Just a few years after Morocco gained independence in 1956, Casablanca became a vibrant center of cultural renewal. The Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt presents the unique and influential work of the Casablanca Art School in a first major, long-overdue exhibition. The main representatives of this innovative school—Farid Belkahia (1934–2014), Mohammed Chabâa (1935–2013), Bert Flint (1931–2022), Toni Maraini (b. 1941), and Mohamed Melehi (1936–2020), together with students, teachers, and associated artists—quickly became the central driving force for the development of postcolonial modern art in the region. In realizing their aims, they combined an openness to local history with the new social reality. Engaging with the ideas of the Bauhaus movement, they reevaluated the connection between the arts, crafts, design, and architecture in the local context, fusing Western metropolitan arts with elements of the vernacular heritage that had been undermined during the colonial era. The Schirn will present some 100 works by 22 artists, including dynamic abstract paintings and urban murals, crafts, graphic design, interior design, and typography. Rarely seen archive material, such as film footage, vintage journals, photographs, and prints, complements these displays, revealing a transnational Moroccan art scene.
The exhibition Casablanca Art School: A Postcolonial Avant-Garde 1962–1987 is supported by Stadt Frankfurt and Hessische Kulturstiftung, with additional support from Fraport AG. Sebastian Baden, director of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, comments: “This is the first institutional exhibition to comprehensively present the Casablanca Art School’s influential legacy. After Morocco’s independence, the school’s teachers and students created a special space and reimagined Moroccan art and arts education. Their collective mission aspired to decolonize and liberate arts and culture, situating their artwork in everyday life and creating paintings, posters, magazines, open-air festivals, and outdoor murals. It is time for a long-overdue appreciation of this international artistic movement. This show expands the previous Western interpretation of the development of modern, abstract painting and provides a significant new international perspective that allows us to make more precise distinctions in the canon of art history.”
According to the exhibition’s curators, Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet (Zamân Books & Curating), “‘Casablanca Art School’ explores a distinctive vision for modern life driven by five influential teachers at the school: Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabâa, Bert Flint, Toni Maraini, and Mohamed Melehi. Known informally as the ‘Casablanca Group’, this legendary collective of artists developed into an international network that spanned generations. This Moroccan ‘new wave’ proclaimed a new art for Morocco that grew out of Afro-Amazigh heritage and sparked an urban, social, and cultural movement that continued into the future.”
Press release from the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Image: Mohamed Melehi. Untitled. 1969. © Mohamed Melehi Estate. Image courtesy of Private Collection, Marrakech / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
