Mohamed Melehi 1936-2020

Mohamed Melehi (1936–2020) was a leading figure in Arab abstract art and one of the founders of the Casablanca Art School, together with Farid Belkahia and Mohamed Chabâa, an avant-garde group that questioned cosmopolitan abstraction and art pedagogy within the context of colonial influence. His work resists the East/West divide, creating a dialogue between Moroccan traditional and popular craft while also connecting to the Hard Edge painters of the 1960s. A painter, graphic designer, teacher, muralist and cultural activist, Melehi played a pivotal role in the development of postcolonial Moroccan art and in the history of transnational modernism.

Mohamed Melehi was born in Assilah, Morocco, in 1936 and graduated from the École des Beaux-Arts, Tétouan, in 1955. He continued his studies abroad, first in Seville and Madrid, and from 1957 in Rome, where he became one of the first African-Arab artists to exhibit at the avant-garde gallery Topazia Alliata, which later introduced his work to figures such as Lawrence Alloway. He subsequently studied engraving in Paris before travelling to the United States in the early 1960s, where his engagement with transnational abstraction led to an assistant teaching position at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1962. He then moved to New York, where he attended Columbia University on a Rockefeller Foundation scholarship and was included in the 1963 exhibition Hard Edge and Geometric Painting at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. These experiences shaped the bold colour palette and geometric language that became central to his work, while reinforcing his interest in developing a modernism rooted in Moroccan visual traditions. 

From 1964 to 1969, Melehi was Professor of Painting, Sculpture and Photography at the Casablanca School of Fine Arts, where he worked alongside Belkahia and Chabâa to develop one of the most radical postcolonial art platforms in the region. In 1969 he organised the open-air exhibition in Jemaa el-Fna Square, Marrakesh, which marked a turning point in Moroccan contemporary art. He later co-founded the journal Integral (1971–1978) and, together with Mohamed Benaissa, created the Al Mouhit Cultural Association, which led to the establishment of the Asilah Cultural Moussem, an annual festival known for its mural painting programme that transformed the artist’s hometown. 

He held numerous solo exhibitions including: Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2025); National Gallery of Fine Arts, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman Jordan (2021); Alserkal Art Avenue (2021); Cromwell Place with Lawrie Shabibi, London (2020); Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech (2019); the Mosaic Rooms, London (2019); Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris (1995); and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York (1984), and participated in group exhibitions in Casablanca, Tangiers, Rabat, Marrakech, Baghdad, Algiers, Dubai, London, Paris, Rome, Zurich, New York, Chicago and Montreal. His work has also been included in recent exhibitions such as Form and Rhythm, Sotheby’s Dubai (2025), and the Casablanca Art School exhibition at Tate St Ives (2023–2024).

His work is held in major international collections including Tate, London; the British Museum, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; and the Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut.

Melehi passed away in Paris in October 2020.