Mohammed Racim: Google Doodle to honor Algerian educator & painter on his 125th birthday

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers. Proceed with caution if you have not watched the show/movie.

Happy birthday! Mohammed Racim

Today’s Doodle celebrates the 125th birthday of Algerian educator and painter Mohammed Racim. Often considered among the first painters in Algeria, Racim fused traditional Persian and Mughal painting techniques to reinvigorate Maghrebi cultural customs and redefine the global perspective of the Arab world through art.

On this day in 1896, Mohammed Racim was born into a family of distinguished artisans in Algiers, Algeria, then a French colony. He began working in a colonial drawing office at 14, where he copied the designs of carpets, Arab embroideries, copper ornaments, and wood sculptures.

Each of these disciplines influenced his craft, but it was Racim’s introduction to Persian miniatures, an ancient form of literary illustration, that formed the foundation of his oeuvre.

His talent for drawing was recognised during his primary education when he was given work copying Islamic decorative motifs for the state workshops set up by Governor Charles Jonnart. By about 1914, Racim discovered the works of the Persian, Mughal, and Andalusian miniatures made for the private use of the Muslim nobility.

 He evolved a personal hybrid form of expression through the miniature whereby he would use traditional materials and classical arabesque and calligraphic styles, yet use them to frame figurative inserts that had some modern features.

As a teenager, Racim befriended Nasreddine Dinet, who advised him on painting the figure and helped him obtain commissions to decorate books with calligraphic plates. Racim's main patrons were businessmen and government officials who valued his re-creation of the milieu of old Algeris.

In 1914, he met French Orientalist painter Nasreddine Dinet, who later commissioned Racim to embellish one of his books with original illustrations. Throughout the decades that followed, Racim continued to express his talent through vibrant miniatures.

“The Rais,” his 1931 painting of a 17th-century Algerian captain that measures less than one square foot, serves as just one example of Racim’s art that helped revitalize Algerian pride, which was instrumental in the North African country’s independence movement.

Racim’s contributions, including pioneering the Algerian School of Miniature, were recognized at the national level in 1933 when he became the first Algerian recipient of the Grand Artistic Prize of Algeria. Today, much of Racim’s collection is displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts in Algiers.

Also Read: Portugal National Day: Google Doodle to honor Luís de Camões, poet & national literary icon