This presentation deals with the birth of a national art in Tunisia after the independence of the country in 1956, and its political use by the first President of the Republic, Habib Bourguiba. This presentation focuses on a fundamental and yet overlooked period in the art history of the Maghreb, during the phase of formation of one of the most important schools of painting of the Arab World, the School of Tunis. Specifically, it investigates the understanding of art and nation-building in modern Tunisia by bringing to light the often-ignored relationship between Tunisian artists and political power, including the way artists contributed to Bourguiba’s growing cult of personality after the Independence of the country. This presentation examines how Tunisian artists enriched the myth of the az-Zaïm (the Leader Bourguiba), whose image has come to represent, for many, the modern, independent nation state of Tunisia. This paper will attempt to define the primary representations employed by artists in their depictions of Bourguiba and how the construction of new modernist government buildings created opportunities for artists and helped to develop a new relationship between art and power. Several members of the School of Tunis were hired to produce art to fill the new halls of power, working directly for az-Zaïm and contributing to his political propaganda. Creating artworks for administrative buildings and presidential palaces gave artists the chance to shape the new nation’s urban space, create works on a monumental scale, and ultimately to be the most important national artists of their time.