Lot Essay
Mohammed Melehi is regarded as one of the most important figures of the modern Moroccan art scene. Melehi was born in the northern coastal town of Asilah in 1936, where his early interest in art was nurtured while growing up in a socially diverse environment. At the age of nineteen, Melehi left Morocco to study art, first in Seville and Madrid, and later in Rome in 1957. It was there that he achieved the distinction of being the first African-Arab artist to exhibit at pioneering gallery Topazia Alliata, noted for its display of avant-garde art. Melehi’s explorations of transnational abstraction led to his appointment as assistant professor at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1962. He eventually relocated to New York to pursue studies on a Rockefeller scholarship at Columbia University and gained recognition from partaking in the 1963 Hard Edge and Geometric Painting and Sculpture group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Upon his return to Morocco a year later, he was appointed professor at the Casablanca School of Fine Arts. 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 free experimentation, lively political discourse, and enthusiastic exchange, marking a significant departure in the evolution of Moroccan Modernism from the pre-existing dominant European perspective on the country's art scene.
As both a pedagogue and artist, Melehi called for a revival of Moroccan identity, culture, and values, laying the foundation for a new generation of artists. Informed by traditional Moroccan arts, crafts and architecture, particularly the intricate patterning of Amazigh textiles, Melehi developed them into a new visual language that was characterised by geometric shapes and and vibrant colours. The wave became his recurrent motif, not only a direct homage to his hometown, but also a clear reference to Islamic and Berber art. The wave, both abstract and representational, also carries a deeper philosophical meaning, symbolising the ebbs and flows of our existence and the cosmic forces at play in our lives.
The present lot, one of Melehi’s more recent works, was painted in 2014 and emanates the richness and saturation of colour that evidences the artist’s fascination with the dimensionality of colour. Central to the piece, the waves – painted with precision in tonal variations of yellow, orange, and red – flow in striking contrast to the earthy and cooler shades of brown, black, blue green, and burgundy below. This technique brings the waves to the forefront of the canvas, drawing the viewer’s attention to the upper part of the work. The smoothly painted geometric shapes are in contrast to the patches of textile collage along the lower horizontal edge. The overall interplay demonstrates Melehi’s ability to create a balance of symmetry and asymmetry onto his canvas, where warm and cool tonal variations, smoothly painted geometric shapes and jute textures coexist harmoniously.
Mohamed Melehi’s works are part of important international institutions worldwide including as Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2017, Melehi was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha and most recently he has been featured in The Casablanca Art School exhibition that travelled from Tate St Ives to the Sharjah Art Foundation in 2023-2024.
Upon his return to Morocco a year later, he was appointed professor at the Casablanca School of Fine Arts. 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 free experimentation, lively political discourse, and enthusiastic exchange, marking a significant departure in the evolution of Moroccan Modernism from the pre-existing dominant European perspective on the country's art scene.
As both a pedagogue and artist, Melehi called for a revival of Moroccan identity, culture, and values, laying the foundation for a new generation of artists. Informed by traditional Moroccan arts, crafts and architecture, particularly the intricate patterning of Amazigh textiles, Melehi developed them into a new visual language that was characterised by geometric shapes and and vibrant colours. The wave became his recurrent motif, not only a direct homage to his hometown, but also a clear reference to Islamic and Berber art. The wave, both abstract and representational, also carries a deeper philosophical meaning, symbolising the ebbs and flows of our existence and the cosmic forces at play in our lives.
The present lot, one of Melehi’s more recent works, was painted in 2014 and emanates the richness and saturation of colour that evidences the artist’s fascination with the dimensionality of colour. Central to the piece, the waves – painted with precision in tonal variations of yellow, orange, and red – flow in striking contrast to the earthy and cooler shades of brown, black, blue green, and burgundy below. This technique brings the waves to the forefront of the canvas, drawing the viewer’s attention to the upper part of the work. The smoothly painted geometric shapes are in contrast to the patches of textile collage along the lower horizontal edge. The overall interplay demonstrates Melehi’s ability to create a balance of symmetry and asymmetry onto his canvas, where warm and cool tonal variations, smoothly painted geometric shapes and jute textures coexist harmoniously.
Mohamed Melehi’s works are part of important international institutions worldwide including as Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 2017, Melehi was honoured with a retrospective exhibition at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha and most recently he has been featured in The Casablanca Art School exhibition that travelled from Tate St Ives to the Sharjah Art Foundation in 2023-2024.