In yesterday's post we looked at an artist creating knitted abstract paintings. Let's continue the thread by exploring the work of Safia Farhat, another artist on display at the 59th International Art Exhibition in Venice. In her works, Farhat created abstractions through another technique - tapestry.
The late Tunisian painter, decorator, ceramist, weaver, teacher and editor, was a pioneer of visual arts in her country, an academic and a women's rights activist. Throughout her life she supported the valorization of traditional techniques and of Tunisia's cultural heritage, playing a key role in the history of modernism.
Born in Radès in 1924, Safia Foudhaili, grew up in France and Tunisia, and married in the '40s Abdallah Farhat, a socialist politician supporting the fight against colonial authorities.
In 1949, she was the only woman part of the École de Tunis (Tunis School) movement, which comprised French, Italian and Tunisian artists, among them Moses Levy and Antonio Corpora. The artists part of this movement distanced themselves from colonial art and tried to reconnect their practice with Roman archaeological history, Islamic architecture and traditional crafts. They also wanted to shape a new image for the country and a new form of "Tunisianity" rooted in North African, Arabic, and African foundations.
The movement spawned many collaborations and Farhat was instrumental in creating collaborative projects between artists and artisans. She worked with artist Abdelaziz Gorgi and collectives of weavers to create monumental tapestries in which she wove a variety of narratives. Through tapestries she explored the story of Ulysses and Penelope and the epic of the Banu Hilal. She also developed pieces using a variety of techniques and materials, from stained glass to Chebka lace.
In 1956 the Code of Personal Status (CPS), set to improve the social status and education of women, was promulgated in Tunisia. Three years later Safia Farhat founded the country's first Arab-African feminist magazine - Faïza. Farhat published 62 issues of the magazine and she also became involved in campaigns for women's rights and the preservation of cultural heritage.
In the meantime, she taught at the postcolonial Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts of Tunis) and, in 1966, she was the first woman appointed director of the school. The male-dominated institution was transformed by Farhat: under her the school produced a generation of female artists and teachers. In 1982, Farhat and her husband founded the Centre des Arts Vivants (Centre for Living Arts) in Radès, where the Safia Farhat Museum was inaugurated by her niece Aïcha Filali in 2016.
At the Venice Biennale there is a two-part woven tapestry by Farhat on display in the Arsenale. Entitled "Gafsa & Ailleurs" (Gafsa and Elsewhere, 1983) and borrowed from the Centre des Arts Vivants, the 3 meter-tall tapestry combines Tunisian crafts (and in particular the tapestry technique from the southern part of the country) with European modernism.
The piece is an example of dynamism in textiles: characterised by bright and bold colours and geometric shapes and patterns, zoomorphic signs and anthropomorphic figures, the tapestry is woven from dyed, handspun wools.
The varying thicknesses, pile heights and textures form three-dimensional effects that contribute to give the impression that the material reaches out to the viewer. The tapestry features a horse galloping through a verdant landscape towards a whirlwind of colours and abstractions, a symbol of traditions encountering modernity or a modernist homage to traditions.
Image credits for this post
Safia Farhat, Diptyque Gafsa & ailleurs, 1983
Tapestry Diptych, 320 × 294 × 15 cm; 293 × 167 × 15 cm
Private Collection
The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, The Milk of Dreams. Photo by: Roberto Marossi. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia
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