Ahmed Cherkaoui

Ahmed Cherkaoui (1934 to 1967) was a Moroccan painter, born in Boujad. He made abstract paintings in oil on canvas and on burlap and jute, as well as jute collages, gouaches and watercolours. They are built from signs drawn from Moroccan tattoos, pottery, leatherwork, weaving, ornament and architecture. From 1966 he also painted on leather.

He studied at the École des métiers d'art (1956 to 1959) and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and in 1961 held a one-year scholarship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He drew on Paul Klee, Roger Bissière and Henri Matisse as well as on Moroccan traditions. His works include La Jeune Berbère (1960), La Prière (1963 to 1964) and Le Couronnement (1964). His early dark palette gave way after 1965 to lighter, more spacious compositions.

He had solo exhibitions at the Maison de l'Union, Casablanca (1960), Galerie Ursula Girardon, Paris (1962), the Goethe-Institut, Casablanca (1965) and Galerie Solstice, Paris (1967). In 1966 he took part in the World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar. He died in Casablanca on 17 August 1967. The Institut du monde arabe in Paris held the retrospective Cherkaoui ou la passion du signe in 1996. His work is in the collections of the Institut du monde arabe and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.