MOHAMED MELEHI (1936, ASILAH - 2020, BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT)
MOHAMED MELEHI (1936, ASILAH - 2020, BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT)
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MOHAMED MELEHI (1936, ASILAH - 2020, BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT)

Untitled

Details
MOHAMED MELEHI (1936, ASILAH - 2020, BOULOGNE-BILLANCOURT)
Untitled
signed in Arabic; signed and dated 'MELEHI 82' (on the reverse)
cellulose paint on wood
58 7⁄8 x 78 ½in. (149.5 x 119.5cm.)
Executed in 1982
Provenance
Mr Stelio Scamanga, France (acquired directly from the artist).
Galerie Claude Lemand, Paris.
Dr Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Collection, Beirut (acquired from the above in 2013).
Thence by descent to the present owner.

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Marie-Claire Thijsen
Marie-Claire Thijsen Head of Sale, Associate Specialist

Lot Essay

Executed in 1982, Untitled is a striking work from Mohamed Melehi's iconic geometric 'wave' oeuvre. Informed by the Moroccan heritage and cosmic geometries found in Amazigh textiles together with the shift from Abstract Expressionism to Pop art and Minimalism in the 1960s, the work juxtaposes tradition and transformation through the use of his distinctive curves and a vibrant purple, yellow, and red colour palette rendered using industrial paint. At the heart of Melehi’s artworks are his philosophical convictions. He stated ‘Art is not a precious object – that it is an idea, a philosophy... I look at it [the 1960s and 80s] as the golden age in the outcome of our struggle for independence... I want to give you a sense of what was going on at the time, with a general will for change and not just [a will] to paint beautiful paintings’. (M. Gronlund, ‘Shapes Of Things: Remembering Mohamed Melehi', 18 October 2021).

Born in Morocco in 1936, Melehi’s early interest in art was nurtured while growing up in a socially diverse environment in the port town of Asilah. After completing his primary studies in Tetouan, he sought further education, first in Seville and Madrid from 1955 and then in Rome from 1957. It was in Rome that he achieved the distinction of being the first African-Arab artist to exhibit at the pioneering gallery Topazia Alliata, noted for its display of avant-garde art. Melehi's explorations of transnational abstraction led to his appointment as an assistant professor at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1962. He subsequently relocated to New York to study on a Rockefeller scholarship at Columbia University and gained recognition from being part of the 1963 Hard Edge and Geometric Painting and Sculpture group show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, featuring alongside Piet Mondrian. In 1964, Melehi returned to Morocco at the invitation of Farid Belkahia, who appointed him a professor at The Casablanca Art School. There, he played a pivotal role in establishing a pioneering postcolonial arts platform alongside fellow artists Mohamed Ataallah, Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabâa, Mostafa Hafid, and Mohamed Hamidi, which came to fruition with the groundbreaking Présence Plastique street exhibition in 1969. The Casablanca Art School became a hub for experimentation, lively political discourse, and enthusiastic exchange, marking a significant departure in the evolution of Moroccan Modernism from the conventional European perspective on the country's art scene. His works are part of important international institutions worldwide such as Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2017, he was honoured with the retrospective exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha and most recently he has been featured in the show The Casablanca Art School at Tate St Ives in 2023-2024.

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