Lot 91: RACHID KORAÏCHI (ALGERIAN, B. 1947) Gardien de l’arrière saison (i) signed

RACHID KORAÏCHI (ALGERIAN, B. 1947) Gardien de l’arrière saison (i) signed and dated in Arabic, signed, titled, numbered and dated ‘111/150 Rachid Koraichi 1995 Gardien de l’arrière saison’ (along the margin) (ii) incised with the artist’s signature in Arabic, number and date ‘Rachid Koraichi 2/8 2012’ and with the Fonderie Deroyaume foundry mark, (on the base) (i) lithography (ii) bronze with green and gold patina (i) 35 7/8 x 30¿in. (91 x 76.4cm.) (ii) 55 1/2 x 22 7/8 x 13in. (141 x 58 x 33cm.) (i) Executed in 1995, this work is number one hundred and eleven from an edition of one hundred and ffty (ii) Conceived in 1995 and cast in 2012, this work is number two from an edition of eight

EXHIBITED: (ii) Dubai, Elmarsa Gallery, Il n’est d’autres souverains que ceux qui me regardent, 2015. Encompassing a sense of intriguing interpretation of modernity and universality, Algerian artist Rachid Koraïchi works with efortless facility in several contrasting mediums, producing pieces that belong frmly within the Suf tradition as a descendent of an old Suf family himself.Characteristic of North African artistic practice, Berber symbols, talismanic squares and Islamic motifs are incorporated into mainstream art whilst drawing west and North African indigenous icons and beliefs. In a charming use and application of Arabic calligraphy combined with symbols of ancient cultures, Koraïchi’s work remains a refection of a continued fascination with signs and symbols of all kinds, both real and imaginary that are an intrinsic base for the works in his oeuvre. Christie’s is proud to be ofering a sculptural work entitled Gardien de l’arriere saison, alongside a lithograph from the same series that captures Koraïchi’s composition of symbols, glyphs and ciphers drawn from a wide variety of other languages and cultures as well as his own Arab and North African identity. Whether the source is numerological perceptions of ancient cultures or his inventive Chinese ideograms that appear to share similar forms, Koraïchi’s eclectic work integrates these crossing systems of signs into an organised and fascinating description of the diverse world that surrounds us.Although an individual and highly esoteric symbol, Koraïchi’s guardian, holding with pride a spear that signifes the consequent protection that is aforded the very talismans the artist references in his practice, becomes emblematic of peace and simultaneous revolution, of peace and of loss, of magic and spirit and of Arabia and the Orient. By freeing the letter form that he uses to make up his guardian’s fgure from any sort of decipherable meaning, Koraïchi thus transforms his symbol into a universal pictogram understood and appreciated by all.

PROVENANCE: Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner.