Mohamed Melehi

Description

Born in 1936 in Asilah, Mohamed Melehi started studying at the Tetouan School of Fine Arts in 1953, he then joined the engraving section of the Ecole nationale des Beaux-arts de Paris in 1960. He started exhibiting in 1963. He lives and worksbetween Marrakesh and Tanger. Melehi is one of the main modern Moroccan painters. Since the 1960s, he has created a body of works based on the recurring pattern of the wave. His canvases are always optical abstractions with strong edges - the lines are sharp, the colours clearlycircumscribed and the movements of the brush invisible. The waves themselves are often reconfigurated, turned vertically to become flames or crossing the canvas obliquely. These waves can be related to the waves of Asilah's beach, hometown of the artist, to the Arabic calligraphy and, by their meditative consistency, to transcendence and prayer. Through time, Melehi has remained faithful to his project, reconfiguratingthe same elements in his exploration of colour and shape, while changing details, such as the orientation or colour combination, and adding other abstract or symbolic shapes.

Michel Gauthier - Art critic, curator at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, director of the collection L'espace litteraire for the Presses du reel and editorial advisor for the review 20/27, he regularly collaborates with the Cahiers du Musee national d'art moderne where he notably published studies on Brancusi, Morris Louis, Richard Serra, Didier Vermeiren or Andreas Gursky. He has also published articles dedicated to litterature (Henry James, Francis Ponge or Maurice Blanchot).