BASIL AL KAZI

b. 1938.

With a career spanning four decades, Basil al-Kazzi is a prolific painter, his work embracing the capacities of abstraction, Islam and Sufism, and even, nature and its forces. He studied Art and Drama at the Central School of Art in London (currently known as: Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design).

He found it important to take time away from exhibitions and the pressures that come along with it, in order to focus and create more work, more freely explore the depths of his artistic abilities and techniques, and in refining it. 

In 1987, he established the Basil H. AlKazzi Foundation Awards at the Royal College of Art, London with endowments in perpetuity. From 1987 to 2000, he also presented the Basil H. AlKazzi Award for young painters in America and was based on giving the recipients a chance to withdraw, refresh and create new work without pressure.