#algiera

[nostalgerie]

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

In 1958-1959, there were other things about Camus that may be important to know: two more trips to Algeria, a variety of political interventions, a sailing trip to the Aegean with the Gallimards and Maria (so soon after the generals' coup in Algiers and de Gaulle's return to power that he was criticized for being out of the country, and he admitted that he had misgivings in this regard), the purchase of a home in Lourmarin, an intensifying relationship with Mi. Each had its significant details, its implications, its place in the journal, and its impact on his life.

Elizabeth Hawes, Camus, A Romance

[bookofkhidr]

Attar Abbas, Market of Boghni, Kabylia, Algeria, 1982

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

Algeria 1967. After the independence and the birth of the Algerian Republic: two men observe the monument in memory of Albert Camus, erected in 1961 and engraved by Louis Benisti facing mount Chenoua in Tipasa near Algiers. The inscription:

“Here I understand what they call glory: the right to love without limits.” Albert Camus

[x]

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

Camus had spoken of making his mother the centerpiece of a novel on love as early as 1951, when he began to put down his thoughts for a preface to a new edition of The Wrong Side and the Right Side, his first work, published in Algeria when he was not yet twenty-four. That book, too, was organized around the theme of his mother, which implicated the whole circle of his experience up till then--his family, his illness, his life in poverty and light. As he explained in his preface, after twenty year of work, his greatest ambition was effectively to write that book again. He wanted to tell the story of a man who came back to rediscover his first truths, to remember how his heart had first opened up. He wanted to be guided by a certain kind of love.

Elizabeth Hawes, Camus, A Romance

[dkleierjr1]

Links to “The Battle of Algiers”

If you have not seen Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, I both admonish you and, yet, envy you.

I admonish you in that you have not done enough research into revolutionary art to have found this film. Yet, I envy you because you have yet to get that first breath of excitement when viewing the film the first time you only have once.

TBAis an intentionally grainy, black and white…

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[nostalgerie]

[cultureclash-flow-blog]

The Colonial Art of Algeria

BY LAURA CURLIN

Algeria today bears the evidence of years of French colonialism in its politics, economics, and my topic, its art. After invading Algiers in 1830, France ruled Algeria until it gained independence in 1962. During the 132 years of colonial rule, Algeria was considered a part of France, though Algerian art was never considered the equal of French fine art. Throughout Algeria's colonial experience, France responded to its colony through art.

Jean-Charles Langlois took part in the siege of Algiers as an artist charged with making images of the military conquest. Prior images of Algiers tended to show the city from sea, the perspective held by the European naval powers. Langlois's panorama was a distinct departure, as it illustrates Algiers from the castle atop the city. In Paris, the panorama drew large crowds and created considerable interest in newly captured Algiers. The panoramic form particularly illustrates the power of images for colonizing powers. In a panorama, "a single view comes to stand in for all of the territory in and around Algiers," allowing the viewer to have command over a great deal of land without leaving Paris (Zarobell 641). Langlois brought Algiers into France as part of the colonizing project.

“Reconstruction from untitled studies of Jean-Charles Langlois, Panorama d’Alger, 1832.Watercolour on paper. Collection Dr Francois Bureau, Caen. Photographic assemblage made by [John Zarobell] with the help of Amy Walchy. This group of twelve studies can be compiled into a 1801 view of Algiers and the outlying region. The bay on the left and in the centre is the bay of Algiers with the Cap de Montifou visible in the distance. On the crest of the hill at right, it is possible to make out the Fort de l’Empereur, which the French forces destroyed, causing the Dey of Algiers to surrender in July 1830.”

Eugene Delacroix was one of many French Orientalist painters that created images of Algeria in the mid-nineteenth century. Seen here, Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834) demonstrates his Romantic style applied to the exoticized subject matter. While Delacroix did travel to Algeria, this work is a better example of the harem genre of Orientalist art than of the real lives of Algerian women. Delacroix and other French Orientalist artists' work served to help justify French imperialism by illustrating the barbarity and backwardness in Algeria, as perceived by the colonizing power. 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir brought Impressionism to Algeria. His subjects tended to be less overtly exoticized than earlier Orientalist works, but his work still represents a stage of France's artistic influence on Algeria. Paintings by Renoir of Algeria, such as Mosque in Algiers (1882), were considered fine art, while works by native Algerians were disregarded as traditional arts and crafts. French art was favorably contrasted with local works, thus reinforcing the rationales behind imperialism.

As new mediums were created, the French view of Algeria can be seen in other forms. In the opening scene of Julien Duvivier's Pepe le Moko (1937), the police describe the Casbah area of Algiers through a Frenchman's eyes. The area is the impenetrable home of a variety of people, giving the police little hope of catching the gangster Moko once he has hidden there. The Casbah is a source of mystery to the French policemen, but it is regarded more as a curiosity than as a virtue.

Mohammed Racim was the only Algerian artist included in the Musee national des beaux-arts d'Alger in 1930, the centennial anniversary of France's rule of Algeria. While his inclusion does represent an increasing respect for Algeria's artists, the vast majority of works held by the Museum of Fine Art remained European. As shown in Lendemain de mariage, Racim worked in the tradition of Persian miniatures while exploring European styles. French critics believed his work was proof that "art was not dead in Muslim countries," though it could be argued that they were merely becoming more aware of the art Muslim countries had to offer (Celik 104-105). While Racim gained recognition in Europe for his work, it was mainly by staying within the themes of traditional Islamic art.

In the early to mid twentieth century, France sought to purify Algerian art. French art critics, such as George Marcais, believed that Algerian art was inferior even to other Islamic art "because of the extreme level of cultural contamination, which included the importation of 'Oriental as well as European forms and products" (Celik 94). To remedy this, art schools were established to teach young Algerians traditional arts, such as weaving and metalworking. Interestingly, these schools served an additional purpose of introducing modern production methods to crafts in order to produce goods for the European market.

In 1962, independence brought an increased degree of freedom to Algerian art. Though contemporary Algerian artists are still working to develop their own styles and gain recognition, they face the same challenges as other artists in the region. Algerian artists, such as Choukri Mesli, whose Femme scorpion (1967) is shown, have been featured in exhibitions and in Nafas art magazine. Algerian artists, including the substantial number living in France, are working to develop their own artistic identity while coming to terms with France's colonial influence.

Celik, Zeynep. "'Islamic' Art and Achitecture in French Colonial Discourse: Algeria, 1930." In The Experience of Islamic Art on the Margins of Islam, edited by Irene A. Bierman, 89-112. Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 2005.

Meagher, Jennifer. “Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century Art”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://metmuseum.org/toah/hd/euor/hd_euor.htm (October 2004)

"The Twentieth Century in Algerian Art." Nafas Art Magazine. Accessed April 3, 2012. http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/nafas/articles/2003/algerian_art.

Zarobell, John. “Jean-Charles Langlois’s Panorama of Algiers (1833) and the Prospective Colonial Landscape.” Art History 26, no. 5 (November 2003): 638-668. Accessed April 1, 2012.