“Surely it is equally easy to find the good and the esthetic in an event as it is to find the opposite. Invariably, nothing seems to be one-sided. The Fantasia, a spectacular display of horsemanship and bravado celebrating the king’s birthday, is such an event.  Arab horsemen gallop for a short distance until they come to a predetermined line, then they all shoot their rifles in the air.  As a child,I was excited to feel the earth rumble as they reached full gallop and scared of the flared nostrils of the horses straining at that pace. The horses and the men’s colorful blankets and garments formed a strange and brilliant shape moving at an increasing speed toward the spectators. But this was primarily an ARAB event. We Jews were supposed to simply ignore it and go about the business of being Jewish. I wondered, why should I join my brothers in an obsequious march toward the dark bowels of the Mellah to study the Torah when all the excitement of their event was there for the taking?”

– Raphael Bouganim

Size: 43″ x 38″, Medium: oil on canvas