Mohamed Melehi

Mohammed Melehi was a leading Moroccan artist, known for his geometrical, abstract experimental paintings with hallmark waves. A leading figure with the Casablanca Art School, a modernist movement that spearheaded a cultural revolution across the national art scene in the 1960s, he was also a graphic designer, photographer, teacher, and muralist.

Born in Assilah, Melehi studied in Spain at the Academy of Fine Arts in Seville and Madrid, before moving to Italy, where he worked with the Trastevere gallery, a hub for artists and intellectuals. He also spent time in Rome and Paris, before traveling to the US in 1962 where, in New York, his work became more closely aligned with geometric abstraction and marked by brighter colors. He participated in collectives at major institutions in the US with several pioneering young artists of the time, including Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning, before returning to Morocco in 1964, with the aim of contributing to the post-colonial cultural shift underway there. Melehi taught extensively while continuing to paint. His art began to feature new motifs, such as calligraphy and rainbows and comprised his hallmark waveform. Melehi died of Covid-19 aged 84. His work was exhibited extensively internationally and has been showcased in several retrospectives. Today it can be found in prestigious public and private collections worldwide.