From Casablanca to Khaleej: SAF show fastens Maghreb to the Gulf

Muhammad Yusuf, Features Writer

Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF) is currently presenting the exhibition Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde 1962–1987, co-organised with Tate St Ives (Feb. 24 - June 16). On display at Al Hamriyah Studios and Old Al Diwan Al Amiri, Al Hamriyah, Sharjah, it features works that transformed Morocco’s visual culture in the 1960s and 1970s. Following its show at Tate St Ives, Casablanca is the first major museum exhibition of works of the eponymous School. In the exhilaration following Moroccan independence in 1956, staff and students at the Casablanca Art School (CAS) instigated an artistic revolution. They integrated abstract art with African and Amazigh traditions, taking inspiration from the region’s rugs, jewellery, calligraphy and painted ceilings. (Berbers or the Berber peoples, also called by their contemporary self-name Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa).

Drawing on their multicultural heritage, the art makers brought art into everyday life, utilising paintings, posters, magazines, outdoor murals and street festivals to do so. The Moroccan ‘new wave’ triggered a social and urban movement, eventually contributing to artistic solidarities between Latin America, West Asia and Africa.

Casablanca explores a particular vision of modern life as seen by five influential CAS artists and teachers: Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabaa, Bert Flint, Toni (Antonella) Maraini and Mohamed Melehi. Known informally as the Casablanca Group (or Casa Group), the legendary Moroccan art collective grew to include more members later.

The first museum exhibition at SAF of their art and legacy in the region features artworks by 21 CAS artist-activists from across generations. On view are abstract paintings and urban murals as well as crafts, typography, graphics and interior design, displayed alongside rare print archives, vintage journals, photography and film.

The artworks are divided into themes. Platform 0: Beginnings presents the emergence of the ‘Casablanca Trio’, Belkahia, Chabaa and Melehi, whose works offered an alternative to state-organised exhibitions. They empowered Moroccan artists and challenged colonial norms.

Platform 1: Creating Collectively (1968) consists of collaborative works, created by pioneering students under the leadership of director Belkahia and teachers including Melehi and Chabaa, that marked a transformative new wave in Moroccan art.

Installation view of artworks at the exhibition.

Platform 2: Making Art Public (1969) depicts the story behind the street exhibition Presence Plastique, initiated by CAS artists, to protest against the state-organised Salon du Printemps (spring fair) - a colonial relic that categorised Moroccan artists as ‘naive’ painters.

Platform 3: Pan Arab Solidarity (1974–1979) features artworks such as the official poster design for the International Art Exhibition for Palestine in Beirut in 1978, demonstrating collective resistance as well as fostering artistic and political solidarity across independent Arab nations.

Platform 4: Open Air Museum (1978–ongoing) illustrates the transformation of northern Morocco into an open-air museum with outdoor exhibitions, murals and live performances, as envisioned by the Cultural Moussem of Asilah festival founders Melehi and Mohamed Benaissa in 1978. Continuing to democratise art as part of CAS legacy, the annual event invites international artists to bring contemporary arts to the community.

The exhibition also unveils three themes, namely, Pattern 1: Afro-Amazigh Heritage, which showcases the art school’s collaborative approach under the influence of tutor Bert Flint that led to the revival of rural rugs and jewellery as teaching tools;

Pattern 2: Design for Everyday which presents the integration of art and craft and architecture by the artist students in collaboration with architectural studio Faraoui and de Mazieres where public art was hosted which transformed neglected spaces and districts; and Pattern 3: Graphic Design which underscores how the art school leveraged graphic design as an accessible form of painting for the public, deloconising and democratising Moroccan arts from 1966 to 1972.

The artworks included in the exhibition are by Carla Accardi, Malika Agueznay, Hamid Alaoui, Mohamed Ataallah, Herbert Bayer, Belkahia, Chabaa, Saad Ben Cheffaj, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Andre Elbaz, Abdellah El Hariri, Abdelkrim Ghattas, Mustapha Hafid, Anna Draus-Hafid, Mohamed Hamidi, Mohammed Kacimi, Miloud Labied, Mohamed Melehi, Houssein Miloudi, Abderrahman Rahoule and Chaibia Tallal.

Organised by SAF and Tate St Ives in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the exhibition is 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 exhibition is also part 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. SAF is an advocate and producer of contemporary art whose initiatives include the Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; experimental commissions and travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications. 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. It 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 Montazami and de Colnet, Zaman Books & Curating explores the counter-histories of visual modernity in the Arab, African and Asian worlds through monographs, artists’ books, thematic or collective works, and more.