Casablanca Art School Postcolonial Avant-Garde at Schirn Kunsthalle

The Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt presents "Casablanca Art School. A Postcolonial Avant–Garde 1962–1987," the first institutional exhibition comprehensively documenting the influential movement with 100 works across eight sections. Founded in 1962 when Farid Belkahia returned to Casablanca to direct the city's School of Fine Arts, the group—including Mohamed Melehi and Mohamed Chabâa—sought to decolonize art by integrating local Afro-Amazigh heritage with modernist abstraction, inspired by the Bauhaus. They rejected easel painting for graphic design, neo-calligraphy, and decorative motifs, using materials like copper, leather, wood, and wool. Bert Flint's ethnographic research on Amazigh carpets and jewelry informed their wave patterns and geometric symbols. The school organized open-air festivals, exhibitions, and debates across Casablanca, and exhibited internationally in the 1960s-70s, supporting pan-Arabism and Palestinian causes. Their political engagement led to obscurity as those ideals waned. The exhibition runs until October 13, 2024.