Art journals in Morocco: new ways of seeing and saying

ABSTRACT

In the last half century, Moroccan artists, historians, critics and creative writers have undertaken the task of decolonising the history and criticism of their art. From the nineteenth century through independence in 1956, the story of Moroccan art was written largely from a colonialist perspective. In the 1960s and 1970s, this story was rewritten in broadly focused cultural journals such as Souffles, Intégral and Lamalif. In the subsequent decades, lesser known journals continued to reflect on the place of art and artists in Moroccan society. After the millennium, a specialised art press emerged. Current art magazines such as diptyk, launched in 2009, devote visual and verbal space to artists and critics. While a variety of media outlets, including newspaper journalism and television programming, have kept visual arts in the public eye, this essay focuses on the impact of cultural journals and magazines on the development of distinctly Moroccan ways of seeing and saying in the twenty-first century.

KEYWORDS:

• Morocco
• art
• journal
• criticism
• decolonisation
• diptyk

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Nabil Boudraa and Dr Joseph Krause of Oregon State University for inviting me to participate in the fabulous NEH Seminar they organised on the arts in the Maghreb. I would also like to thank the participants for their passion, their questions and their continued enthusiasm. I am extremely grateful to Dr Anita Alkhas, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, for her insights, editing and encouragement on this article. I would not have completed this work without her help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. My translation.

2. Melehi: ‘Le plus important à nos yeux est que les gens commencent à percevoir l'art comme un message civilisationnel'.

3. In 1960, the journal fused with another to become Hespéris Tamuda.

4. At the turn of the twentieth century, Rbati became the cook for an artist from Ireland who influenced and promoted him as an artist. He is celebrated as the first Moroccan painter. Rondeau, Daniel, Abderrahman Slaoui, and Nicole de Pontcharra. 2000. ‘Mohammed Ben Ali R'bati: un peintre à Tanger en 1900’. Casablanca: Malika and Fondation Aberrahman Slaoui.

5. An article by the writer Audisio (1938) on mural paintings in Moorish cafés is a rare example.

6. These include Pierre Restany, Gaston Diehl, Pierre Gaudibert, Jean-Clarence Lambert and Alain Flamand. The post-independence period did not necessarily dispel paternalistic attitudes of French journalists towards Moroccan art. One of them wrote in the 1960s, ‘Moroccan painters are in the stage of an infant, feeling around before it can see, but at least the child is born!' Cited in Pieprzak (2010, 100).

7. ‘L'histoire de l'art marocain est depuis plus d'un demi-siècle une spécialité européenne, un monopole de la science occidentale'. My translation.

8. Khalil M'Rabet offers a history and an analysis of the periods of Moroccan art in his thesis (1979) and his book Peinture et identité.

9. There are reports of a project to open a branch of the Paris École des Beaux-Arts in Rabat (Azimi 2015).

10. Also see Tenkoul (1988, 10).

11. A number of scholars have highlighted the legacy of Souffles, including Abderrahman Tenkoul (1988), Safoi Babana-Hampton (2008), Toni Maraini (2010), Kenza Sefrioui and Abdellatif Laabi (2012), and Laura Casielles (2012). According to Issandr El Amrani, ‘In the thirty-five years since the demise of Souffles, no publication has matched its stature, appeal, or intellectual authority'. ‘In the Beginning There was Souffles'. Bidoun, 13. http://www.bidoun.org/magazine/13-glory/in-the-beginning-there-was-souffles-by-issandr-el-amrani/.

12. Rollinde (2002) touches on Lamalif's contributions to the human rights movement in Morocco and notes the journal's willingness to treat controversial topics.

13. Lamalif 1.1, March 1966, quoted in Orlando with Orlando's translation to English, 131.

14. Daoud's (2007) memoir Les années Lamalif is a poignant reflection on her work and the challenges she faced.

15. A special issue on fine arts in Morocco was reportedly published in June 2015 but I have not yet been able to access it.

16. Censored journals in the 1970s and 1980s include Al Joussour (‘gateway’) (1981–1983); Aklam or Aqlam (‘pens’) (1964–1980s), Al Badil (‘alternative’), Almokaddima or Al-Mouqaddima (1982–1984), (‘introduction’), Azzamane Al Maghrébi (‘Morocco's time’), Khouttwa (‘step’) (1986–?) and Al Manahil (1976) (‘sources’). See Laâbi (2001). Also, the following website provides a list of texts that were forbidden in Morocco (press, books, etc.). http://jardinssecrets.chez.com/.

17. Ironically, in 2012 Taarji was appointed Morocco's Minister of Communication.

18. ‘Il convient de renouveler notre vision du patrimoine'.

19. The journal is edited by the publishing house Marsam, which also specializes in books on art and books created through the collaboration of artists and writers. Zineb Abderrazik and Rachid Chraïbi, the founders of Marsam Editions, also created Marsam Gallery in Rabat (1975), a second gallery in the chic ‘golden triangle’ of Casablanca (2003) and an art center in a renovated former factory (2015).

20. I am borrowing the expression ‘New Morocco’ from Valérie Orlando, The ‘New' Morocco in Film and Print (2009).

21. One example is the Orient'Art Express festival created in the city of Oujda in eastern Morocco to promote local artists, yet foster connections with artists in the region and beyond despite the challenges (explicitly mentioned in their website) of the Morocco-Algeria border. In 2015, the annual festival was in its sixth year. http://www.orientartexpress.org/.

22. International news magazines and cultural magazines that have featured contemporary Moroccan art include Jeune Afrique; Qantara (journal of the Institute of the Arab World in Paris) and Saudi Aramco World.

23. My translation.

24. ‘L'absence fulgurante de supports voués à la critique et à la parole sur l'art'. My translation. 

25. ‘Hormis les quelques livres et monographies, publiés à un rythme essoufflé, les catalogues demeurent le seul espace dédié à l'analyse de l’œuvre. Or, ces derniers ne peuvent être le lieu de la critique et du débat souhaités'. My translation.

26. Tachkil Maghribi: ‘Revue d'art plastique, information, sensibilisation et analyse’ (2006–2012). Marrakech.

27. Compagnie Marocaine des œuvres et objets d'art. The CMOOA advertised in Matrice des arts as well.

28. Al Aloui, Mohammed Amine. N.d. Bibliography of Moroccan Visual Arts 1956–1996. (In Arabic and French). http://saidbengrad.free.fr/al/n9/11.htm.

Additional information

Funding

I gratefully acknowledge the support of a Fulbright Senior Scholar Research grant I received in 2005–2006 during which I began research on writing about art in Morocco.