The Casablanca Art School

After Morocco gained independence in 1956, a bold new visual culture began to emerge, forged by the experimental teachings of the Casablanca Art School. Artist-professors such as Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Chabâa and Mohamed Melehi encouraged students to look beyond Western traditions, drawing instead on traditional Berber techniques and other local cultures. This exhibition at Tate St Ives (27 May–14 January 2024) brings together a wide range of works by 22 artists, including paintings, murals, ceramics and graphic, as well as rarely-seen archival materials. Highlights include early works by Belkahia and Chabâa while later mixed-media pieces such as Mustapha Hafid’s Je suis à toi (‘I belong to you’) (1975) reveal how the school branched out from painting into interdisciplinary approaches. Find out more on Tate’s website.

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Composition (1968), Malika Agueznay. Courtesy Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah

Cuba Si (1961), Farid Belkahia. Image: © Fondation Farid Belkahia

Je suis à toi (1975), Mustapha Hafid. Image: © collection of the artist

Untitled (detail; 1977) Mohammed Chabâa. Tate Collection. Photo: Fouad Mazouz