The exhibition, which will continue until January 5, 2025, brings together around a hundred works created since the 1960s – paintings, graphic works, tapestries and ceramics – when the artist was laying the foundations of his unique style, until to today where his vision continues to broaden his artistic horizons.
“This retrospective offers us the opportunity to delve into more than fifty years of creation, half a century of work, by the artist Mehdi Qotbi, and to understand all the richness of his career, where he always knew how to connect two cultures , Moroccan and French”, indicated, in a statement to MAP, the director of the IMA museum and exhibitions, and curator of the exhibition, Nathalie Bondil.
“I am very happy with this unique opportunity that the IMA has offered me to be able to retrace 55 years of creation, colors, joy, and happiness. Each moment has been a joy experienced, and I sincerely hope continue to live it again, while sharing this happiness with others”, underlined, in a similar statement, Mehdi Qotbi, also president of the National Foundation of Museums.
Through this retrospective, the IMA aims to highlight the painter’s universe to form a space for dialogue between cultures and imaginations. Influenced by Moroccan traditions and European art trends, Qotbi invents an “unwriting”, a new language where Arabic letters and signs merge.
Born in 1951 in Rabat, Mehdi Qotbi developed a passion for painting as a teenager. In 1967, he joined the Beaux-Arts in Rabat. In 1969, he left Morocco for France, where he obtained his Fine Arts diploma in Toulouse in 1972, before continuing his studies in Paris. Between 1973 and 2007, he taught visual arts while pursuing his artistic career.