Lamine Sassi, one of the leading figures of contemporary art in Tunisia and the Arab world, left us this Thursday, October 24, 2024, at the age of 74. He leaves behind an exceptional body of work of beauty, sensitivity, and grounding in humanity, which will survive him for a long time and will delight galleries, museums, and collectors.
Born in 1951 in La Manouba. A graduate of the Institute of Art, Architecture and Urban Planning in Tunis in 1978, he completed a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 1979. Since then, he has exhibited in Tunisia, notably in the Irtissem, Ettassawir, Médina, and Mille Feuilles galleries in Tunis. Abroad, he has participated in group exhibitions in Paris (France) and Geneva (Switzerland). He has received several awards, including First Prize at the Kuwait Biennial in 1998 and the 2005 National Prize for Plastic Arts.
In 2006, it was the crowning achievement: the Ministry of Culture paid tribute to him with a personal exhibition at the Maison des Arts in Tunis, showing his work throughout his artistic career.
His innovative compositions emanate a great sensitivity that multiplies the choice and distribution of intimate colors.
Lamine Sassi affirms his spiritual and pictorial creativity revealing an intense and inspired inner life.
Inhabited by human figures, mainly women, Sassi’s world seems out of reach, filled with chromatic, lively, and harmonious spots. Emerging from the pictorial space, expressive forms embodying sensuality, alternately melancholic and romantic, plunge the viewer into an emotional charge controlling the artist’s approach to his work.
Sassi has found the path that connects him to his work, revealing a sincere painter who cheats neither with painting nor with life. He follows the path of the artist through an approach tinged with humility towards the greatness of the universe.
