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Lot Essay
Rachid Koraïchi moves with rare freedom between media, from ceramics, printmaking and textiles to silk, paper and canvas, yet one language runs through them all. It draws on the intricacies of Arabic calligraphic scripts, and on symbols, glyphs and cyphers taken from a wide range of languages and cultures, including Chinese characters and invented alphabets. Through these forms, Koraïchi explores universal spiritual themes beyond the limits of written language. Blue Lachrymatory Vase (viii), from the Lachrymatoires Bleues series, and Bleu, couleur invisible (Blue, the Invisible Colour), a large-scale oil painting from the Prayers series, one of the most accomplished bodies of work in his career, show how the same vision moves from the intimate scale of the object to the monumental scale of the canvas.
Executed in 2020, Blue Lachrymatory Vase (viii) is inspired by the ancient tradition of lachrymatory vials. Traditionally made of blown glass, these vials were held by women at the corner of the eye to collect the tears shed at moments of tragedy and pain, as well as those of joy, such as birth, passion and marriage. They would later accompany their owners into the grave. Koraïchi reimagines this historical form as a response to contemporary suffering, conceiving it as a repository for the many tears shed because of the wars in the Middle East, the migration crisis and the harrowing effects of the global pandemic. Designed with four handles, the vase invites women and men alike to lower their heads and let their tears fall into a shared space.
Painted in 2014, Bleu, couleur invisible (Blue, the Invisible Colour) belongs to the Prayers series, a body of work dedicated to the artist's mother. It exemplifies what has been described as Koraïchi's "associative proto-language", in which forms drawn from Arabic writing, geometric symbols and invented signs operate beyond literal meaning. The steady, uniform repetition of signs and the regularity of the artist's gesture express the Sufi philosophy to which he adheres, in which repetition becomes a form of continuous prayer. Standing nearly 1.8 metres high, the canvas envelops the viewer and gives this meditative rhythm an almost architectural presence.
Painted in his home and studio in the medina of Tunis, the work reflects an attachment to the colour blue that gradually came to dominate Koraïchi's creation. Blue appears both as the ground and in the colour of the letters, recalling the blue Qur'ans, considered among the most accomplished achievements of Islamic art. The painting is a homage to a colour that has accompanied his work for decades and that finds its origin in his relationship with the divine, with North Africa and with its religious universe. Its title speaks to the mysticism of a colour that pervades what the divine has created, the sky and the sea, yet vanishes when ocean water is held in the palm of the hand, or in the course of a celestial ascent. In this way, the painting becomes an expression of the artist's mystical and religious introspection, turning colour itself into a spiritual experience.
Against the blue ground, the background is composed of repeated white motifs built from straight and curved lines, at times grouped to create a layered visual structure. Ranging from calligraphic forms to squares, circles and triangles, these elements are unified by a dominant glyph that extends across the composition. Rather than seeking literal translation, Koraïchi speaks in symbols, in the belief that the visual experience of language can transcend spoken comprehension and allow a universal mode of spiritual communication.
In the foreground, black calligraphic symbols assert themselves with an almost sculptural monumentality. They stand like a permanent sculpture within the painting, structuring and energising the composition as a vital, vocal human presence before a constellation of signs. Together, these signs form the complex human and religious topography that defines Rachid Koraïchi's world.
Born in Aïn Beïda, Algeria, in 1947, Koraïchi comes from a Sufi family of Qur'anic scholars and copyists. He came of age during Algeria's independence in 1962, a period of national self-determination in which questions of cultural identity moved to the forefront. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Algiers before moving to France, where he continued at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, the Institut d'Urbanisme and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. These two cultural worlds continued to shape his work and became one of its key motifs. Koraïchi integrates the spiritual heritage of his family and the Western modernist tradition into a single practice that exists on the boundary between the sacred and the contemporary, tradition and innovation, East and West.
His art is often framed within Sufi spirituality and metaphysics, in which writing and signs hold sacred importance and calligraphy serves as a backbone of the work. By embracing universal signs, he evokes the spiritual weight of collective heritage and shows how the language of art can carry a global outlook.
Koraïchi was awarded the Jameel Prize in 2011. He has participated in major international exhibitions, including the 47th and 49th Venice Biennales and the Marrakech Biennale in 2016, and his work has been shown at the British Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. His works are held in prominent public collections worldwide, including the British Museum, London; the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut ; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca; the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; the Miami Art Museum, Miami; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi; the Vatican Library, Rome and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.
Executed in 2020, Blue Lachrymatory Vase (viii) is inspired by the ancient tradition of lachrymatory vials. Traditionally made of blown glass, these vials were held by women at the corner of the eye to collect the tears shed at moments of tragedy and pain, as well as those of joy, such as birth, passion and marriage. They would later accompany their owners into the grave. Koraïchi reimagines this historical form as a response to contemporary suffering, conceiving it as a repository for the many tears shed because of the wars in the Middle East, the migration crisis and the harrowing effects of the global pandemic. Designed with four handles, the vase invites women and men alike to lower their heads and let their tears fall into a shared space.
Painted in 2014, Bleu, couleur invisible (Blue, the Invisible Colour) belongs to the Prayers series, a body of work dedicated to the artist's mother. It exemplifies what has been described as Koraïchi's "associative proto-language", in which forms drawn from Arabic writing, geometric symbols and invented signs operate beyond literal meaning. The steady, uniform repetition of signs and the regularity of the artist's gesture express the Sufi philosophy to which he adheres, in which repetition becomes a form of continuous prayer. Standing nearly 1.8 metres high, the canvas envelops the viewer and gives this meditative rhythm an almost architectural presence.
Painted in his home and studio in the medina of Tunis, the work reflects an attachment to the colour blue that gradually came to dominate Koraïchi's creation. Blue appears both as the ground and in the colour of the letters, recalling the blue Qur'ans, considered among the most accomplished achievements of Islamic art. The painting is a homage to a colour that has accompanied his work for decades and that finds its origin in his relationship with the divine, with North Africa and with its religious universe. Its title speaks to the mysticism of a colour that pervades what the divine has created, the sky and the sea, yet vanishes when ocean water is held in the palm of the hand, or in the course of a celestial ascent. In this way, the painting becomes an expression of the artist's mystical and religious introspection, turning colour itself into a spiritual experience.
Against the blue ground, the background is composed of repeated white motifs built from straight and curved lines, at times grouped to create a layered visual structure. Ranging from calligraphic forms to squares, circles and triangles, these elements are unified by a dominant glyph that extends across the composition. Rather than seeking literal translation, Koraïchi speaks in symbols, in the belief that the visual experience of language can transcend spoken comprehension and allow a universal mode of spiritual communication.
In the foreground, black calligraphic symbols assert themselves with an almost sculptural monumentality. They stand like a permanent sculpture within the painting, structuring and energising the composition as a vital, vocal human presence before a constellation of signs. Together, these signs form the complex human and religious topography that defines Rachid Koraïchi's world.
Born in Aïn Beïda, Algeria, in 1947, Koraïchi comes from a Sufi family of Qur'anic scholars and copyists. He came of age during Algeria's independence in 1962, a period of national self-determination in which questions of cultural identity moved to the forefront. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Algiers before moving to France, where he continued at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, the Institut d'Urbanisme and the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. These two cultural worlds continued to shape his work and became one of its key motifs. Koraïchi integrates the spiritual heritage of his family and the Western modernist tradition into a single practice that exists on the boundary between the sacred and the contemporary, tradition and innovation, East and West.
His art is often framed within Sufi spirituality and metaphysics, in which writing and signs hold sacred importance and calligraphy serves as a backbone of the work. By embracing universal signs, he evokes the spiritual weight of collective heritage and shows how the language of art can carry a global outlook.
Koraïchi was awarded the Jameel Prize in 2011. He has participated in major international exhibitions, including the 47th and 49th Venice Biennales and the Marrakech Biennale in 2016, and his work has been shown at the British Museum, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Haus der Kunst, Munich; and the inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. His works are held in prominent public collections worldwide, including the British Museum, London; the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut ; the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca; the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; the Miami Art Museum, Miami; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi; the Vatican Library, Rome and the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi.