Farid Belkahia

Private Collection, USA

Thence by direct descent

“In 1974, when I undertook to work on rawhide, it was obviously in homage to parchment. But without ever losing sight of the quintessence of my journey, namely, the evolution of memory within the complicity between past and future. Here, the constraints were many, and for no less than four years, I sequestered myself to master the various reactions of leather […] Natural pigments such as henna, cobalt, saffron, pomegranate skin, alone offer an incredible variety of ochres and browns. Not to mention that, symbolically, the skin of a ram cannot but evoke Abraham’s sacrificial offering, and that is literally the bark of the body.”

The Artist, quoted in Les Strates de la Memoire, Matisse Art Gallery, 2004

The present lot by Farid Belkahia, one of Morocco’s most celebrated modernists, exemplifies his renowned exploration of vellum, a material that would become synonymous with his celebrated practice and define his most sought-after pieces. A seminal figure in the Moroccan art world, Belkahia was a trailblazer of the Casablanca School, a collective of artists operating in Morocco from the beginning of the 1960s with the aim of breaking away from colonial influences and establishing a unique Moroccan identity in art. The Casablanca School emphasized experimentation with materials, techniques, and forms, blending Western avant-garde principles with Moroccan cultural heritage. This group, widely acknowledged as the nation's most esteemed and influential, laid the groundwork for one of the African continent's most celebrated art markets and histories and played a crucial role in shaping the country’s broader artistic landscape.