Kamal Boullata is a Palestinian artist, writer and art historian. Boullata was born to a Christian Palestinian family in Jerusalem, mandatory Palestine in 1942.
Growing up in Jerusalem, Boullata studied with the artist of Orthodox Christian icons, Khalil Halaby (1889–1964). He was fascinated by Arabic script, particularly the square, geometric style of lettering known as Kufic. Boullata recalled spending hours growing up in Jerusalem, sketching the calligraphy he saw on the Dome of the Rock shrine. He graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arte in Rome in 1965 and attended the Corcoran Academy for the Fine Arts in Washington, D.C., from 1968 to 1971. Boullata stayed in Washington thereafter, teaching at Georgetown University and producing his art. In 1990 he published Faithful Witnesses: Palestinian Children Recreate Their World and in 1993 he received a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellowship to research Islamic art in Morocco, with the result that in the 1990s, he lived in both Morocco and France.
In 2001 he received the Ford Foundation grant to pursue research on the influence of post-Byzantine art on Palestinian painting.
His works are primarily done in acrylic and abstract in style focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity, separation from homeland through utilization geometric forms as well as integration of Arabic words and calligraphy.
His compositions are based on the angular Kufi script, which he uses as a representational form of art.
Boullata published studies on contemporary Arab art, the structural affinities between Arabic grammar and the arabesque and the cultural perception of color through its linguistic expression. His pioneering studies on Palestinian art appeared in books and academic journals. He is the author of Recovery of Place: A Study of Contemporary Palestinian Art (in Arabic) and the editor ofBelonging and Globalisation: Critical Essays on Contemporary Art and Culture (Saqi Books).
His work is well regarded around the world, and Boullata is considered one of Palestine’s great modernist artists. His work has been shown in the United States, France, and the Middle East, including at the Musée du Palais Carnoles and the Galerie d’art Contemporain Palais de l’Europe, Menton, the Musée du Chateau Dufresne, Montreal, and Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.
Boullata is still active, but surely will be remembered as a foremost Palestinian modernist artist, as well as a scholar of the history of Palestinian art.
Boullata´s work
Video
Exhibitions
2009
Palestine – La création dans tous ses états, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; National Museum of Bahrain, Manama
2008
Modernité plurielle : Art arabe contemporain, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2006
Word Into Art: The Contemporary Middle East, British Museum, London; Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai (2008)
2005
L’œuvre en cours, Musée du Palais Carnoles, Menton
2002
Musée du Château Dufresne, Montreal (solo)
2002
Bibliothèque Centrale, Grenoble (solo)
2002
Modern Arab Art, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman
2001
L’Art du livre, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
2001
Fifth International Art Biennal of Sharjah, Sharjah
2001
Ateliers Arabes, Agial Gallery, Beirut; Galerie Atassi, Damascus
2001
Galerie d’art contemporain, Palais de l’Europe, Menton (solo)
2000
Adonis:Un poète dans le monde d’aujourd’hui, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
2000
50 Ans d’ art sur la Côte d’Azur, Galerie d’art contemporain, Palais de l’Europe, Menton
1999
Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris (solo)
1998
Palacio de Carlos V, Alhambra, Granada (solo)
1998
Darat al Funun, Amman (solo)
1997
Artistes palestiniens contemporains : Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris
Further readings:
–An Interview with Kamal Boullata
Sources:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/kamal-boullata/biography
http://www.meemartgallery.com/art_resources.php?id=35
http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/user/profile/6208.page
http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/5618/Boullata-Kamal-1942.html
