Farid Belkahia and the Casablanca School of Fine Arts, 1962-1974 images
Farid Belkahia -Published by Skira -Ouvrage relié -208 pages -Texts in Bilingue Français / English -Published in 2020
In 1962, the artist Farid Belkahia (1934-2014), returning from Europe where he studied in Paris and then in Prague, took over the management of the School of Fine Arts in Casablanca. He began on the occasion a seminal artistic experience and careful analysis of new paths to modernity.
Surrounded by a team that shared his vision, Farid Belkahia called on two Moroccan artists in 1964, Mohamed Melehi and Mohamed Chabâa, and two art historians, the Italian Toni Maraini and Bert Flint from the Netherlands.
These historical figures were well acquainted with modern post-war artistic practice in Europe and North America. Together, they initiated at the School of Fine Arts in Casablanca an innovative pedagogy based on the reappropriation of traditional arts and their regeneration, to bring out a modern artistic creation rooted in local culture, emancipated from academic artistic practices and open to the world.
It is through this shared educational experience that an aesthetic community known as the "Casablanca Group" developed a Postcolonial artistic modernity in Morocco.
This collective publication is produced on the initiative of the Farid Belkahia Foundation on the occasion of the presentation of the exhibition "Farid Belkahia and the School of Fine Arts of Casablanca. 1962-1974" at its Mathaf museum in Marrakech ( Morocco) in 2018-2019.
