Moroccan artist Chaïbia Talal, who died in 2004, could not read or write. Regardless, she expressed herself clearly through her lively, striking paintings.
According to one obituary, Talal, who was born in the rural Moroccan village of Chtouka in 1929, started painting after being visited in a dream by a group of men dressed in white who handed her brushes and a canvas. Talal did not have an easy early life. She was just 13 when she got married, only to be widowed two years later having had a son, Hocein, who played an important role in her career and became an artist himself.
“Chaïbia was an extraordinary artist for whom painting was a life-saving activity,” Abdellah Karroum, a curator and the former director of the Mathaf museum in Doha, tells Arab News.
“She had a vision that her art could give her the personal strength and social confidence that she critically needed as a young single mother,” he continues.
In her figurative, cartoonish paintings, Talal didn’t hold back on her flamboyant choice of colors and forms. “Chaïbia produced original paintings, representing her life and surrounding society. She (focused heavily) on scenes of women, gatherings and celebrations, because she enjoyed their beauty and the importance of their role,” says Karroum.
Initially, Talal’s work was largely overlooked in her homeland, where the art scene was dominated by men. Things took a turn, however, when Talal began showcasing her art to Western audiences, most significantly at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1966. From that year until 1980, her work — often categorized as ‘outsider art,’ as it followed no traditional schools, unsurprisingly since Talal was entirely self-taught — was exhibited widely in Europe.
In recent years, her paintings have also been acquired by top museums in the Gulf and North Africa, thanks, in part, to encouragement from Karroum.
“Chaïbia (did become) famous during her lifetime,” he says. “But I think she deserved much greater recognition.”
March 8, 2024
