FARID BELKAHIA (MOROCCAN, B. 1934)

Farid Belkahia's work asks fundamental questions about accepted artistic form, its origins and aesthetic sources. He does not always paint on rectangular canvases and or chemically based colours, but instead asks why should a Moroccan artist employ foreign aesthetic concepts and materials? His works are created with local, specifically Morooccan materials- natural dyes including cobalt and henna on wood, pottery and lambskin. His work is filled with symbolic signs and characters borrowed from the Tifinagh (Touareg and Berber alphabet).