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The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987). Installation view: Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 2024. Photo: Norbert Miguletz. © Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
Following its presentation at Tate St Ives from May 2023 to January 2024 and Sharjah Art Foundation from February to June 2024, The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987) is on view at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt until 13 October 2024. Divided chronologically and thematically into eight sections, the exhibition reveals how Casablanca Art School (CAS) artists integrated abstract art with African and Amazigh traditions to formulate a new vision of Morocco’s visual culture and heritage.
After Morocco gained independence from France in 1955, the main representatives of the 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 in the development of postcolonial modern art in the region. In realising their aims, they combined an openness to local history with the new social and political reality.
Engaging with the ideas of the Bauhaus movement, CAS artists reevaluated the connections between arts, crafts, design and architecture in the local context, fusing metropolitan arts with elements of the vernacular heritage that had been undermined during the colonial era. On view at the Schirn are over 100 works by 22 CAS artists, including dynamic abstract paintings, urban murals, crafts, graphic design, interior design and typography. Rarely seen archival materials, such as film footage, vintage journals, photographs and prints, complement these displays, revealing a transnational Moroccan art scene.
Three films from the series School of Walking (2023) by the artist duo Bik Van der Pol (Liesbeth Bik and Jos Van der Pol) can be seen in the Schirn’s publicly accessible rotunda. Through conversations with contemporary artists and cultural producers, these films portray Casablanca as a modern city and creative centre, a place where artists from the 1960s and 1970s were able to develop their dreams of a shared future. The protagonists in the films share their different experiences of the city and its history. Both School of Walking and the overall exhibition are part of a key moment of international research into the Casablanca Art School, initiated in 2020 by the KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Sharjah Art Foundation in partnership with Goethe-Institut Marokko, ThinkArt and Zamân Books & Curating.
The artworks included in the exhibition are by the following artists: Carla Accardi, Malika Agueznay, Hamid Alaoui, Mohamed Ataallah, Herbert Bayer, Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabâa, Saâd Ben Cheffaj, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Anna Draus-Hafid, André Elbaz, Abdellah El Hariri, Abdelkrim Ghattas, Mustapha Hafid, Mohamed Hamidi, Mohammed Kacimi, Miloud Labied, Mohamed Melehi, Houssein Miloudi, Abderrahman Rahoule and Chaïbia Tallal.
The exhibition was originally co-organised by Sharjah Art Foundation and Tate St Ives in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. The presentation at Sharjah Art Foundation was curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zamân Books & Curating, with Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation; May Alqaydi, Assistant Curator, Sharjah Art Foundation; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais. The iteration at Tate St Ives was curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zamân Books & Curating, with Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St Ives; Giles Jackson, Assistant Curator, Tate St Ives; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais.
At the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, the exhibition was curated by Morad Montazami and Madeleine de Colnet for Zamân Books & Curating, in cooperation with Esther Schlicht, Exhibition Director, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Luise Leyer, Curatorial Consultant to the Management, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais.
Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst and producer of contemporary art within the Emirate of Sharjah and the surrounding region, in dialogue with the international arts community. The foundation advances an experimental and wide-ranging programmatic model that supports the production and presentation of contemporary art, preserves and celebrates the distinct culture of the region and encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art. The foundation’s core initiatives include the long-running Sharjah Biennial, featuring contemporary artists from around the world; the annual March Meeting, a convening of international arts professionals and artists; grants and residencies for artists, curators and cultural producers; ambitious and experimental commissions; and a range of travelling exhibitions and scholarly publications.
Established in 2009 to expand programmes beyond the Sharjah Biennial, which launched in 1993, the foundation is a critical resource for artists and cultural organisations in the Gulf and a conduit for local, regional and international developments in contemporary art. The foundation’s deep commitment to developing and sustaining the cultural life and heritage of Sharjah is reflected through year-round exhibitions, performances, screenings and educational programmes in the city of Sharjah and across the Emirate, often hosted in historic buildings that have been repurposed as cultural and community centres. A growing collection reflects the foundation’s support of contemporary artists in the realisation of new work and its recognition of the contributions made by pioneering modern artists from the region and around the world.
Sharjah Art Foundation is a legally independent public body established by Emiri Decree and supported by government funding, grants from national and international nonprofits and cultural organisations, corporate sponsors and individual patrons. Hoor Al Qasimi serves as the Foundation’s President and Director. All exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.
Opened in 1993 and expanded in 2017, Tate St Ives presents modern and contemporary art from the Tate collection alongside temporary exhibitions, new commissions, learning and research programmes. Tate St Ives manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden, and is the only Tate gallery to have a dedicated Artist Residency programme. Tate St Ives was awarded Art Fund Museum of the Year 2018, the UK’s largest and most prestigious museum award.
Directed by Morad Montazami (b. 1981, Boulogne-Billancourt, France) and Madeleine de Colnet (b. 1979, Versailles), Zamân Books & Curating explores the counter-histories of visual modernity in the Arab, African and Asian worlds. The publishing and curatorial platform's main mission is to disseminate new cosmopolitan knowledge about art and images through monographs, artists' books, thematic or collective works, and more. Recent exhibitions include Monaco-Alexandrie. Le Grand détour. Villes-mondes etsurréalisme cosmopolite, New National Museum of Monaco (2021–2022); Mohamed Melehi et les archives de l'École deCasa, MACAAL, Marakech (2019–2020); and Bagdad Mon Amour, Institut des cultures d'Islam, Paris (2018).
Sharjah is the third largest of the seven United Arab Emirates, and the only one bridging the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Reflecting the deep commitment to the arts, architectural preservation and cultural education embraced by its ruler, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, Sharjah is home to more than 20 museums and has long been known as the cultural hub of the United Arab Emirates. It was named UNESCO's Arab Capital of Culture in 1998 and the UNESCO World Book Capital in 2019.
Alyazeyah Al Marri
alyazeyah@sharjahart.org
+971 (0)6 5444113