Baghdad Benas

Baghdad Benas – Untitled, 1977

Born in Zeghanghane in 1951, Baghdad Benas trained at the École des beaux-arts in Casablanca and graduated with a degree in advertising in Rabat in 1970, before becoming a drawing teacher in 1972.

He held several solo exhibitions organized by various galleries in Rabat, including the Découverte Gallery (1973), the Bab Rouah Gallery (1974), and the Structure B.S. Gallery (1975). In 1980, Editions Stouky dedicated a first publication to him, Baghdad Benas: dessins (Baghdad Benas: Drawings). The following year, the artist received a grant and moved to Canada, where his artistic production appears to have since ceased.

From the late 1960s onward, Benas developed a singular practice, oscillating between graphic precision and experimental approaches to form and matter.

Although his career in Morocco lasted only about fifteen years, the originality of his practice earned him a place in 2021 in Moroccan Trilogy 1950-2020, an exhibition bringing together more than 200 works at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, curated by Abdellah Karroum.