28 Facts About Mohammed Khadda

Mohammed Khadda was an Algerian painter, sculptor, and writer.

Mohammed Khadda represented a generation of Algerian artists who combined the ideas of calligraphic heritage and formal language of Western formal writing through Western abstraction through the 1950s.

Mohammed Khadda was born in 1930 in Mostaganem, when Algeria was still under the occupation of France.

Mohammed Khadda was the eldest of five children, two of whom died while infants.

Mohammed Khadda's father, Bendehiba Khadda, was born in 1912 in the town of Mina and moved to Mostaganem at a very young age.

Mohammed Khadda's mother, Nebi El Ghali was born in 1911 in Zemora, Algeria, a city near Tiaret.

She, as Mohammed Khadda's father, was blind, but managed to adjust.

In 1936, Mohammed Khadda attended a school in Tigditt, Mostaganem in an Arab neighborhood.

Mohammed Khadda's father wanted him to get a job as soon as he received his diploma, but one of his teachers gave him a year of respite so he did not have to settle for a job he did not enjoy.

In 1944, Mohammed Khadda found a job at a printing company, in the region of Ain Sefra.

Mohammed Khadda was taught drawing, while attending classes that were paid by his superior.

In 1948, along with his friend Abdallah Benanteur, Mohammed Khadda explored the various art collections presented at the Musee des Beaux-Arts in the capital city Algiers, where he was able to find his first bits of inspiration as a future painter.

Mohammed Khadda was mostly influenced by the romantic painters Eugene Delacroix, or Theodore Chasseriau.

Mohammed Khadda later became intensively involved in the liberation of his country, and joined the French Communist party to stand for the Algerian Liberation, in 1953.

Mohammed Khadda was introduced to Eurocentric art movements such as Abstract Art, as well as "African sculptures and East-Asian ink works", given the Pluriculturalism of the city.

Mohammed Khadda was part of the "Algerian Intellectual Circle" while living in France, and was said to be politically involved with the Algerian independence movement.

Mohammed Khadda was appointed as advisor to the Ministry of Culture's graphic arts sector in 1979, and became a member of the Conseil National de la Culture in 1990.

Mohammed Khadda's art is still celebrated after his death as well, as shown in "Horizons Maghrebins- Le droit a la memoire"[1], or in "Les Casbahs ne s'assiegent pas"[2].

Later on, as he settled in Paris, Mohammed Khadda was exposed to other diverse forms of arts and cultures, such as Abstract art, African sculptures, East-Asian ink works as well as Islamic art.

Mohammed Khadda dived deeper into his learning of art by studying the artistic archives at the Bibliotheque Nationale Francaise.

Mohammed Khadda used his voice, and his art as a tool for expressing his political viewpoints, and making sure his political messages reached as many people as possible.

Mohammed Khadda participated to the art movement Aouchem, which was initiated in 1967, where artists would design Amazigh art, inspired by their emblematic, traditional tattoos that the Amazigh community wears.

In 1947, Mohammed Khadda met Abdallah Benanteur, an artist born in Mostaganem a year after Mohammed Khadda was born.

Mohammed Khadda continued to expand on his painting techniques by painting scenes of meetings in bookstores and flea markets.

In 1953, like many other artists from Africa, Mohammed Khadda traveled to Paris, France to continue his education.

Mohammed Khadda spent a decade in Europe before returning to Algeria.

Mohammed Khadda established the Sign Painters and School of the Sign in 1967.

Mohammed Khadda illustrated books for Rachid Boudjedra, Tahar Djaout, and others.