One medium, three supports. For more than thirty years, Abderrahim Saba has painted Morocco in oil, and he has made the choice of surface, canvas, wooden panel or skin, part of the language of his painting.
A painter and a teacher
Born in Casablanca in 1966, Abderrahim Saba (sometimes listed as Saba Abderrahim) is a Moroccan painter and a teacher of visual arts. Across more than three decades of exhibitions he has built a figurative painting rooted in the country: its architecture, its streets and its interiors.
Kasbahs, medinas and interiors
His subjects return like familiar places. Kasbahs set against blue mountains or in green surroundings, where the warm tone of earthen walls answers the landscape. Medina streets and market scenes at the foot of a minaret or before a red gateway. Figures on a beach near the city. And still lifes in which the teapot, the decorated bowl and the book become the portrait of a Moroccan home.
Oil and its three supports
Saba is faithful to oil, a slow medium that rewards care and the layering of paint. Each support changes what the painting can do: canvas gives it suppleness, the wooden panel brings precision, and skin, a material deeply rooted in Moroccan craft, gives the colour a warm, muted glow that no other surface offers.
Intimate formats
The works presented by the gallery range from about 30 × 40 cm to 60 × 70 cm. The smaller pieces suit a hallway, a study or a bookshelf; hung together, several of them form a coherent series, a way to build a small collection around a single painter.
Collecting his work
Discover all of Abderrahim Saba's works and his biography, or see them in person, by appointment, at ARTWORKS, our gallery in Casablanca. Continue with our selections of medina and souk paintings and Moroccan landscapes.