Painter · 1946–2020 · Chlef, Algeria
Abdelkader
Beldjouhri
Sixty years of painting across nine seasons — from a childhood in charcoal to oils laid with the knife.
Enter the works
The art that expresses life is as mysterious as life itself. Like life, it escapes every formula.
— Élie Faure
The scattered beginnings
Les débuts en vrac
Dead calm
Calme plat
A Paris interlude
Parenthèse à Paris
Winter chrysalises
Chrysalides hivernales
Spring works
Printanières
Digital — The other summer shore
Infographie — L'autre rive estivale
Seventh period
Septième période
Eighth period
Huitième période
Recent works
Travaux récents
The artist
Biography
Born on 28 May 1946 in Chlef, Abdelkader Beldjouhri was self-taught. Drawing and painting accompanied him from childhood — the faithful companions of a life given over to the image.
Eclectic by nature, he refused to settle: from charcoal to watercolour, from oil to the palette knife, he worked in whatever genre suited the mood of the moment. His body of work unfolds across nine periods, from a Chlef childhood to the canvases of maturity — nearly four hundred paintings.
Beyond the easel, he created the animated frescoes of the Algériades, of the 1975 Mediterranean Games and of the twentieth anniversary of Independence: art carried to the scale of the stadium and the crowd.
He died on 23 May 2020 in Algiers Centre.
Exhibitions & activities
- 1964
- Solo exhibition in Chlef.
- 1966
- Solo exhibition in Sétif and Bougie.
- 1967
- Solo exhibition in Algiers; created the first animated frescoes of the Algériades (20 August stadium), continued for nearly every later edition.
- 1975
- Animated frescoes for the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Games.
- 1976
- Group exhibition, El Biar Cultural Centre.
- 1982
- Animated frescoes for the 20th anniversary of Independence; international workshop in Paris (study of the nude in space from a live model).
- 1989
- Solo exhibition, Mouggar Hall.
- 1991
- Solo exhibition, House of Culture, Tizi Ouzou.
- 2010
- 3rd Autumn Salon, Palace of Culture (October).
- 2011
- 1st Visual Arts Salon in Chlef (July).
Bibliographic references
- Dictionnaire des artistes algériens: 1917–2006, by Mansour Abrous.
- Algérie, arts plastiques: dictionnaire biographique, 1900–2010, by Mansour Abrous.
- Biographical notice, Chlef House of Culture (exhibition panel).
- “Des promesses” (Promises), El Moudjahid, p. 5, May 1967 — exhibition at the Nedjma gallery, signed N. M.
- El Hadef, 24 March 1984 — pictograms and animated frescoes for the Algériades.
- “Le langage du corps” (The Language of the Body), Horizon, Wednesday 7 June 1989, signed H. G.
- “Monde de femmes” (A World of Women), June 1989 — exhibition at the El-Mouggar hall, by N. Talaslimane.