Kamal Boullata was a Palestinian artist and art historian. His works were primarily done in acrylic. His work was abstract in style, focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian identity, separation from homeland. He expressed these ideas through geometric forms as well as through the integration of Arabic words and calligraphy.
Biography
Kamal Boullata was born in Jerusalem, Palestine in 1942. Boullata recalls sitting for hours on end as a small boy in front of the Dome of the Rock, engrossed in sketching its innumerable and unfathomable geometric patterns and calligraphic engravings. Those patterns he saw as a child still echo endlessly throughout his adult work. In an interview he recalled "I keep reminding my self that Jerusalem is not behind me, it is constantly ahead of me." He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, Washington, D.C. In 1993 and 1994 Kamal was awarded Fulbright Senior Scholarships to conduct research on Islamic art in Morocco. Kamal, whose work has been exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East, lived and worked in Menton in Southern France, and now in Berlin, Germany. Kamal Boullata was a fellow resident at The Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.
Style
Boullata works mainly in silk screen. His compositions are based on the angular Kufic script, embedded in geometric designs, which he uses as a representational form of art. His choice of subject matter is primarily around themes of Palestinian identity and the conditions of exile. Due to his use of Arabic calligraphy as a graphic form, he has been as part of the Hurufiyya Art Movement.
Reviews
In a review of his work, Moroccan art critic Abdelkebir Khatibi wrote: Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi noted: "Kamal was simply a giant of art & culture of our age. Not only was Kamal an accomplished artist, he was also the author of what is perhaps the most important book on the subject of Modern and contemporary art from Palestine, titled: Palestinian Art: from 1850 to the Present." Steve Sabella noted just after Boullata's death: "I had dinner with Kamal three weeks ago just before I left for Jerusalem, the city of our birth. He looked young, energised, inspired, speaking about many projects. From the moment we met in 2002, any conversation with Kamal ignited my imagination. Only beauty emerges when one delves into his art and listens to his carefully chosen words -words that I felt always came out from the heart. Kamal inspired thousands in his life, and I do feel his journey has just begun. Kamal's departure is not a loss, but a reward to all humanity."
