Mohammed Melehi (; 12 November 1936 – 28 October 2020) was a Moroccan painter associated with the

Casablanca school The School of Fine Arts of Casablanca (, ) is a fine arts school established in 1919 in Casablanca, Morocco. It was the origin of the nativist modernist Casablanca School art movement led by faculty members Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, and Mo ...

, a modernist art movement active in the 1960s in Morocco.

Early life

Melehi was born

Asilah Asilah (; ar, أزيلا or أصيلة; pt, Arzila; es, Arcila) is a fortified town on the northwest tip of the Atlantic coast of Morocco, about south of Tangier. Its ramparts and gateworks remain fully intact. History The town's history da ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. He studied at the School of Fine Arts of Tetuan (1953 - 1955), then at the ''

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría (''Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Saint Isabel of Hungary'') is located in the Casa de los Pinelo, Casa-Palacio de los Pinelo in central Seville, Spain. It is divided into six sections: ...

'' in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

(1955), the ''

Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando The Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (RABASF; ), located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, currently functions as a museum and gallery. A public law corporation, it is integrated together with other Spanish royal acad ...

'' (1956),

Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma The Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma is a public tertiary academy of art in Rome, Italy. It was founded in the sixteenth century, but the present institution dates from the time of the unification of Italy and the capture of Rome by the Kingdom ...

(1960), and the

Académie des Beaux-Arts An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...

(1957-1960). He then studied at the ''

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Science ...

'' in Paris. He then moved to Minneapolis hoping to study architecture, but started teaching painting at the

Minneapolis School of Art The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) is a private college specializing in the visual arts and located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. MCAD currently enrolls approximately 800 students. MCAD is one of just a few major art schools to offer ...

instead. He then received a

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

fellowship and attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in New York (1962-1964).

Career

Melehi became a professor at the

School of Fine Arts of Casablanca The School of Fine Arts of Casablanca (, ) is a fine arts school established in 1919 in Casablanca, Morocco. It was the origin of the nativist modernist Casablanca School art movement led by faculty members Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, and Moha ...

, teaching painting, sculpture, and photography (1964 - 1969). At the time, the school was directed by Farid Belkahia, with whom Melehi would form the

movement. He died in Paris.

In 1969, Melehi and his colleagues of the Casablanca school, including Farid Belkahia and

Mohamed Chabâa Mohamed Chabâa (; 1935–2013) was a Moroccan visual artist. He was a member of the Casablanca School and a leader of contemporary art and modernism in the Global South. His multidisciplinary approach to art became emblematic of the cultural a ...

, organized an , or protest exhibition, entitled . The artists displayed their works in

Jemaa el-Fnaa Jemaa el-Fnaa ( ar, ساحة جامع الفناء ''Sāḥat Jāmiʾ al-Fanāʾ'', also Jemaa el-Fna, Djema el-Fna or Djemaa el-Fnaa) is a square and market place in Marrakesh's medina quarter (old city). It remains the main square of Marrakesh, u ...

in the

Marrakesh Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...

medina, snubbing an official Moroccan art salon of happening at the same time. This exhibition is regarded as the founding moment of

modernism Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

in Morocco. "We took a position against the government," Melehi said in an interview with

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, "Our works were in Jemaa el-Fnaa square for a week, exposed to the sun and wind. It was an ideological message about what art could be."

Death

Melehi died at the Ambroise Paré Hospital in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the Parisian area, located from its Kilometre zero, centre. It is a Subprefectures in ...

near Paris at the age of 84 a few days after being infected with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic in France The COVID-19 pandemic in France has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was confirmed to have reached France on 24 January 2020, when the first COVID-19 case in both Europe and France was identified in Bordeaux. Th ...

References

1936 births 2020 deaths Moroccan male artists Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in France Columbia University alumni 20th-century Moroccan painters Moroccan male painters {{Morocco-bio-stub