Hassan El Glaoui

Hassan El Glaoui (1923–2018) was a Moroccan figurative painter best known for his depictions of fantasia horsemen.

Hassan El Glaoui
Born(1923-12-23)December 23, 1923
Marrakesh, Morocco
DiedJune 21, 2018(2018-06-21) (aged 94)
Rabat, Morocco
OccupationPainter
Known forFigurative painting
Parents
Websitewww.hassanelglaoui.com

Early life

El Glaoui was born in Marrakesh, Morocco, on December 23, 1923,[1][2] to the last Pasha of Marrakesh, Thami El Glaoui. The artist credited British Prime Minister Winston Churchill with convincing his powerful father to let him pursue painting as a career, particularly after a 1943 meeting when the Pasha sought and received Churchill's opinion of his son's paintings.[3]

Career

In 1950 actor Edward G. Robinson, his wife Gladys Lloydand Robison (art collector and a painter) and Sir Anson Goodyear (one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art in New York) were invited by their friend and politician Thami El Glaoui to Marrakesh. During their short trip to Morocco, they had the pleasure to meet with Hassan and seeing some of his work. Impressed by the talent of the young artist, they convinced the Pacha to let him present in Paris and New York in 1951 for the first time alongside Gladys Lloydand Robison's paintings. Both exhibitions were successes and Hassan was allowed to study abroad.

Beginning in the early 1950s, El Glaoui trained in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts under Jean Souverbie and Émilie Charmy. During his time in Paris he mastered drawing and oil paintings and was the first Moroccan artist to study art abroad.

He married a Frenchwoman of Egyptian origin, Évelyne Kahil. In 1954, he was injured in an automobile accident with his wife in Aix-les-Bains.

He was an heir to a 300-year-old dynasty of Berbers. Following his father's death in 1956 shortly after the independence of Morocco, his family's wealth was confiscated for a year. During a stay in Marrakech on the 1st of May 1957, he was kidnapped with three of his brothers by (a priori uncontrolled elements of Istiqlal), and remained detained for more than 18 months in different locations. The last location was near Casablanca in Boucheron.[4]

He decided to exile himself back to Paris after his liberation in late 1958. His first wife soon filed for divorce. He moved to an exentred place near the castle of Rambouillet, where he lived alone. He met his second wife Christine Legendre, a model for Hubert de Givenchy. They got married in Bruxelles in 1963.

The artist was widely exhibited in Europe and the United States, among other places at the time, and his work auctioned by Sotheby's and Christie's. [3][5]

In 1964 he moved back to Morocco to be closer to his mother. In 1965 [6] his first show since his return to Morocco was held in a large tent.[5]

His paintings follow the Moroccan figurative tradition, and his main subjects are military horses and their riders.[6] He rose to prominence in the 1980s with his modernist figurative paintings of fantasia horsemen landscapes and unique portrait.[5][7] He held solo shows in Paris (1950), New York (1951, 1967), London (1960), Brussels (1969), and Casablanca, and his works are collected in the Royal Palace Collection in Fez, Morocco, and the Parliament Collection in Rabat.[6] During his first show in New York, he stood out in his djellaba and retaining his polite demeanor.[8]

El Glaoui's works were appreciated by Moroccan Kings Hassan II and Mohamed VI.[9] [3]

Death and legacy

El Glaoui died on June 21, 2018 in Rabat, aged 94.[10][11][12]

In early 2012, El Glaoui's work was exhibited alongside Churchill's Moroccan paintings of Marrakech, as proposed by El Glaoui's daughter and curated by Daniel Robbins at the London Leighton House Museum.[3] The 2014 Marrakesh Biennale also showed the pairing.[13][14] His children are also in the fine arts industry. Touria El Glaoui started the contemporary African art fair 1:54,[15] and Ghizlan El Glaoui paints in a mosaic style.[16] His grandson Brice Bexter is a rising Moroccan and international Actor.[17]

African art broke records at Sothebys on April 2, 2019. Among the record-breaking works was "La Sortie du Roi" by Hassan El Glaoui, which sold for 137 500 £.[18]

Later in April 2019 the family organized with the MMVI an show with more than hundred unique paintings call "The Salt of my Earth" [19] to showcase unique artwork unknown to the public. The exhibition attracted more than 32 000 visitors in less than three months.

References
  1. Ahdani, Jassim (June 21, 2018). "Pionnier de l'art moderne marocain, Hassan El Glaoui s'éteint à 94 ans". TelQuel. Retrieved June 22, 2018.
  2. Rondeau, Gérard (1997). Figures du Maroc. Eddif. p. 177. ISBN 978-9981-09-007-1.
  3. Allsop, Laura (January 23, 2012). "Winston Churchill: Statesman, Sunday painter and talent scout". CNN. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  4. https://zamane.ma/fr/le-mysterieux-enlevement-des-fils-del-glaoui/amp/
  5. Jaggi, Maya (January 15, 2016). "Emerging markets offer original cultural voices". Financial Times. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  6. "El Glaoui, Hassan". Benezit Dictionary of Artists – via Oxford Art Online.
  7. Morocco. Michelin Travel Publications. 2001. p. 82. Archived from the original on March 26, 2018.
  8. Visson, Vladimir (1986). Visson, Lynn (ed.). Fair Warning: Memoirs of a New York Art Dealer. Tenafly, NJ: Hermitage. p. 129. ISBN 0-938920-72-3. OCLC 14904262.
  9. Sasportas, Valérie (December 4, 2014). "Hassan El Glaoui : "Je suis devenu peintre grâce à Churchill"". Le Figaro. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
  10. Zine, Ghita (June 21, 2018). "Doyen de la peinture marocaine, Hassan El Glaoui doit ses débuts à Winston Churchill". Yabiladi. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
  11. http://www.lesiteinfo.com/maroc/hassan-el-glaoui-hommage-a-un-grand-artiste/
  12. https://mobile.ledesk.ma/encontinu/hassan-el-glaoui-monument-de-la-peinture-marocaine-decede-lage-de-94-ans/
  13. "Winston Churchill: prime minister, painter and art promoter". The Art Newspaper. March 5, 2014. Archived from the original on January 3, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  14. Vora, Shivani (February 12, 2014). "In Marrakesh, Art by Churchill". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 25, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  15. Jaggi, Maya (March 27, 2015). "Africa's economic revival boosts art prices". Financial Times. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  16. Baker, Harriet (July 3, 2015). "Mosaics for modern times". Financial Times. Archived from the original on January 2, 2017. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  17. Owen-Jones, Juliette (August 24, 2019). "Brice El Glaoui Bexter: Morocco's Rising Star Discusses Film Industry, His Career". Morocco World News. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
  18. https://www.ft.com
  19. https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2019/04/269795/the-salt-of-my-earth-exhibit-hassan-el-glaoui/
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