Ali Ali-Khodja
Ali Ali-Khodja (January 13, 1923 – February 7, 2010) was an Algerian painter, miniaturist, and graphic designer, regarded as one of the senior figures of modern Algerian painting. Born in Bologhine into a Kouloughli family, he was a great-grandson of the last Dey of Algiers. After his father's death when he was four, he was raised by his maternal uncles Mohamed and Omar Racim, leading figures in the revival of Algerian miniature painting and illumination, who taught him the foundations of miniature, calligraphy, and illumination. He attended school in Saint-Eugène and El Biar from 1929 to 1937 before enrolling at the Algiers School of Fine Arts.1
Ali-Khodja first gained recognition in the early 1940s, winning the City of Algiers' Sivry Scholarship in 1942. He held his first solo exhibition in 1946 and exhibited in Scandinavia in the late 1940s. His work evolved through several distinct periods. Between 1943 and 1950 he worked almost exclusively in miniature, depicting daily life in old Algiers, before moving on to landscapes of the Algiers Sahel in the 1960s, watercolor in the early 1970s, animal subjects, and engraving. From the 1980s onward he worked primarily in abstraction, on canvas, copper, and gold; works from this period include Spatial Path and Diffraction (1984), Fusion (1986), and Sparkle (1986).23
He served as director of the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and taught decoration at the School of Fine Arts from 1961 to 1994. After independence, he was a founding member of the National Union of Visual Arts (UNAP) and exhibited at the first Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers in 1969. As a designer, he created around thirty postage stamps, including independent Algeria's first commemorative stamp (1963), as well as the coat of arms of the city of Algiers and numerous cultural and tourism posters. His honors include the Grand National Painting Prize (1970) and the National Order of Merit (1987). Known for avoiding public attention, he worked largely in seclusion at his studio in El Biar, where he died in 2010.45
References 5
- ↑ LNR Editorial Staff. Ali Ali-Khodja, un héritage familial et artistique singulier. La Nouvelle République Algérie, March 2, 2026. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Ali Ali-Khodja. Wikipedia - French. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Ali Ali-Khodja. Artnet. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Kader Bentounes. Ali Ali-Khodja : une vie à l’art. El Moudjahid, September 13, 2023. Accessed September 22, 2026.
- ↑ Hamid Bessalah. Encyclopedia of Algerian Stamps. Imprimeries Rimbaud - Hémisud, January 1, 2008. Accessed September 22, 2026.
Wikipedia entry
Ali Ali-Khodja was an Algerian painter, miniaturist, illuminator, and graphic designer. Regarded as one of the elder figures of modern Algerian painting, he trained in traditional calligraphy, illumination, and miniature before turning to landscape, watercolor, and, from the 1980s, abstraction. He taught decoration at the École des Beaux-Arts in Algiers until 1994 and designed around thirty Algerian postage stamps, including independent Algeria's first commemorative stamp, as well as the coat of arms of Algiers.
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed October 6, 2026.
