"By introducing this unique art form to the United States at a time when the Tunisian artists who pioneered it could not travel, David Black built a bridge that artists from both countries are now able to cross."
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Tunisian Collaborative Painting was created in 1989 by Tunisian artist Hechmi Ghachem to help artists survive the oppressive regime of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the President of Tunisia. In October of 2008, the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, Robert Godec, invited me to Tunisia to meet the artists who were practicing this new art form. When I painted on the same canvas with the Tunisian artists, using Hechmi's rules, I was amazed. The finished painting looked like the work of a single artist! Half a world away I had stumbled on a new concept for creating art, a concept simple yet profound, mysterious but obvious, a concept which celebrates the oneness of all human beings and the wonder of the creative process.
I invited the Tunisian artists to come to America and demonstrate Tunisian Collaborative Painting but the Tunisian Government would not let them leave the country. Hechmi suggested I introduce it in America on my own. In February of 2010, I conducted the first session of Tunisian Collaborative Painting at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Each of the finished paintings looked like the work of a single artist. This was followed in November by five days of Tunisian Collaborative Painting at The Art Students League of New York.125 artists from 30 countries created 26 paintings and, once again, each of the finished paintings looked like the work of a single artist. The word most used by the artists to describe their experience was “liberating.”
A month later, twenty-six year old Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi was supporting his family by selling fruit. Ben Ali’s police took his fruit and beat him. Bouazizi poured paint thinner on himself and lit a match. Thousands of Tunisians, including some of my artist friends, risked their lives demonstrating against the government. In January 2011, the Jasmine Revolution ended when Ben Ali, the ruler of Tunisia for 23 years, fled the country. Last November, I again conducted five days of Tunisian Collaborative Painting at The Arts Student League; this time with the participation of the Tunisian artists.
Upcoming venues in the planning stages for Tunisian Collaborative Painting in 2012 include the recently opened American Islamic Congress Center in Boston, California State University in Los Angeles, Yale University, The Royal Academy of Arts in London, The Sorbonne in Paris, The Art Students League of New York; in Connecticut St. Michael’s School in Pawcatuck, The La Grua Center in Stonington, The Lyman Allen Museum in New London, and in Washington, D.C. The Tunisian Embassy, under the auspices of the Tunisian Ambassador.
David Black
www.davidblacknyc.com