HIGH ART IN RABAT.

By Nii B. Andrews.

The Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rabat is currently hosting four formidable exhibitions.

They are “The Colors of Impressionism”, “Hassan Glaoui, Salt of the Earth”, “Lights of Africa” and the museum’s permanent exhibit. 

On this account, the museum has extended its opening time from 10am to 8pm in order to enable people to visit the museum after work; the previous closing time was 6pm.

Director of the museum, Abdelaziz Idrissi explained, “The museum’s offer is large and diversified, so it can attract all sorts of visitors, those interested in contemporary art, as well as those interested in modern art.” 

Over 1000 people have been visiting the museum daily in the last three weeks.

The “Salt of the Earth” exhibit offers the rare chance to see mostly never before seen portraits painted by the iconic and pioneering Moroccan artist, Hassan El Glaoui.

The exhibition is curated by El Glaoui’s daughter, Touria El Glaoui – the founding director of the prestigious 1-54 Art Fair.

She explained that the title, “Salt of the Earth” is because El Glaoui’s paintings recorded “the true flavor of Morocco” as they represented perfectly day to day life in Morocco in his era.

In addition, the term also reflects the altruism and humility that was her father’s ethos.

Finally, it alludes to the El Glaoui family history as salt traders in the period when it was one of the most valuable commodities.

The exhibition focuses more on the personal history of the artist; most paintings are portraits of his wife – the former Givenchy model, Christine Legrande and their daughters. 

This exhibit eschews the often seen equestrian themed paintings.

“The Colors of Impressionism” exhibit features over 50 masterpieces from some of the greatest names – Van Gogh, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir. 

The pieces are from the Orsay Museum and “have never crossed the Mediterranean border”.

The Orsay Museum’s collection of 1110 Impressionist and post- Impressionist paintings is the largest in the world.

The President of Morocco’s National Museums Foundation, Mehdi Qotbi proudly stated, “We owe this cultural flourishing in our country to His Majesty the King, who loves art and encourages artists and creativity, including the launch of large scale cultural projects.”

The “Lights of Africa” exhibit has 54 artworks by 54 artists from 54 African countries. 

The exhibition has already been seen in 6 other countries. 

The thrust of all the artwork featured is simple, straight forward and poignant; there can be no progress, no growth, no future without electricity.

In 2016, 600 million Africans still did not have access to electricity; and even for those who do, the supply is erratic, problematic and annoying.

The latter is why some parts of the world have shamefully contributed the words “dumsor” and “dumsaa” )to the lexicon.

The result is a tremendous negative impact on every aspect of life – healthcare, education, food storage, cost of business, personal safety etc. 

It sometimes leads to tragic and avoidable loss of life and sadly, without recompense. 

As a result, the citizens’ impatience can become obviously palpable especially when they also observe the profligate spending and corruption of arrogant elected and public officials; the latter almost always going unpunished by defanged and spineless law enforcement in a cynical periodic ballot box demo(klepto)cracy.

We only hope that the art pieces from this collective of African artists will help to further “ENLIGHTEN” the affected parts of Africa.