Painter
Mohamed Tabal
Possessing spirits, ancestors, the memory of slavery and the dances of the lila: Mohamed Tabal paints the Gnaoua trance from the inside, as a musician who laid down his drum for the brush.
The artist
Career
Born in 1959 in El Hanchane, near Essaouira, Mohamed Tabal is the son of an itinerant Gnaoua musician and was initiated into the rites of the brotherhood as a child; his name means “drummer”, the instrument he learned to play while following his father’s trade around Casablanca. Self-taught, he painted from childhood, and at the urging of the Danish gallerist Frédéric Damgaard, settled in Essaouira, he gave up music to devote himself entirely to painting.
A painter of memory
Among the first artists to bring the mystical world of the Gnaoua into painting, Tabal paints his own memory, that of his wanderings, and that of the African diaspora. His canvases teem with figures caught in the rhythm of ritual, a dense, vibrating space where colour seems to keep time. With Ali Maimoun, he belongs to the singular painters of Essaouira collected by Cérès Franco.
Landmarks
- 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1997 — Galerie Frédéric Damgaard, Essaouira
- 1994 — Gold Cup, European prize, 23rd international competition of modern primitive painting, Switzerland
- 1997 — Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Belgium
- 1998 — Moroccan Pavilion, Lisbon World Expo
- 2012 — First prize, Gnaoua Festival, Essaouira
- 2014 — Loft Art Gallery, Casablanca
- 2018 — B&S Gallery, Casablanca
- Exhibitions in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Denmark
Collections
- Cérès Franco Collection, La Coopérative, Montolieu
- Private collections in Europe and Morocco
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In the same spirit
Discover works by Regragui Bouslai, Fatna Gbouri and Hassan Hachchane, or browse all Moroccan paintings for sale.
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Frequently asked questions
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