02.01.1936–03.01.2023
Karim Bennani
Karim Bennani was born in Fez, left commercial studies for an art academy and in 1954 went to study at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1957 he showed work at the Galerie du Bac in Paris and was invited to the Alexandria Biennale. In 1972 he became a founding member of the Moroccan Association of Plastic Arts and its first president.
Biography
Commerce came first. The future painter began with commercial studies and left them in 1951.
Karim Bennani was born on 2 January 1936 in Fez. Some sources also give 1938, but I keep to 1936, which appears in the main biographical accounts. After leaving his commercial studies he enrolled at the Académie des arts de Fès, and in 1954 he went to Paris and was admitted to the Beaux-Arts de Paris, the national fine arts school. By some accounts he entered it together with Farid Belkahia, later one of the leading Moroccan artists. At the same time Bennani studied at the Académie Julian; according to some sources he also attended the Atelier Charpentier, but what kind of institution that was is hard to check. In 1957 he exhibited at the Galerie du Bac in Paris and received an invitation to the Alexandria Biennale (by some accounts, the second one). His next exhibition in Paris is linked to the Galerie Charpentier: by some accounts he showed work there in 1963 with other artists, by others in 1967. The exact date is not known.
After returning to Morocco he went on painting, but he spent much of his time on interior decoration and the design of public spaces. He worked for the Moroccan national tourist office and for the airline Royal Air Maroc.
In 1972 Bennani became a founding member of the Association Marocaine des Arts Plastiques (AMAP), the Moroccan association of visual artists, and its first president. In the 1970s the association was also headed by Mohamed Melehi and Hassan Slaoui, and in 1980 Bennani was elected president again. He held the post until 2003. At that point he stated publicly that he no longer wished to be president and was giving up his place; the painter Fouad Bellamine remarked that Bennani had been saying the same thing for years. He is counted among the pioneers of modern art in Morocco, alongside Jilali Gharbaoui, Ahmed Cherkaoui, Mohamed Melehi and Farid Belkahia. Little is known about his painting: one example is an untitled oil on canvas dated 1968. A solo retrospective was held in 2014 at the Mohamed Kacimi gallery in Fez.
Bennani died on 3 January 2023, the day after his birthday.
Profile notes