Google marked what would have been the 90th birthday of late Algerian painter M’hamed Issiakhem with a Google Doodle featuring the artist at the background of his painting submerged in characteristic dark colours.

Considered one of the founders of the modern Algerian painting, Issiakhem was born and spent his childhood and youth in Algeria before moving to France where he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris.

Upon his return to Algeria in early 1960s, he became the cartoonist of the daily Alger Republicain and later on the director at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Oran.

The early 2000s short documentary about Issiakhem describes the artist and his work as follows: “His painting, deformation of forms and explosion of colours, is a poem with murdered aesthetics. His works are closer to pain and infinite suffering than to soothing harmony.”

The M’hamed Issiakhem Google Doodle is regional and can be viewed in North Africa and the Middle East.

Ahram Online