Mustapha Hafid

Mustapha Hafid – Le chant de pluie, 1985

Born in Casablanca in 1942, Mustapha Hafid belongs to the first generation of Moroccan artists trained at the École des beaux-arts in Casablanca, which he entered in 1958. To pursue his education, he left in 1961 for the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, where he met the artist Anna Draus, who would become his wife and a major influence on his artistic life.

Upon returning to Morocco in 1968, he was appointed professor of drawing and painting at the École des beaux-arts in Casablanca. In 1973, he held a duo exhibition at the Bab Rouah National Gallery in Rabat alongside his wife Anna Draus-Hafid, who opened a weaving studio at the École des beaux-arts in Casablanca the following year.

Hafid took an active part in the exhibitions of the Casablanca Group. Notably, he participated in the 1969 manifesto-exhibitions at Jemaa el-Fna Square in Marrakech alongside Ataallah, Belkahia, Chabâa, Hamidi, and Melehi.

Mustapha Hafid developed a refined geometric abstraction based on rhythm, repetition, and the relationships between color, light, and space. Closely aligned with the research of the Casablanca School, his work engages in a dialogue with Moroccan architecture and popular arts through sober, meditative, and rigorously constructed compositions.