"In his oeuvre, Sahli combined multiple elements from Islamic architecture, objects used in the African or Berber communities, and even Phoenician calligraphy."
Born in 1941 in Hammamet, Tunisia, Abderrazak Sahli graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts in Tunis in 1969. The following year, he traveled to Paris, where he obtained a diploma in plastic arts from the Université Paris VIII – Vincennes in 1974 and then graduated in graphic arts from the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts Paris in 1987. Back in Tunisia, he taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Tunis and Nabeul. Sahli was educated in the Koranic school of Zeitouniyya, where he explored the disfiguration and "phonetics" of words and texts as early as 1965. Throughout his life Sahli was inspired by abstraction and deconstructed his compositions similar to an American Pop artist. His work is characterized by a combination of some of the most important art movements of the last century, American Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and Russian Supremacism. From his experiences in the French capital city, Abderrazak Sahli opened up to several fields of creation, such as photography, installations, sculptures, which made him a contemporary artist. However, he remained attached to his cultural environment from his homeland. In his oeuvre, Sahli combined multiple elements from Islamic architecture, objects used in the African or Berber communities, and even Phoenician calligraphy. The sakhane is a recurrent support-object made of jute, which reminded him of his childhood and on which he employed painted abstract motifs. By incorporating local artistic traditions to contemporary techniques, his art pieces gained in dynamism, joy, and colors; they reveal dancing forms which impersonates animal as well as imaginary beings.