Jilali Gharbaoui

Jilali Gharbaoui (1930 to 1971) was a Moroccan painter, born in Jorf El Melha. He made abstract paintings built from the gesture of the brushstroke and the material of the paint itself. He died in Paris in 1971 and is buried in Fes.

After studying at the Académie des Arts in Fes, he moved to Paris in 1952 and spent four years at the École des Beaux-Arts, followed by study at the Académie Julian. An Italian government grant then took him to Rome. In Paris he took part in the Salon Comparaisons in 1959 and befriended Henri Michaux, Hans Hartung and Jean Dubuffet.

He exhibited in Morocco, Egypt, France, the Netherlands, the United States and Brazil. In 1993 the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris held a retrospective of his work. His painting Composition is in the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, and his work is also held by the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain in Rabat.