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Lot Essay
Born in 1942 in Meknes, Morocco, Mohammed Kacimi was one of the most important artists in the Maghreb and the larger Arab region. An intellectual, a writer, a nomad and a humanist, Kacimi brought all of these angles together in his pursuit of a type of truth in his artistic production. He constantly reinvented himself and his art as he continued to come across new revelations while traversing different disciplines.
Essentially a self-taught artist from an early stage, Kacimi studied Arabic literature at the University of Fes. While he always had artistic tendencies, it was his meeting with Jilali Gharbaoui that jumpstarted his artistic career and encouraged him to travel the world, fueling his curiosity and wonder. By then Kacimi was already surrounded by intellectuals and was aware of other artists in the Arab World such as Jewad Selim, Ismail Fattah and Ahmed Cherkaoui. But during his tour of Europe from 1964 to 1968, Kacimi became exposed to Afro Basaldella, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Rouault, Hans Hartung, Maurice Estève, Henri Atlan, Georges Mathieu, Serge Poliakoff, Jean Bazaine, Bram van Velde; but also Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko, Gérard Ernest Schneider. This awareness and knowledge of both the West and the East, coupled with his beliefs about humanity and his curiosity about the world became grounds to explore abstraction as a tool of liberation and allowed him to depict the world in a manner that infused all of his believes and interests, knowledge and imagination. He did not subscribe to a particular school of thought or form, instead he sought a particular formal and aesthetic freedom that allowed him to present the truth of his world.
This composition is part of the Dalloul Collection and was created in 1974, a time where Kacimi was deeply immersed in this exploration of abstraction and the formulation of a new language. The work is emblematic of his style at that time: with bold geometric gestural lines and earthy tones, a composition that exits the boundaries of the canvas, only to appear from another edge to wrap around itself. Here, we see Kacimi’s iconic depiction of the limb that recurs in most of his paintings during this time and we meet Kacimi as a nomad. With the light earthy tones and deep red, Kacimi invites us to explore the lands that he sees and meet the mystical creatures that he knows. He fuels our curiosity to see what he saw and builds a world through his assertive brushstrokes that we wish we knew. In all of Kacimi’s work it is his humanism coupled with his intellectual curiosity, vast knowledge and imagination of the world and his dedication to the pursuit of a ‘truth’ which makes him one of the most important artists of his time.
Essentially a self-taught artist from an early stage, Kacimi studied Arabic literature at the University of Fes. While he always had artistic tendencies, it was his meeting with Jilali Gharbaoui that jumpstarted his artistic career and encouraged him to travel the world, fueling his curiosity and wonder. By then Kacimi was already surrounded by intellectuals and was aware of other artists in the Arab World such as Jewad Selim, Ismail Fattah and Ahmed Cherkaoui. But during his tour of Europe from 1964 to 1968, Kacimi became exposed to Afro Basaldella, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Rouault, Hans Hartung, Maurice Estève, Henri Atlan, Georges Mathieu, Serge Poliakoff, Jean Bazaine, Bram van Velde; but also Cy Twombly, Mark Rothko, Gérard Ernest Schneider. This awareness and knowledge of both the West and the East, coupled with his beliefs about humanity and his curiosity about the world became grounds to explore abstraction as a tool of liberation and allowed him to depict the world in a manner that infused all of his believes and interests, knowledge and imagination. He did not subscribe to a particular school of thought or form, instead he sought a particular formal and aesthetic freedom that allowed him to present the truth of his world.
This composition is part of the Dalloul Collection and was created in 1974, a time where Kacimi was deeply immersed in this exploration of abstraction and the formulation of a new language. The work is emblematic of his style at that time: with bold geometric gestural lines and earthy tones, a composition that exits the boundaries of the canvas, only to appear from another edge to wrap around itself. Here, we see Kacimi’s iconic depiction of the limb that recurs in most of his paintings during this time and we meet Kacimi as a nomad. With the light earthy tones and deep red, Kacimi invites us to explore the lands that he sees and meet the mystical creatures that he knows. He fuels our curiosity to see what he saw and builds a world through his assertive brushstrokes that we wish we knew. In all of Kacimi’s work it is his humanism coupled with his intellectual curiosity, vast knowledge and imagination of the world and his dedication to the pursuit of a ‘truth’ which makes him one of the most important artists of his time.