On the threshold of the Tunis School

Alain Messaoudi,Simon Strachan (Translator)

doi:10.36950/manazir.2020.2.6en

Abstract

On the occasion of the inauguration of the first gallery founded by artists in Tunis, the painters Moses Levy, Pierre Boucherle, Antonio Corpora and Jules Lellouche published in 1936 a manifesto affirming their autonomy, beyond mercantile logics and national assignments. However, a national reading of their works prevailed in the press, at that time. This article proposes to put this founding event of the « École de Tunis » into context, by reinscribing it in a century-old history. This past is marked by the presence of French and Italian artists between 1840 and 1880, by the failure of a policy of asserting a French artistic model with an aborted project for a French museum around 1890, and by the affirmation of an artistic life characterised since the 1910s by its pluralism and even its eclecticism. This article thus intends to contribute, through the example of pictorial production, to the historicisation of discourses on the plurality or cultural identity of Tunisia, which are still today objects of debate.

Highlights

On the occasion of this first exhibition, the four artists drew up a manifesto, explicitly based on those of the European avant-gardes.6 It begins: “We are opening the doors of this Gallery to avantgarde Tunisian and foreign artists.”7 Here, the only reference to nationality concerns the country in which these artists live and work—Tunisia—with membership of the avant-garde movement transcending national borders
On the occasion of the inauguration of the first gallery founded by artists in Tunis, the painters Moses Levy, Pierre Boucherle, Antonio Corpora and Jules Lellouche published in 1936 a manifesto affirming their autonomy, beyond mercantile logics and national assignments
There is no mention of France, nor of Italy. This exhibition is generally regarded as being the starting point of what fifteen years later would be called the École de Tunis, a term coined with reference to the École de Paris,8 and about which Pierre Boucherle, who presented himself as its founder, stated in 1964 that it “never had the pretension, nor even the intention, to place itself as a school of art on the same level as, for example, the schools of French, Spanish, Italian or Flemish painting

Summary

Introduction

On the occasion of this first exhibition, the four artists drew up a manifesto, explicitly based on those of the European avant-gardes.6 It begins: “We are opening the doors of this Gallery to avantgarde Tunisian and foreign artists.”7 Here, the only reference to nationality concerns the country in which these artists live and work—Tunisia—with membership of the avant-garde movement transcending national borders.

Results

Conclusion