Zoubeir Turki is the recipient of the November 7 Prize for creativity

Tunis, November 8, 2008- At 85, Zoubeir Turki one of Tunisia’s most illustrious painters and since yesterday, the recipient of the prestigious November 7 Prize for creativity is an artist whose work is at the same time authentic, as it is universal. His works are characterized by a personal touch, which sets them aside from any other artistic corpus.

The Prize which was delivered to him on Friday, on the occasion of the 21 st anniversary of the November 7, 1987 Change by President Ben Ali “in recognition of his pioneering works in the field of plastic arts”, comes as a consecration of a life dedicated to art.

Deeply rooted in Tunisia’s reality, Zoubeir Turki is also a universal artist, whose work remains difficult to classify.

To a critic who labelled him “folklorist”, Zoubeir Turki is said to have replied “Full –colorist”.

Apart from his rich artistic production which has already earned the 2000 Maghrebi Prize of Culture, the painter is known in Tunisia for his immense fresco which still adorns the hall of the Tunisian radio house.

Perhaps, his most interesting works remain his colourful and humoristic portraits of Tunisian characters, as well as his extremely personal treatment of the Tunis Medina, an exercise that few painters succeed in, because of the seemingly deceptive banality of the place.

In his picturesque home/workshop in the southern suburbs of Tunis, Zoubeir Turki is enthusiastically preparing his “personal temple –museum” as he calls it, or perhaps a legacy for the future generations, even if his natural modesty would undoubtedly suffer from such a wording.