Culture

Show on Casablanca Art School at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt by SAF

30 Aug 2024

Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt seen from above.

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Following its presentation at Tate St Ives from May 2023 to January 2024 and Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) from February to June 2024, “The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987)” is on view at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt till October 13. Divided chronologically and thematically into eight sections, the exhibition reveals how Casablanca Art School (CAS) artists integrated abstract art with African and Amazigh traditions, to formulate a new vision of Morocco’s visual culture and heritage. After Morocco gained independence from France in 1955, the main representatives of the School — Farid Belkahia (1934–2014), Mohammed Chabaa (1935–2013), Bert Flint (1931– 2022), Toni Maraini (b. 1941), and Mohamed Melehi (1936–2020) — together with students, teachers and associated artists, became the central driving force in the development of postcolonial modern art in the region.

They combined openness to local history with the new social and political reality and engaged with the ideas of the Bauhaus movement, reevaluating the connections between arts, crafts, design and architecture, fusing metropolitan arts with elements of the vernacular heritage that had been undermined during the colonial era. CAS worked toward what Belkahia described as a “democratisation” of the art curriculum. It incorporated heavy use of local traditional crafts in their art and worked with their instructors on projects. According to Salah M. Hassan, Director, The Africa Institute, Sharjah, CAS “saw itself as the artistic conscience of the time. It criticised the politics of dependency on foreign cultural missions, at that time the patrons of Moroccan modern art.”

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On view at the Schirn are over 100 works by 22 CAS artists, including abstract paintings, urban murals, crafts, graphic design, interior design and typography. Rarely seen archival materials, such as film footage, vintage journals, photographs and prints, complement the displays, revealing a transnational and thriving Moroccan art scene. Three films from the series - School of Walking (2023) by the artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol) - can be seen in the Schirn’s publicly accessible rotunda. Through conversations with contemporary artists and cultural producers, the movies portray Casablanca as a modern city and creative centre, a place where artists from the 1960s and 1970s were able to develop their dreams of a shared future. The protagonists in the films share their different experiences of the city and its history. Both “School of Walking” and the exhibition are part of a key moment of international research into CAS, initiated in 2020 by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and SAF, in partnership with Goethe-Institut Marokko, ThinkArt and Zaman Books & Curating.

Tate St Ives, exterior view.

The artworks included in the exhibition are by Carla Accardi, Malika Agueznay, Hamid Alaoui, Mohamed Ataallah, Herbert Bayer, Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabaa, Saâd Ben Cheffaj, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Anna Draus-Hafid, Andre Elbaz, Abdellah El Hariri, Abdelkrim Ghattas, Mustapha Hafid, Mohamed Hamidi, Mohammed Kacimi, Miloud Labied, Mohamed Melehi, Houssein Miloudi, Abderrahman Rahoule and Chaïbia Tallal. The show was originally co-organised by SAF and Tate St Ives, in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. The SAF presentation was curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zaman Books & Curating, with Hoor Al Qasimi, SAF Director; May Alqaydi, SAF Assistant Curator; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais.

The Tate St Ives show was curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zaman Books & Curating, with Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives; Giles Jackson, Assistant Curator, Tate St Ives; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais. At Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the exhibition is curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zaman Books & Curating, in cooperation with Esther Schlicht, Exhibition Director, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Luise Leyer, Curatorial Consultant to the Management, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais.

The Schirn Kunsthalle is a Kunsthalle (a facility that mounts temporary art exhibitions, similar to an art gallery) in Frankfurt, Germany. It exhibits both modern and contemporary art. Historically, the German term “Schirn” denotes an open-air stall for the sale of goods, and such stalls were located here until the 19th century. The area was destroyed in 1944 during the Second World War and was not redeveloped until the building of the Kunsthalle. As an exhibition venue, the Schirn enjoys national and international renown, which it has attained through independent productions, publications, and exhibition collaborations with global museums.

Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives presents modern and contemporary art from the Tate collection alongside temporary exhibitions, new commissions, learning and research programmes. Tate St Ives manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s largest and most prestigious museum award. Directed by Morad Montazami (b. 1981, Boulogne-Billancourt, France) and Madeleine de Colnet (b. 1979, Versailles), Zaman Books & Curating explores the counter-histories of visual modernity in the Arab, African and Asian worlds. The publishing and curatorial platform’s main mission is to disseminate new cosmopolitan knowledge on art and images through monographs, artists’ books, thematic or collective works, plus more. Recent exhibitions include Monaco-Alexandrie, Le Grand detour: Villes-mondes et surrealisme cosmopolite, New National Museum of Monaco (2021–2022); Mohamed Melehi et les archives de l’Ecole deCasa, MACAAL, Marakech (2019–2020); and Bagdad Mon Amour, Institut des cultures d’Islam, Paris (2018).