Tunisian painters

Tunisian painting took shape in Tunis in the first half of the twentieth century. Yahia Turki, often called the father of Tunisian painting, showed scenes of the city's streets, cafés and markets from the 1920s, and Ammar Farhat, a former baker's boy and boxer, painted the poor neighbourhoods and popular life of the capital with a strong, simple line.

In 1949 these painters and others formed the École de Tunis, joined over the years by Abdelaziz Gorgi, Hatem El Mekki, who also designed many of Tunisia's stamps and banknotes, and Zoubeir Turki, the great draughtsman of Tunis life. The group dominated Tunisian art for decades. The next generation reacted against it: Néjib Belkhodja turned the medina into geometric abstraction, and Nja Mahdaoui made calligraphy without words. Safia Farhat, a pioneer in painting, ceramics and tapestry, became one of the first women to lead a Tunisian art school. These are Tunisia's painters, most looked-up first; the list also includes the muralist eL Seed. See also Tunisian artists.