Karim Bennani

Karim Bennani – Untitled, 1965

Karim Bennani (1036-2023) stands among the founding figures of modern Moroccan painting.

His career—at the intersection of tradition and the avant-garde—embodies the emergence of an independent artistic consciousness in a Morocco seeking its own forms of expression after independence. Coming from a family open to literature and science, he first pursued business studies before joining the Academy of Arts in Fez in 1951. From the outset, he distinguished himself through his intellectual curiosity and his desire to move beyond academic imitation. This thirst for exploration led him in 1954 to Paris, accompanied by Farid Belkahia, where he attended the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian. These intense and formative Parisian years brought him into direct contact with European modern movements and the key aesthetic debates of the time, while reinforcing his sense of identity.

Returning to Morocco in the late 1950s, Bennani quickly established himself as one of the pioneers of a generation determined to build an autonomous national artistic scene, liberated from the orientalist gaze. In 1964, he took part in founding the Moroccan Association of Visual Arts, which he would later preside over, becoming one of the most influential voices advocating for the recognition of Moroccan artists and the institutional status of the visual arts at a time when cultural infrastructures were still in their infancy.

His work, primarily pictorial, is defined by an abstract and gestural approach that blends the rigor of drawing with the freedom of gesture and a meditative breath. His paintings explore the tension between silence and radiance, memory and erasure, using sober colours, allusive masses, and internal rhythms that seem to carry their own quiet pulse. Far from any decorative or folkloric intent, Bennani sought to anchor modernity within a Moroccan visual memory, creating a dialogue between Andalusian heritage, vernacular motifs, and European lyrical abstraction. His approach paved the way for a liberated vision of modern art in Morocco—one detached from exoticism and rooted in the universal.

Throughout his career, Bennani exhibited regularly, both in Morocco and internationally: at Galerie Bab Rouah (Rabat), the Villa des Arts in Casablanca, the Galerie Nationale in Rabat, as well as in France, Italy, Spain, Tunisia, the United States, Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Egypt. His works are held in numerous private and public collections, including the Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMVI) in Rabat, along with several major foundations and heritage institutions.
His work continues to be featured in major retrospectives dedicated to modern Moroccan painting, where his pioneering role is consistently acknowledged and celebrated.