Le Violon Bleu Gallery

07/04/2026

BAYA • We are pleased to announce Baya’s upcoming exhibition at Tate Modern from June 10 to October 17, 2027.

Tate Modern presents the UK’s first ever solo exhibition of the work of Algerian artist Baya (Mahieddine). Featuring more than 100 of her vivid gouache watercolours, alongside unique ceramic sculptures, this show traces Baya’s groundbreaking impact across cultural landscapes in North Africa and Europe during the 20th century.

Forging an artistic and cultural identity in newly independent Algeria, Baya’s geometric patterns and bold colours were rooted in the creative and natural surroundings of her homeland, as well as its storytelling and musical traditions. Throughout her life, she defied attempts to categorise her work in terms like ‘surrealist’ or ‘naive’, instead claiming her distinctly modernist approach as simply ‘Baya-ism’.

Baya’s work has been influential on generations of international artists and thinkers, including figures such as Pablo Picasso and André Breton. This exhibition shines a spotlight on her practice, showcasing her extraordinary work on its own terms. It builds on new research to explore the complexity and experimentation at the heart of this hugely significant artist’s career.

Baya is presented in the George Economou gallery. Supported by Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne. With additional support from Tate Members.

You can also find Baya’s work at our running exhibition « ARAB MASTERS » - Until April 30th.

——————
UNTITLED , 1979
Gouache on paper
19 3/4 x 39 3/8 in
50.2 x 100 cm

07/04/2026

Ne manquez pas notre exposition d'exception"ARAB MASTERS"
Jusqu'au 30 avril 2026, venez à la rencontre des pionniers qui ont réinventé le langage visuel de l'Afrique du Nord et du monde arabe.
Entre rupture et héritage, les œuvres magistrales de Belkahia, Baya, Bouabana , Sahli, Injy Efflatoun, Gmach, Omar El Nagdi, Melehi, Brahim Dhahak et Fatima Hassan se côtoient dans un dialogue inédit.

🔗Pour en savoir plus sur l'exposition: https://bit.ly/4edxO9s
------

Do not miss our exceptional exhibition, 'ARAB MASTERS'
On view until April 30, 2026, we invite you to discover the pioneers who reinvented the visual language of North Africa and the Arab world.
Navigating the space between heritage and rupture, the masterful works of Belkahia, Baya, Bouabana, Sahli, Injy Efflatoun, Gmach, Omar El Nagdi, Melehi, Brahim Dhahak, and Fatima Hassan meet in an unprecedented dialogue.

🔗To know more about the exhibition : https://bit.ly/4edxO9s

📍Le Violon Bleu Gallery - 16 rue de la gare Sidi Bou Said, Tunis, Tunisia
📞 97 660 089

29/03/2026

AMMAR FARHAT TUNISIAN , 1911-1987

UNTITLED , 1962
Oil on canvas
55h x 38w cm

A self-taught artist and eminent member of the École de Tunis, Ammar Farhat established himself as one of the most important painters of contemporary Tunisia. Born into a modest environment, he discovered painting by imitation, observing and reproducing works encountered by chance. His faces, often inspired by forms borrowed from Braque, bear the distinctive mark of the “face-profiles,” where the profile’s contour is incorporated into a face seen from the front.

He debuted at the Tunisian Salon in 1937 and exhibited there regularly until 1979, while also participating in group shows of the École de Tunis. His first solo exhibition took place in 1940 in Tunis. In 1949, he was nominated for the Young Painting Prize in Paris. His travels to Sweden (1956–1957) and participation in various salons, including La Marsa in 1981, preceded a series of significant solo exhibitions in the early 1980s, notably at the Roman Theater of Carthage.

His style, characterized by simplified drawing and clear contours, favors a Mediterranean palette of yellows, oranges, ochres, and browns. Farhat excelled at depicting his characters in the moment of action, with a tender and respectful gaze toward humble people and daily workers: porters, water carriers, bread or jar bearers. While his subjects draw heavily from traditional Tunisian life, he also explored more modern themes, such as the sensual figure of a young bather lying on the sand, or the depiction of beautiful young women in familiar gestures.

His canvases, sometimes imbued with an epic or fantastical vision, primarily convey discreet humor and deep affection for the working classes. Ammar Farhat made painting a language both simple and noble, capable of capturing the soul of a people.

More artworks from Ammar Farhat are available on our website 🔗Link in Bio.

16/03/2026

BRAHIM DAHAK TUNISIAN , 1931-2004

LES DANSEUSES, 1955
Gouache on paper
44h x 58w cm

Born in 1931 in a zaouîa in Gafsa in southern Tunisia, Brahim Dhahak was the eldest of seven children. Orphaned at 8, he enrolled in the Franco-Arabic school and later joined the technical high school in Sfax. His academic journey, where drawing always held a special place, led to expulsion due to his lack of interest in sciences. He moved to Tunis, worked as a waiter, then a headwaiter in various French families, all the while drawing and exhibiting with the Tunis School group.
Supported by the Italian Consul, he studied painting in Italy from 1958 to 1961 with a scholarship from the School of Fine Arts in Rome.
During this period, he delved into painting (under Bartoli), mosaic, ceramics, and especially engraving with master engraver Macari. Returning to Tunis in 1961, he gained recognition with exhibitions in Tunis and Switzerland. In 1966, he settled in the village of Sidi Bou Said, dedicating himself entirely to art.
Dhahak continued to exhibit in Tunisia, Switzerland, and Germany, gaining considerable renown. His paintings depicted scenes of daily life, women, Tunisian landscapes, Sidi Bou Said, and he also engraved a bestiary populated by fish, birds, horses, and camels. He created mural mosaics for the Gafsa House of Culture and the port of La Goulette. Awarded the Grand Prize of the City of Tunis in 1991, he produced significant engraving works around folio-sized woodcuts. These were produced in his Sidi Bou Said workshop, including « The Hilalian Epic » in 1976, « The Birds of the Mediterranean, » « The Camels, » and « The Fish of Tunisia. » He received the National Prize for Plastic Arts in 1994.
Brahim Dhahak embodies the image of a complete artist, nourished by the dialogue between Tunisian tradition and European know-how, whose technical rigor is combined with a profoundly Mediterranean sensibility.

🔗More artworks are available on our website, check link in bio⬆️

13/03/2026

Une Parenthèse Hors du Temps : Retour sur une Nuit d'Exception au Violon Bleu Gallery🌙

Le temps d’une nuit ramadanesque, la Violon Bleu Gallery s’est métamorphosée en un sanctuaire de lumière et de culture. Un lieu emblématique pour une escale artistique déclinée en quatre temps forts :

🔹Arab Masters : Une immersion magistrale au cœur de la peinture arabe. Cette exposition réunit l’héritage iconique de grands maîtres tels que Farid Belkahia, Abderrazak Sahli, Brahim Dhahak, Omar El Nagdi, Rafik El Kamel, Hedi Turki, Mohamed Mellihi et Sadok Gmach.

🔹« Géométrie Sacrée » par Insaf Kooli : À l’espace Atyqua, le temps semble s'être suspendu. Entre céramiques délicates et broderies fines, les créations de l'artiste ont dialogué avec des pièces de collection chargées d'histoire, offrant aux visiteurs un instant d’une poésie mystique.

🔹« Art on Paper » par The Lobster Edition : Nichée dans l'écrin de la Blue Room, cette exposition célèbre la noblesse du papier. Sérigraphies, aquarelles et dessins dévoilent le trait virtuose de figures majeures telles que Gouider Triki, Nja Mahdaoui, Hassan El Glaoui, Abderrahman Rahoul, Miloud Labied, Aly Bellagha, Farid Belkahia et Brahim Dhahak.

🔹Éscale Littéraire avec Alya Hamza : Une parenthèse placée sous le signe de la complicité pour la signature de l'ouvrage « Le jour où... chroniques d'une journaliste nostalgique ». Un moment de partage authentique, empreint de convivialité et de sourires.

L'aventure continue. Nous vous invitons à découvrir ces expositions en journée ou à prolonger la magie après la rupture du jeûne.

➡️ ARAB MASTERS - ART ON PAPER : Du 12 Mars au 30 Avril 2026
➡️ GÉOMÉTRIE SACRÉE : Du 12 Mars à la veille de l'Eid

📍Adresse: 16 Rue de la gare, Sidi Bou Said, Tunis
📞 Telephone: 97 660 089
📧 [email protected]

13/03/2026

08/03/2026

🔔New Acquisition : SOMALIA 2 - FARID BELKAHIA🔔

FARID BELKAHIA (1934 - 2014, MARRAKECH)
Somalia 2 , 1994
Natural pigments on skin and sand on panel
208 x 116 x 1.3cm

EXHIBITED

Paris, Institut du Monde Arabe, recontres africaines, 1994 (illustrated in colour, p. 24).
Nice, Musèe d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporian, Farid Belkahia, 1999-2000 (illustrated in colour, p. 47). This work later travelled to Paris, Musèe national des arts d’Afrique et d’Oceanie

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Executed in 1994, Somalia 2 exemplifies Belkahia’s distinctive artistic language, combining natural pigments on treated skin with sand on panel. The work echoes the tactile and symbolic quality of henna on flesh, its surface animated by vivid planes of red, black, and deep blue that form a composition both monumental in scale and fluid in form. Through these rich chromatic fields and organic contours, Belkahia evokes a sense of vitality and ritual, transforming elemental materials into a visual meditation on identity, memory, and the deep connection between body and land.

27/02/2026

📣New Artist in : Injy Efflatoun

Born in 1924 in Shubra, Cairo, Inji Efflatoun was an Egyptian artist and feminist raised in a wealthy francophone family. Educated at Collège du Sacré-Cœur and the Lycée Français du Caire, she later studied at Cairo University becoming its first female Arts student in 1945. A committed activist, she co-founded the League of Young Women with Latifa al-Zayyat and published bold works like Eighty Million Women with Us (1948).

Trained by Kamel El Telmissany, she was influenced by the surrealist group Art et Liberté, creating dark, symbolic works like Al-Wahesh (The Monster) (1942). In the 1950s, her style shifted to realism, portraying workers and rural life with warmth and political depth.

Imprisoned in the 1960s, she painted fellow inmates before turning to nature as a symbol of freedom. After her release, her art blossomed into vibrant countryside scenes and her luminous “white light” period (from 1974), where light embodied liberation.

Efflatoun passed away in Cairo in 1989 , leaving a legacy of art, resistance, and freedom.

More on our website - 🔗 Link in Bio
🖼️ Artwork:
EL - NIL «  THE NILE « , 1980
Oil on paper
50h x 100w cm

08/02/2026

A look back at our booth at Qatar, featuring a solo show by Farid Belkahia.

An iconic figure of Arab modern and contemporary art, Farid Belkahia is known for redefining pictorial language through his use of natural materials such as copper, leather, and pigments. His work draws deeply on Amazigh heritage, symbolism, and spirituality, while bridging tradition and modernity in a radically innovative way.

Thank you to for this feature.

02/12/2025

We are pleased to announce our participation in the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar, held from February 5–7 , 2026.
Curated by Egyptian artist under the theme “Becoming,” this first edition represents a landmark moment for the region.

Eighty-seven galleries will be featured, including leading international institutions such as Gagosian (Christo), White Cube (Georg Baselitz), Hauser & Wirth (Philip Guston), Acquavella (Basquiat), and Pace (Lynda Benglis). More than half of the participating artists come from the MENA region.

We are honoured to take part in this significant event and to contribute with our expertise to such a prestigious global platform.

17/11/2025

We're live at !
Explore our Farid Belkahia - Solo Show at Booth M17 in the Special Project Section.

📍Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi
• Preview Days: November 17-18, 2025
• Public Days: November 19-23, 25
For more details, DM us or visit our website www.leviolonbleugallery.com