Mohamed Hamidi: A Luminous Figure of Moroccan Modern Art Bids Farewell
Mohamed Hamidi passed away on October 6, 2025, at the age of 84, leaving an indelible mark on the history of Moroccan art. As a founding figure of the Casablanca School, a passionate educator, and a visionary painter, he embodied a generation of artists determined to free artistic creation from colonial perspectives and give it a truly Moroccan soul.
Born in Casablanca in 1941, Hamidi trained both in his hometown and in Paris, where he graduated in 1964 with a degree in monumental painting from the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Upon returning to Morocco, he taught at the Casablanca School of Fine Arts and became part of a collective artistic and intellectual movement alongside Farid Belkahia, Mohamed Melehi, and Mohamed Chabâa. Together, they breathed new life into the Moroccan art scene, drawing inspiration from traditional crafts—Amazigh rugs, calligraphy, zellige—and building a modern aesthetic deeply rooted in local heritage.
His work, marked by fluid lines and vibrant gestures, moved gracefully between abstraction and memory, tradition and avant-garde. Hamidi believed that art should leave the confines of museums to engage directly with the public, a conviction powerfully expressed in the Présence plastique exhibition held in Marrakech in 1969, a defining moment for modern Moroccan art.
Celebrated both in Morocco and abroad, notably with the inclusion of two of his works in the Centre Pompidou collection in 2019, Mohamed Hamidi leaves behind more than a pictorial legacy: he leaves a vision, a shared emotion, and the bold conviction that modernity could be born right here, in the radiant light of Morocco.
🕊️ Watch the full memorial video on YouTube
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