Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art MMVI is hosting the exhibition of "The Mediterranean and Modern Art". This important and unprecedented exhibition in Morocco, under the High Patronage of HM King Mohammed VI and the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, represents the views and angles chosen around modernity through the contribution of art unity around the Mediterranean, and at the same time the diversity, the contributions, the enrichment, the participation and the culture of each nation. This major exhibition, organized by the National Foundation of Morocco’s Museums and the Georges Pompidou Center runs until August 27. It brings together in nine sections, both chronological and thematic, no less than eighty paintings, sculptures and photographs. It pays tribute to great artists who have marked the history of painting, such as Picasso, Braque, Miro, Dali, Kandinsky and Marquet.

This major event brings together the greatest masters of the twentieth century; it explores the relationship between the Mediterranean universe and modern art, the Mediterranean being considered as a physical space and as an imaginary.

In 9 sections, the exhibition focuses on the extended stay on the French Riviera of 3 giants of 20th century painting. The originality of this exhibition also lies in the fact that it welcomes photography with two dedicated rooms, during the interwar period and after 1945. Mr. Mehdi Qotbi, president of the National Foundation of Museums of Morocco, highlighted the importance of this event for Morocco and for the African continent, noting that it is the first time in all the continent and in the Arab world, an exhibition brings together so many great names in 20th century painting, who have crossed the Mediterranean and made an appointment in Rabat.

The special interest that HM King Mohammed VI continues to give to arts and culture in general, It is in this context that the George Pompidou Center, one of the two largest museums of modern and contemporary art in the world, has partnered with the National Museums Foundation and the MMVI to present such an exhibition and share its collection with the Moroccans.

The Mediterranean and Modern Art Exhibition offers historical masterpieces

This exhibition gives even more brilliance to the capital in the world, alongside major events such as Mawazine and Jidar. This event offers the visitor to reconsider the history of art of the twentieth century in its relationship with space and the Mediterranean imaginary, brings together, in nine sections at once chronological and thematic, no less than eighty paintings, sculptures and photographs.

The first section entitled "Birth of the modern landscape (1900-1914)" highlights masterpieces by Georges Braque, André Derain and Albert Marquet, while the "Exotismes (1900-1930)" discusses the travels of different artists, including those of the Russian painter Vassily Kandinsky, who stayed in Tunisia, or Henri Matisse in Algeria. The third room is devoted to "Photographic Shores (1930-1945)" with photographers such as Pierre Boucher, André Kertesz and André Steiner immortalizing in the glittering light of this Mediterranean universe, the economic and human reality of the region.

The three major painters Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso are in the spotlight in the 4th room under the theme "Ateliers du Midi (1920-1960)" while the 5th section highlights "The Catalan Foyer (1920-1970) "where the spotlight is focused on the artistic milieu of Barcelona gathering works by Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró and Antoni Tàpies.

The exhibition also gives the opportunity to rediscover "The Avant-garde Art Festival of Marseille (1956)", and a second section dedicated to photography that evokes the period from the 1950s to the years 2000. The section "About Nice (1960-1980)" reveals in the room 8 works of New Realists like Arman or Martial Raysse. The exhibition offers also creations of the Support-Surfaces group, founded notably by Vincent Bioulès and Claude Viallat, whose visitors will be able to admire the works alongside work by Pierre Buraglio and Louis Cane who challenge traditional painting.

As part of this exhibition, two rooms have been devoted to photography through the sections "Photographic Shorelines 1930-1945" and "A Mediterranean Photograph 1956-1998". The other sections are entitled "The Workshops of Noon 1940-1955", featuring works by Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, "The Catalan foyer 1920-1968", "Marseille, Festival of avant-garde art 1956 "," About Nice 1960-1980 "and" Around supports / surfaces 1967-1977 ".

Visitors under the spell of wonderful works of art

Visitors to the exhibition "The Mediterranean and Modern Art" were charmed by eighty wonderful works of art, divided between paintings, photographs and sculptures, and covering several stages in the history of 20th century art. The Mediterranean is characterized not only by visible light, which nourishes the land, but also by "the intellectual, religious, political, artistic lights that have fecundated the minds throughout history. Thanks to the long legacy of Moroccan, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Arab-Muslim civilizations, the artists of the exhibition were able to mark the entrance of modernity and became the ferments of the new relationship woven between the two shores.

At the same time cradles of the origin of the world and tomb at the time of great migrations, the shores of the Mediterranean, which were blessed, have become often bruised today, hence the need to reinvent them together in a space is more fraternal.