North Africa

Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya — countries with long-standing Berber and indigenous artistic traditions that gave North African modernism its distinctive character. Where Levantine and Egyptian artists trained predominantly in Paris and Rome, many North African modernists looked simultaneously to Europe and to the geometric and color traditions of Berber textile, ceramics, and architecture. Yahia Turki of Tunisia is often called the father of modern Tunisian painting; Farid Belkahia of Morocco co-founded the Casablanca School in the 1960s with a manifesto to root modernism in local craft, material, and tradition. Algerian artist Baya Mahieddine became one of the most internationally collected North African modernists, with works in the collections of the Centre Pompidou and MoMA.