{{Short description|Kuwaiti-born British painter (1938–2025)}} {{Infobox person | name = Basil Alkazzi | native_name = باسل القاضي | native_name_lang = ar | other_names = Basil al-Kazzi | birth_name = Basil Hamed Alkazzi | birth_date = {{birth date|1938|04|23}} | birth_place = at sea near Kuwait | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|06||1938|04|23}} | death_place = Monaco | education = Central School of Art | occupation = Visual artist, philanthropist, arts benefactor | movement = Metaphysical painting | website = {{URL|https://www.BasilAlkazzi.com/}} }} '''Basil Alkazzi''' ({{Langx|ar|باسل القاضي}}; April 23, 1938 – June 2025) was a Kuwait-born British visual artist, and philanthropist of Saudi Arabian–Kuwaiti heritage. As a painter he is known for metaphysical and spiritual abstract paintings.<ref name="LincolnStar">{{Cite news |date=July 13, 2014 |title=Beautiful paintings explore the spiritual at Sheldon |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/lincoln-journal-star-beautiful-paintings/149995284/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |work=Lincoln Journal Star |pages=D6 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name="HaysJim">{{Cite news |last=Hays |first=Jim |date=1989-03-13 |title=Artist seeks to explore spiritual themes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/springfield-news-sun-artist-seeks-to-exp/149995461/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |work=Springfield News-Sun |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> He was a supporter of emerging painters through numerous awards and scholarships. Alkazzi has lived in London and New York City.<ref name="LincolnStar" />
== Biography == Basil Alkazzi was born on April 23, 1938, on a ship in the sea traveling from Kuwait to Britain.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whittet |first=George Sorley |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mystic_Dreamscapes/EVRQAAAAMAAJ |title=Mystic Dreamscapes: The Art of Basil Alkazzi |last2=Alkazzi |first2=Basil |date=1988 |publisher=Museum NECCA, New England Center for Contemporary Art |language=en}}</ref><ref name="WHYY">{{Cite web |title=Through color and biomorphic forms, artwork at Rider University evokes the spirit |url=https://whyy.org/articles/through-color-and-biomorphic-forms-artwork-at-rider-university-evokes-the-spirit/ |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=WHYY-TV PBS |language=en-US}}</ref> His father Hamed Ali Alkazzi, was a merchant and from an Arab family.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wykes-Joyce |first=Max |title=The Art of Basil Alkazzi |publisher=Drian Galleries |year=1982 |pages=5}}</ref> In early childhood, he was artistic and interested in the arts. Alkazzi attended the Central School of Art in London (now Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9j5UAAAAMAAJ |title=Art and Artists |date=1984 |publisher=Hansom Books |pages=34 |language=en}}</ref>
In the 1960s, Alkazzi worked with the human figure as a mythological and symbolic subject; and after painting for many years, the figure appeared to stretch out into the skyline or became unrecognizable forms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Alkazzi |first1=Basil |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNFKngEACAAJ |title=Basil Alkazzi: An Odyssey of Dreams : a Decade of Paintings 2003-2012 |last2=Kuspit |first2=Donald Burton |author-link2=Donald Kuspit |date=2013 |publisher=Scala |isbn=978-1-85759-876-6 |language=en}}</ref> {{Quote box | quote = “pure forms, geomorphic and biomorphic, became emblematic of spirit in action [of Alkazzi's work]— pure spirit in Kandinsky’s sense of being possessed by ‘inner necessity’...” | author = – Donald Kuspit<ref name="WHYY" /> | align = right | width = 30% }}
He had a solo exhibition in 1989 at the Springfield Art Center in Springfield, Illinois.<ref name="HaysJim" /> His solo exhibition, "An Odyessy of Dreams" (2014) was curated by Judith K. Brodsky and displayed at the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska.<ref name="LincolnStar" />
In 1986, he established the ''Basil Alkazzi Scholarship'' at the Royal College of Art in London; and a year later in 1987, established the ''Basil H. Alkazzi Award'' for young and emerging American painters.<ref name="WHYY" /> Through the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), Alkazzi established in 2010 two biennial awards.<ref name="WHYY" />
Alkazzi donated his work, and work of other artists for 10 years to the National Museum, Gdańsk, in order for them to generate fund to purchase works by young Polish artists.<ref name="Wietecha-2025">{{Cite web |last=Wietecha |first=Katarzyna |date=October 21, 2025 |title=Basil Alkazzi: artysta i filantrop – nowa wystawa w Pałacu Opatów |url=https://radiogdansk.pl/patronaty/2025/10/21/basil-alkazzi-artysta-i-filantrop-nowa-wystawa-w-palacu-opatow/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251101221118/https://radiogdansk.pl/patronaty/2025/10/21/basil-alkazzi-artysta-i-filantrop-nowa-wystawa-w-palacu-opatow/ |archive-date=November 1, 2025 |access-date=2025-11-01 |website=Radio Gdańsk |language=pl-PL}}</ref> This fund was created by Alkazzi in honor of gallerist {{Interlanguage link|Halima Nałęcz|pl|Halima Nałęcz}}, who helped him in his early career.<ref name="Wietecha-2025" /> The National Museum, Gdańsk was able to purchase 220 works.<ref name="Wietecha-2025" /> An exhibition was dedicated to Alkazzi at Abbots' Palace in Gdańsk, runs from October 2025 to March 2026.<ref name="Wietecha-2025" />
He died June 2025, in Monaco.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Aronoff |first=Amy |date=2025-10-30 |title=Remembering Dedicated NYFA Patron Basil Alkazzi |url=https://www.nyfa.org/news/remembering-dedicated-nyfa-patron-basil-alkazzi/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251101215326/https://www.nyfa.org/news/remembering-dedicated-nyfa-patron-basil-alkazzi/ |archive-date=November 1, 2025 |access-date=2025-11-01 |website=NYFA |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Collections and archives == His work is in museum collections, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Basil Alkazzi, Transmutation III |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/486710 |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> the Art Institute of Chicago;<ref>{{Cite web |date=1938 |title=Basil Alkazzi |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/113868/basil-alkazzi |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |language=en}}</ref> the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Voyage into Remembrance |url=https://www.kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu/collection/search-results/wu-1998-13-basil-alkazzi-kuwaiti-b-1938-voyage-into-remembrance-1991/search/ac-technique:drawing/sort_by/date/order/desc |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum}}</ref> the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, New York;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Artist Provides Major Gift to Fund NEU Acquisitions |url=https://www.purchase.edu/live/news/5208-artist-provides-major-gift-to-fund-neu |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=Purchase College |language=en}}</ref> and at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Basil Alkazzi |url=https://art.nelson-atkins.org/people/6404/basil-alkazzi;jsessionid=03828784907995D548AC5CADE6047ACB |access-date=2024-06-24 |website=The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art |language=en}}</ref> His artist files can be found at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Library and Archives, and the Smithsonian American Art and Portrait Gallery Library.
== See also == {{portal|Biography|Kuwait|Visual arts}} * List of Kuwaiti artists * List of British artists * Metaphysical painting
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Alkazzi, Basil}} Category:1938 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century Kuwaiti people Category:21st-century Kuwaiti people Category:English painters Category:Kuwaiti artists Category:Kuwaiti contemporary artists Category:Kuwaiti emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:British people of Saudi Arabian descent Category:British people of Kuwaiti descent Category:Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design