Skip to content

The domain AfricanArtists.com is for sale.Make an offer

AfricanArtists.com
Menu

Moroccan artists

53 artists

Morocco's visual traditions are old and rich: Amazigh carpets and silver jewellery, painted wooden ceilings, zellige tilework and calligraphy. In the twentieth century these became the raw material of a modern art. In 1962 Farid Belkahia took over the art school in Casablanca, and with Mohamed Melehi, Mohamed Chabâa and Mohamed Hamidi built the Casablanca School. Others went their own way: the self-taught Chaïbia Talal, Ahmed Cherkaoui with his signs, and Hassan El Glaoui, painter of horsemen.

Today Moroccan artists show around the world: the painter and novelist Mahi Binebine, Yto Barrada, who represents France at the 2026 Venice Biennale, and photographers such as Leila Alaoui and Hassan Hajjaj. Some well-known names here are better known for something else, like the novelist Tahar Ben Jelloun or the politician Mahjoubi Aherdane, both lifelong painters. This list brings together Morocco's artists with Wikipedia articles, most looked-up first. See also Moroccan photographers and North Africa.

Profiles

Sculptor

Bruno Catalano

Morocco · 1960–

Bruno Catalano, born in Morocco to a Sicilian family, makes life-size bronze travellers with whole parts of their bodies missing, shown in Marseille in 2013.

Artist and photographer

Yto Barrada

Morocco · 1971–

Yto Barrada photographed Tangier as a waiting room for Europe, founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger, and now works across film, sculpture and plant-dyed textiles.

Painter

Hassan El Glaoui

Morocco · 1923–2018

Hassan El Glaoui, son of the last Pasha of Marrakech, became a painter with Winston Churchill's help and painted horses, riders and fantasia for seven decades.

Painter

Chaïbia Talal

Morocco · 1929–2004

Chaïbia Talal, a widowed cleaner who began to paint after a dream in her thirties, became Morocco's most famous self-taught painter, shown in Paris from 1966.

Painter, sculptor and novelist

Mahi Binebine

Morocco · 1959–

Mahi Binebine, a former maths teacher from Marrakech, paints masked figures, sculpts in bronze and wrote the novel behind the film Horses of God.

Photographer and video artist

Leila Alaoui

Morocco · 1982–2016

Leila Alaoui, the French-Moroccan photographer of Les Marocains, made life-size portraits and films about migration. She was killed in Ouagadougou in 2016.

Photographer and designer

Hassan Hajjaj

Morocco · 1961–

Hassan Hajjaj mixes Moroccan street style, fashion and pop art in bright portraits framed with tins and everyday goods, including the Kesh Angels of Marrakech.

Storyteller and painter

Mohamed Mrabet

Morocco · 1936–

Mohamed Mrabet, a Tangier storyteller who never learned to read, dictated more than a dozen books to Paul Bowles and has drawn and painted since 1958.

Painter

Mohamed Hamidi

Morocco · 1941–2025

Mohamed Hamidi, a pioneer of the Casablanca School, taught at the city's art school and painted bold, sensual compositions of bodies and signs. He died in 2025.

Photographer

Mohamed Maradji

Morocco · 1939–

Mohamed Maradji began as a street photographer in Casablanca in 1956 and photographed Morocco's royal family under Mohammed V, Hassan II and Mohammed VI.

Painter

Farid Belkahia

Morocco · 1934–2014

Farid Belkahia (1934–2014) led the Casablanca art school, painted with henna on stretched leather and helped give Moroccan modern art its own materials.

More artists

Most looked-up first. Names link to our profile, or to Wikipedia where we do not have one yet. Short descriptions from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons. Image credits

Better known for other work

Writers, presenters and public figures whom Wikidata also lists here; their profiles explain the connection.

Writer and painter

Tahar Ben Jelloun

Morocco · 1944–

Tahar Ben Jelloun, the Moroccan novelist who won the 1987 Prix Goncourt, has painted for decades, shown at the Institut du monde arabe and in Rabat.

Politician, painter and poet

Mahjoubi Aherdane

Morocco · 1921–2020

Mahjoubi Aherdane, founder of Morocco's Mouvement Populaire and a champion of Amazigh identity, painted dreamlike canvases and wrote poetry in French.