modern, Elmarsa is proud to present the work of Algerian artist Mahjoub Ben Bella (1946-2020) one of the most prominent artists from North Africa. The exhibition brings together a selection of his earlier works on paper and on canvas from the 70s and 80s. While he developed his own approach, based primarily on the use of Arabic calligraphy, his impressive, sometimes monumental works, which include frescoes and ceramic murals, combine influences from Western abstract painting with allusions to such Old Masters as the great Romantic colorist Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863). His work has gradually shifted to the abundant expression of the forms, shapes and colors, thus giving to see a dense body of work which fits in a double heritage: Arab calligraphy and European painting.