Mohammed Kacimi

MOHAMMED KACIMI (Meknes, Morocco, 1942-Rabat, Morocco, 2003).
Untitled.
Watercolor on paper.
Signed in the lower right margin.
Measurements: 59 x 45 cm; 73 x 53 cm (frame).

This watercolor on paper becomes a clear representative of Mohammed Kacimi's early style. In it the painter immortalizes one of his usual disturbing figures: a human silhouette leaning over what seems to be a large, massive and brutalist structure from which three wild leaves grow. A lyrical and poetic background based on abstract stains closes the composition.

A painter and writer, Mohammed Kacimi was an avid reader and an avant-garde thinker trained in Arabic literature at the University of Fez. He was self-taught in painting (he only studied painting briefly in 1963, when he was awarded a one-year scholarship to the ABC School of Art in Paris). His artistic career was boosted when the young Kacimi first saw the works of abstract painter Jilali Gharbaoui, who would later become his friend and mentor. From 1964 to 1968, Kacimi traveled through Spain, Italy, Brussels and Paris, becoming familiar with works by Nicolas de Staël, Afro Basaldella, Hans Hartung and Georges Rouault, who played a key role in the development of his style. However, he never lost contact with the Arab artists who were at that time at the forefront: Jewad Selim, Ismael Fattah, Ahmad Cherkaoui and Dia Al-Azzawi. After his peak period in the 1990s, towards the end of his life he devoted himself to public art projects, urban installations and performances, expressing his commitment to making art accessible to ordinary people. In his last stage he also dedicated himself to the theme of immigration suffered on the African continent. In the field of writing he worked for magazines and newspapers in Morocco and the Arab world and became the founding member of the magazine Alischara (Signals), as well as a member of the Association Marocaine des Arts Plastiques. He was a founding member of the Moroccan Organization of Human Rights (OMDH). He was also holder of the Grand Prix du Roi de Morocco. His work is currently held at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian (Washington DC), the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut, the Khalid Shuman Foundation: Darat Al Funun in Amman (Jordan), the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and the Contemporary Art Collection of the Kinda Foundation in Saudi Arabia.