Saad Ben Cheffaj

Scène à Tétouan, 1986

Unique Artwork

Oil on Canvas

CM H 180 W 85

IN H 70.87 W 33.46

Signed by artist

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About the work

Scène à Tétouan, 1986

While his paintings are generally described as earthy and gloomy, Scène à Tétouan is only Azurean blue and sparkling white. Blue for the sky and the sea, white for the light flooding the immaculate walls of the Mediterranean city. The artist depicts his city as he has always known it. Do you imagine Saad Ben Chaffaj as a child, in the foreground, walking his alleys from the first light of day. The smells are enticing, the bread is hot: the beginning of a beautiful day and the prospect of happy memories. A cheerful and comforting picture, with perhaps a touch of nostalgia.

Scène à Tétouan is part of the permanent collection of the MACAAL.

About artist

Saad Ben Cheffaj

Saâd Ben Cheffaj was born in 1939 in Tetouan.

Saâd Ben Cheffaj was one of the first Moroccan artists to receive academic training in painting. After studying at the Seville School of Fine Arts in 1957, he took courses in art history at the Louvre School in Paris. He then returned to Spain to obtain, in 1962, the diploma of professor at the Santa Isabel School of Fine Arts in Hungria, Seville. In 1965, Saâd Ben Cheffaj returned to Morocco to teach art history, drawing and painting at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Tetouan.

He has known several periods (ﬁguration, expressionism, neo-realism, abstraction), before leading to this earthy painting, with a dark glow, which characterizes his last works. A painter, with half a century of intimacy with painting, can almost paint with his eyes closed. In any case, it goes beyond the perception by the retina alone.

Since 1960, Ben Cheffaj's works have appeared in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Morocco, Spain, France, Peru, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. His works are also included in the permanent collection of the Fondation Cartier, Paris (France) and the Fondation Kamel Lazaar, Geneva (Switzerland).

Saâd Ben Cheffaj lives and works in Tetouan.

About Museum

MACAAL - Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden

In 2016, Fondation Alliances committed itself to long-term public action in order to contribute to the development of educational and cultural leisure activities in Marrakech by offering the city an art museum.

The Museum of African Contemporary Art Al Maaden (MACAAL), Marrakech, is an independent, not-for-profit contemporary art museum and one of the first of its kind in North Africa.

MACAAL is dedicated to the promotion of African art across a range of media, with diverse exhibition and educational programmes. The museum nurtures an understanding of contemporary African art by collecting and exhibiting both established and emerging artists, and highlighting the creative energy and cultural diversity found across the continent.

MACAAL is a philanthropic initiative of Moroccan art collectors Alami Lazraq and his son Othman Lazraq. It forms part of their charitable not-for-profit association Fondation Alliances, which focuses on supporting cultural development in Morocco. Motivated by a passion for the arts, and managed by Othman, MACAAL brings the Lazraq family’s private collection of modern and contemporary African art, built up over the past 40 years, to a broader audience.

Othman Lazraq — President
Mouna Lazraq — Head of the Commercial Department
Meriem Berrada — Artistic Director
Janine Dieudji — Exhibitions Director
Hanaa El mrabet — Sales and Event Planning Manager
Yassir Yarji — Gallery Educator

MACAAL
Al Maaden, Sidi Youssef Ben Ali
40000 Marrakech, Morocco Read more