Mohammed Njeimi (Rabat)

The exhibition “Garden of Eden”, currently taking place in Rabat, allows you to see the works of seven great pioneers of Moroccan education, who enriched art with pioneering works whose popularity surpassed Morocco to reach the world. Idris, Fatima al-Faruji, Hassan al-Kalawi, Bujaa Lakhdari, Abbas Salad and Ahmed al-Wadhiri.
In the brochure for this retrospective exhibition, Moroccan thinker Abdel Jalil al-Hajar believes that he “invites visitors to go from three monotheistic religions to the depths of the human soul, on a journey that reconsiders the duality of the human condition. Torn between transcendence and heavenly beauty and sunk in the pain of loss. »!
In turn, the director of Al-Riwaq, Abdelatif Zagnun, said that these artists, considered pioneers of the innate arts, deserve a new intellectual reinterpretation so that their names are not associated with any attribute that could diminish their talent. That its uniqueness derives from Morocco’s intangible heritage, which is a mix between spirituality and popular cultures.
In the early years of the country’s independence, Moroccan artist and natural art icon Fatima Hassan al-Fruj invaded the art world with colorful tales and visual storytelling. The avant-garde generation, or the Casablanca school generation, and her paintings speak of all traditional Moroccan customs, clothing, facial features, and architecture.
As for the artist, Mohamed Ben Alal, he names his works as the past and what represents Moroccan identity and heritage symbols like houses, tattoos and fashion, and his works are rooted in memory and childhood. In his works we also find figures with Moroccan characteristics that use earthy and light colors with little use of natural materials such as clay and glue.
The paintings of the late artist Hassan al-Kalawi are considered in the collections of museums and international exhibitions, he is a lover of Moroccan folk riding, which he captured in his paintings in calm colors and the fast pace of the brush to convey the rider. With its local peculiarities. I try to personalize people and animals when I see them, I bring them closer to my emotions.”
The paintings by artist Abbas Salad, according to beautician Ibrahim al-Haysin, were characterized by an innate diagnostic approach in which he captured social scenes inspired by everyday Marrakech, and then oriented his artistic style towards exoticism in particular. Once his mind was scattered and separated due to the misfortunes and social tragedies that befell him. His new designs feature contrasting visual communication that reflects his emotional operations and refraction. Thus, his artistic work came out of the ordinary, which led to a profound transformation of his images, which has since been associated with a kind of “fantasy” that denotes imagination, strangeness and hybridity, as well as some surrealists, daedalists. Symbolist and Metaphysical Artists in the West.