Kamal Boullata is a Palestinian art

Palestinian art

Palestinian art is a term used to refer to paintings, posters, installation art and other visual media produced by Palestinian artists.While the term has also been used to refer to ancient art produced in the geographical region of Palestine, in its modern usage it generally refers to work of...

ist and art historian. His works are primarily done in acrylic and abstract in style focusing on the ideas of division in Palestinian

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

 identity, separation from homeland through utilization geometric forms as well as integration of Arabic words and calligraphy.

Biography

Kamal Boullata was born in Jerusalem in 1942. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Rome and at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art in Washington, D.C. In 1993 and 1994 Kamal was awarded Fulbright Senior Scholarships to conduct research on Islamic art in Morocco. Presently, Kamal, whose work has been exhibited throughout Europe, the United States and the Middle East, lives and works in Menton in Southern France.

Style

Boullata works mainly in silk screen. His compositions are based on the angular Kufi script, which he uses as a representational form of art. In a review of his work, Moroccan art critic Abdelkebir Khatibi wrote:
“Elaborated with remarkable continuity and patience, Boullata's work is that of a surveyor, an artist of proportion and measurement. Behind this passion for geometry lies the tradition of icon-painting, which forged the beginnings of his artistic training, a tradition that has maintained a venerable continuity between Byzantium and the Arabo-Islamic civilization of the Middle East.”

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."

Public collections

Public collections holding his art

• British Museum
  British Museum
  The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
  
  , London
  London
  London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
  
  
• Institut du Monde Arab, Paris
• The Khalid Shoman Foundation
• Sharjah Art Museum
  Sharjah Art Museum
  The Sharjah Art Museum is an art museum in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.The museum was inaugurated in April 1997 during the 3rd Sharjah International Arts Biennial. It has a total floor area of 111,000 m² with galleries over two storeys and an underground car park beneath it. The...
  
  
• Jordan National Gallery
• Sarjah and the Bibliotheque Louis Notari, Monoco

Books

• Recovery of Place: A Study of Contemporary Palestinian Art (in Arabic)
• Belonging and Globalisation: Critical Essays in Contemporary Art and Culture, Saqi Press
• Palestinian Art: From 1850 to the Present, Saqi Press, 2009, London,