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.
Moroccan painters
34 artists
Modern Moroccan painting began in the mid-twentieth century with artists who had to find their own way between European academies and Moroccan traditions. Some, like Mohamed Ben Ali Rbati and Ahmed Yacoubi in Tangier, painted the life around them; Hassan El Glaoui made the horsemen of the fantasia his life's subject. Ahmed Cherkaoui and Jilali Gharbaoui, both trained in Paris, brought abstraction to Morocco — Cherkaoui through Amazigh signs, Gharbaoui through free, gestural brushwork.
From 1962 the Casablanca School of Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, Mohamed Chabâa and Mohamed Hamidi built a modern art from carpets and crafts. The self-taught Chaïbia Talal became the most famous of all. Later painters include Mohammed Kacimi, Najia Mehadji and Mahi Binebine, and the list also includes the storyteller Mohamed Mrabet and writers and public figures who painted. These are Morocco's painters, most looked-up first. See also Moroccan artists.
Profiles
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.
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.
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
- Ahmed Cherkaoui · 1934–1967
Moroccan painter
- Lalla Essaydi · 1956–
Moroccan photographer and painter
- Jilali Gharbaoui · 1929–1971
Moroccan painter
Pinchas Cohen Gan · 1942–Israeli artist
- Nba Saghru · 1982–2011
Moroccan singer-songwriter, poet and painter
Mohamed Hamri · 1932–2000Moroccan writer and artist
- Ahmed Yacoubi · 1928–1985
Moroccan painter, fine chef and storyteller
Abdallah Sadouk · 1950–2026Moroccan painter
- Latifa Echakhch · 1974–
Moroccan sculptor and installation artist
Muhammad Ben Ali Ribati · 1861–1939Moroccan painter
Najia Mehadji · 1950–Franco-Moroccan painter
- Karim Bennani · 1936–2023
Moroccan painter and draughtsperson
- Hafida Zizi · 1976–
Moroccan painter
- Mohamed Chabaa · 1935–2013
Moroccan visual artist
- André Elbaz · 1934–
Painter, draughtsman, lithographer, collage artist, film maker
Malika Agueznay · 1934–Moroccan painter, printmaker
- Hossein Talal · 1942–2022
Moroccan painter
- Amina Benbouchta · 1963–
Moroccan contemporary artist
Meki Megara · 1933–2009Moroccan painter and sculptor
- Mohammed Kacimi · 1942–2003
Moroccan painter and poet
- Bouchta El Hayani · 1951–
Moroccan artist
- Zakaria Ramhani · 1983–
Moroccan artist
- Radia Bent Lhoucine · 1912–1994
Moroccan painter
Leila Cherkaoui · 1962–Moroccan painter
- Abdellatif Zine · 1940–2016
Moroccan painter
- Mohammed El Bellaoui · 1989–
Moroccan comic book author, graphic artist, and musician
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.