Mohamed Melehi (b. 1936, Asilah, Morocco – 2020, Paris) is regarded as a major figure for postcolonial Moroccan art and within the history of transnational modernism.
In Melehi’s art, we sense the spirit of aesthetic revolution and the exhilaration of post-Independence Morocco. His creative energy and visual innovation are palpable in this unique selection of key works, dating from the 1950s to the 1980s. We trace Melehi’s artistic developments in the 1960s, from experiments with abstraction in Rome and New York, to the fullest expression of the wave, his emblematic motif, in the 1970s. We also recognise his importance in the history of transnational art; Melehi’s work resists the East/West divide that developed during the Cold War period. His wavy Third World frescoes take us on a cosmopolitan journey, drawing together the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. A painter, photographer, muralist, graphic and urban designer, art teacher, and cultural activist, Melehi challenged convention and freed painting from the gallery and studio, breaking down hierarchies and reclaiming public space for the visual arts.
Links :
Watch the film MELEHI, Shalom Gorewitz, 1984
Exhibitions :
New Waves : Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives
Alserkal Art Foundation, Dubaï, EAU
19.09 — 10.10.2020
New Waves : Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives
MACAAL, Marrakech, Maroc
20.09 — 05.01.2020
New Waves : Mohamed Melehi and the Casablanca Art School Archives
The Mosaic Rooms, Londres
12.04 — 22.06.2019
