Paris, France — Weaving words. Something every writer dreams of doing everyday. Franco-Moroccan artist Mehdi Qotbi has done just that and so much more. At first look it is all a dreamy mosaic of colors and shapes, colorful colors and extravagant shapes. Paintings that soothe and amuse. Upon closer inspection, the reality emerges. The reality is a serene ensemble of beautifully executed canvases where the onlooker becomes lost in a beautiful world of colors and swirls. These are the engaging masterful paintings of the Franco-Moroccan artist Mehdi Qotbi, works that transcend space, time and words, offering a wider world in which to dream and to be. These embody the written word, one is called Scipturality, halfway between a certain reality and script. Another is the Sound of Sea. There is indelibly a total mastery of the colors.

We watched over and over again, Regard sur le tapis. Hommage à ma mère tisseuse, loosely translated as Looking at the Carpet, Tribute to My Mother the Weaver. For the artist, his mother weaving vibrant colors and geometrical patterns on her home loom was one of the leading inspirations of his works, these works of woven words. « The first abstraction that I encountered was that of the Moroccan tapestry, an art handed down from my mother. Later I found again the colors of these carpets in the works of Cherkaoui, » commented Qotbi. Ahmed Cherkaoui is regarded as the master of Arabic Abstract painting.

For Qotbi, influenced by Morocann traditions and European art currents, invented a new « medium » the « unwriting », as he calls it, in which letters and Arabic symbols merge. For the very first time the Institut du monde arabe (IMA), The Institute of the Arab World, in Paris, is devoting a retrospective to this contemporary artist and his singular, unclassifiable works. The retrospective brings together about 100 works from the 1960s to the present , a rousing round-up of paintings, graphic works, tapestries and ceramics.

Mehdi Qotbi was born in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, in 1951 into a modest family and in which day to day life was difficult, which he credits with forging his optimism and resilience. He began studying at the Fine Arts Academy of Morocoo in 1967, leaving Morocco for France in 1969, obtaining his degree from the Fine Arts Academy of Toulouse in 1972 before journeying on to Paris. His works are exhibited in museums around the world. Today he brings his special brand of infectious optimism into his role as the president of the National Foundation of the Museums of Morocco and his commitment to render art accessible to all, maintaining that museums must bring together human beings and cultures. The retrospective in on until January 5th. Institut du Monde Arabe, 1 Rue des Fossés Saint-Bernard – Place Mohammed V, 75005 Paris, France. + 33 (0)1 40 51 38 38. http://www.imarabe.org/fr
©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette