Jilali Gharbaoui (; 1930–1971) was a Moroccan painter and sculptor from Jorf El Melha. He is considered, along with Ahmed Cherkaoui, a pioneer of

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

art in Morocco. Unlike other Moroccan modernist artists, his abstraction was based in brushstrokes and the "materiality of the paint" as opposed to Moroccan culture. Gharbaoui suffered from severe mental illness and died of suicide in Paris in 1971.

Life

He started studying art at the ''Academie des Arts'' in Fes. He traveled to France in 1952. With the assistance of the novelist Ahmed Sefrioui, then director of fine arts in Rabat, Gharbaoui was able to attend the ''

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

'' in Paris. He studied for four years then worked at the ''

Académie Julian The () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907). The school was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number and qual ...

'' for a year. He befriended the poet and painter

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenhei ...

, the painters

Hans Hartung Hans Hartung (21 September 1904 – 7 December 1989) was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated World War II veteran of the Legion d'honneur. Life Hartung was born in Leipzig, Germany, into an ...

and

Jean Dubuffet Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" a ...

, and the art critic

Pierre Restany Pierre Restany (22 June 1930 – 29 May 2003), was an internationally known French art critic and cultural philosopher. Restany was born in Amélie-les-Bains-Palalda, Pyrénées-Orientales, and spent his childhood in Casablanca. On returning ...

. With a grant from the Italian government, he lived in Rome from 1958 to 1960, when he returned to Morocco. In this period he frequently went to Paris for work, and in 1959,

introduced Gharbaoui at the . He was hosted often by Abbot Denis Martin at the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

monastery of Toumliline The Monastery of Toumliline (French language, French: ''Monastère de Toumliline'') was a Benedictines, Benedictine monastery in Toumliline, Morocco. It was the only Benedictine monastery in Morocco and hosted the ''International Meetings'', an a ...

, where he created wall decorations. During his life, he exhibited around Morocco and in Egypt, France, the Netherlands, the United States, and Brazil. His art appeared in the magazine '' Souffles-Anfas''. He was found dead by suicide on a public bench in the ''

Champ de Mars Champ, CHAMP or The Champ may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Champ (cartoon character), an animated dog introduced in 1960 * The Champ, played on radio and created by Jake Edwards (radio personality), Jake Edwards * Champ ...

'' in Paris in 1971. His body was repatriated and buried in Fes. In 1993, the

Arab World Institute The Institut du Monde Arabe (, ''Arab World Institute''; abbr. IMA) is an organisation founded in Paris in 1980 by France with 18 Arab countries to research and disseminate information about the Arab world and its cultural and spiritual values. ...

in Paris hosted a retrospective exhibition dedicated to him.

Art

Before he embraced abstraction in the early 1950s, Gharbaoui experimented with French

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

and German

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

. According to , "Gharbaoui’s work largely focuses on movement and nervous brush-strokes. With chromatic disorder and an automated vitality, he creates a neutral space and an active, expressive material." In ''Art in the Service of Colonialism'', Hamid Irbouh describes Gharbaoui and Ahmed Cherkaoui as "bipictorialists" in contrast with the nativists of the Casablanca School. Whereas the nativists, led by Farid Belkahia, sought to break entirely from French and Western art, the bipictorialists included Moroccan and Western influences, working toward a reconciliation of the various dimensions of postcolonial Moroccan identity.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gharbaoui, Jilali 20th-century Moroccan painters 1930 births 1971 deaths 1971 suicides Modern artists Abstract artists Suicides in France Artists who died by suicide Moroccan male painters Moroccan sculptors Male sculptors 20th-century sculptors 20th-century Moroccan male artists