Moroccan modernist painter Mohamed Hamidi has died at the age of 84, as announced by the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah. Born in Casablanca in 1941, Hamidi studied at the School of Fine Arts of Casablanca and later at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. A founding father of Moroccan modern art, he returned to Morocco in 1967 and taught at the Casablanca School, helping to democratize its curriculum. He participated in the landmark 1969 exhibition “Manifesto” in Marrakech and founded the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts in 1972. His abstract, erotic paintings incorporated traditional Maghreb motifs and geometric shapes.
Hamidi’s death marks the loss of a key figure in postcolonial African and Middle Eastern art. His work, along with that of the Casablanca School, has gained increasing international attention in recent decades, exemplified by the Centre Pompidou’s acquisition of two of his paintings in 2019. His legacy underscores the growing recognition of modernist movements outside the Western canon and the importance of artists who fused local traditions with global avant-garde ideas.