Imed Ben Tahar has been painting since early childhood. Growing up in the Tunisian Souk Lahad, a small oasis town on the edge of the Sahara, the young artist was met with moderate enthusiasm from those around
him. “Art, especially fine art, was not particularly well regarded,” he says in retrospect. But that never stopped him from continuing to paint and from learning different techniques over time.
His childlike fascination was fueled by curiosity: “Painting was a mystery to me, a game with infinite, changeable possibilities. And the path of discovering the world through painting has never let me go.”
In Souk Lahad, the young man lacked artistic openness. He felt restricted and first attended a tourism institute in Tunis. He then led tours through the desert in southern Tunisia and this is how he came to Tübingen
in 1995. Even here, in a foreign country, painting remained a part of his life for a long time until he finally devoted himself to it entirely.
Silence – vastness – light – space. These are the themes that Imed brought with him from the edge of the desert to the north and kept for himself. The influence of the culture in which the artist grew up flows into his pictures, which convey a special attitude to life. Foreign and familiar at the same time. When you look at them, you feel calm. The wrinkled, smooth, pasty or velvety picture surface nevertheless offers the viewer many incentives to slowly feel the picture space, to linger and in the process discover a little about themselves.
