The Al Mada Foundation in collaboration with Art First Galerie reveals the major works of the artist Fatna Gbouri (Private collection: 1982-1990), presented for the first time to the public, after having been exhibited in 2023-2024 at the Musée des Confluences- Dar El Bacha Marrakech.
Entitled “Fatna Gbouri: between tradition and modernity” under the curation of Selma Naguib, this exhibition offers to see all the richness of Moroccan heritage through scenes of life celebrating authentic Morocco and its modernity.
Fatna Gbouri arrived from the plains of Tnine Gharbia, in the Safi region, a territory where people are more busy milking cows than admiring their melancholy gaze. This means that the paths of art are unfathomable: she grabbed it without preamble, through an unforeseen detour.
Either ! Ahmed Mjidaoui, although little known, is a painter. His most accomplished masterpiece undoubtedly remains his own mother, Fatna Gbouri, whom he introduced to painting, when she was already in her sixties. In 1982, Fatna Gbouri took up the brushes to become, like Chaïbia Talal, one of the pioneering female figures of Moroccan painting.
She is, in a way, the realization of the wish of her son, Ahmed Mjidaoui, who dreamed of seeing her abandon the wool she spun to express herself through colors and shapes.
The current exhibition highlights the founding years, from 1982 to 1990, a period during which Fatna Gbouri became aware of her abilities and found her place in an atypical artistic movement: that of singular art, often called post-brut or even art of the self-taught.
-Unable to boast of any previous attendance at the grandes écoles and for having developed a style outside of conventions, she was cataloged under the condescending label of “naïve” artist. A name which tends to reduce his work to a form of “zero degree” of painting. Either. However, his colorful characters, ignored or sometimes despised by certain established painters, ended up seducing enlightened amateurs. Today, his oils on canvas are reaching new heights on the art market and fetching high prices.
« His style is spontaneous, close to art brut, and seems to have the vocation of sharing the wonder of all the senses », underlines Olivier Rachet in the introductory text of the catalog of this exhibition.
Fatna Gbouri draws the contemplative gaze into a traditional universe detached from the places, leaving room only for the scenes she has carefully chosen, notably rural scenes of weddings, births, celebrations and much more, which she was able to observe and live in your daily life. The artist takes care to surprise with a choice of eclectic and lively colors without distorting the beauty of the immortalized moments. The works from the period 1982 to 1990 represent modernity, tradition and authenticity at the same time.
« The colors sing on the canvas, and the predilection for primary tones placed in flat areas composes a graphic score of which we also perceive the echoes », continues Rachet.
« The work of Fatna Gbouri, of the order of the timeless, transcends generations. She is a pioneering woman artist who has successfully marked her time with her intelligence, and her spirit which is both authentic and avant-garde. », concludes Selma Naguib, curator of the exhibition.
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