Tunisian collaborative painting
Tunisian collaborative painting is an art form created in 1988 by the Tunisian painter Hechmi Ghachem, in the year Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali took power and freedom of expression became dangerous. Ghachem organised artists into groups he called the Brigades d'Intervention Plastique, which travelled Tunisia painting together: several artists work simultaneously on a single canvas, with no discussion or planning beforehand, each folding into what the others are doing. The finished painting reads as the work of one hand - 'one painting represented the individuality of all' - and each piece was given to the host of the space where it was painted. Hundreds of works were made this way, a record of artistic freedom under dictatorship. The practice later travelled abroad through the American painter David Black, with workshops at the Art Students League of New York in 2010 and the UK's first exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy in 2019.
Defining characteristics
- Several painters working on one canvas at the same time
- No preliminary discussion, sketching, or planning - the composition emerges in the act
- Individual hands dissolve into a surface that looks single-authored
- Improvisational layering: each artist folds into what the others have laid down
- Session-based making, with finished works given to the host of the space
Key figures
- Hechmi Ghachem (active from 1988) — Tunisian painter who created the form and led the Brigades d'Intervention Plastique
- David Black (active from the 2000s) — American painter who carried the practice to US academies and workshops from 2010
Example works
- Untitled (26 collaborative paintings, Art Students League workshops) — David Black with 125 artists from 30 countries (2010)
Sources
- Tunisian collaborative painting - Wikipedia encyclopedia