The Casablanca Art School: Platforms and Patterns for a Postcolonial Avant-Garde 1962–1987

When Morocco became independent in 1956, the climate was euphoric and full of hope for the birth of the new nation led by King Mohammed V. In those days the staff and students of the Casablanca Art School (CAS) gave life to a real artistic revolution, integrating abstract art with African and Amazigh traditions, drawing on their multicultural heritage and taking inspiration from the region's carpets, jewelry, calligraphy and painted ceilings, they brought art into everyday life, using paintings, posters, magazines, outdoor murals and street festivals. A “new wave” that is chronicled in an exhibition that explores the distinct vision of modern life of five influential artists and teachers of the legendary Moroccan art collective CAS: Farid Belkahia, Mohammed Chabâa, Bert Flint, Toni (Antonella) Maraini and Mohamed Melehi.