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Lot Essay
Farid Belkahia, born in 1934 in Marrakech, stands among the foundational figures of modern Moroccan art. Raised in a francophone family, he showed early artistic promise, studying painting under Olek Teslar before leaving home to pursue his passion independently. In 1955, he moved to Paris to attend the École des Beaux-Arts, later joining Raymond Legueult’s atelier, where he developed a freer artistic style. His travels across the Middle East deepened his appreciation for Arab and pre-Islamic cultures, shaping his vision of art rooted in identity and heritage. After studying scenography in Prague, Belkahia returned to Morocco in 1962 to direct the École des Beaux-Arts in Casablanca. There, he transformed the institution by replacing French academic models with experimental teaching grounded in Moroccan craft traditions such as pottery, tapestry, and Islamic design. Alongside artists Mohamed Melehi, Mohammed Chabâa, and Mohamed Hamidi, he founded the Casablanca Art School, which championed a distinctly Moroccan modernism: open to global influences yet firmly anchored in local culture.
Belkahia’s oeuvre represents a turning point in the development of Moroccan modern art, uniting ancestral memory with contemporary experimentation. Rejecting academic formalism and colonial aesthetics, he reimagined artistic creation through materials and symbols drawn from Morocco’s own cultural landscape. From the 1970s onward, Belkahia turned away from conventional Western media such as canvas and oil paint, embracing natural, tactile substances like copper and ram’s skin. This deliberate choice reflected his reverence for Morocco’s pre-colonial, multicultural heritage and its diverse artistic languages. He incorporated references to Amazigh and African material culture—including Tifinagh script, the geometric rhythms of traditional carpets, and tattoo patterns. Through this synthesis of material and meaning, Belkahia forged a dialogue between art and craft, modernity and origin, affirming a distinctly Moroccan vision of contemporary art grounded in local identity and spiritual depth.
Executed in 1994, Somalia 2 exemplifies Belkahia’s distinctive artistic language, combining natural pigments on treated skin with sand on panel. The work echoes the tactile and symbolic quality of henna on flesh, its surface animated by vivid planes of red, black, and deep blue that form a composition both monumental in scale and fluid in form. Through these rich chromatic fields and organic contours, Belkahia evokes a sense of vitality and ritual, transforming elemental materials into a visual meditation on identity, memory, and the deep connection between body and land.
Belkahia’s oeuvre represents a turning point in the development of Moroccan modern art, uniting ancestral memory with contemporary experimentation. Rejecting academic formalism and colonial aesthetics, he reimagined artistic creation through materials and symbols drawn from Morocco’s own cultural landscape. From the 1970s onward, Belkahia turned away from conventional Western media such as canvas and oil paint, embracing natural, tactile substances like copper and ram’s skin. This deliberate choice reflected his reverence for Morocco’s pre-colonial, multicultural heritage and its diverse artistic languages. He incorporated references to Amazigh and African material culture—including Tifinagh script, the geometric rhythms of traditional carpets, and tattoo patterns. Through this synthesis of material and meaning, Belkahia forged a dialogue between art and craft, modernity and origin, affirming a distinctly Moroccan vision of contemporary art grounded in local identity and spiritual depth.
Executed in 1994, Somalia 2 exemplifies Belkahia’s distinctive artistic language, combining natural pigments on treated skin with sand on panel. The work echoes the tactile and symbolic quality of henna on flesh, its surface animated by vivid planes of red, black, and deep blue that form a composition both monumental in scale and fluid in form. Through these rich chromatic fields and organic contours, Belkahia evokes a sense of vitality and ritual, transforming elemental materials into a visual meditation on identity, memory, and the deep connection between body and land.