Till the 16th of June, 2024, Sharjah Art Foundation and Tate St Ives in collaboration with Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt present an exhibition The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde (1962–1987).
In the exhilaration following Moroccan independence in 1956, staff and students at the Casablanca Art School (CAS) fomented an artistic revolution. They integrated abstract art with African and Amazigh traditions, taking inspiration from the region’s rugs, jewellery, calligraphy and painted ceilings. Declaring a new art for Morocco grown from Afro-Amazigh heritage, they created a cultural uprising that spread into the future.
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, 2024.
The exhibition is 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 at Sharjah Art Foundation), and associate researchers Fatima-Zahra Lakrissa and Maud Houssais.
Drawing on multicultural heritage, CAS staff and students brought art into everyday life, utilising paintings, posters, magazines, outdoor murals, and street festivals to do so. This Moroccan new wave triggered a social and urban movement, eventually contributing to artistic solidarities between Latin America, West Asia, and Africa.
Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah, 2024.
The exhibition explores a distinct vision for modern life and features artworks by 21 CAS artists from across generations. On view are vibrant abstract paintings and urban murals as well as crafts, typography, graphics and interior design, which are displayed alongside rarely seen print archives, vintage journals, photography and film.
This show is part of a key moment in the ongoing research into the Casablanca Art School, which includes a collaborative project between KW Institute for Contemporary Art and Sharjah Art Foundation, with Goethe-Institut Marokko, ThinkArt, and Zamân Books & Curating.
To learn more about the exhibition and buy tickets, please visit its official web page.
You might be also interested in visiting Material Power: Palestinian Embroidery at Tabari Artspace.
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