Mustapha El Belyasmine exhibition at the Lawrence Arnott Gallery Marrakech 26 February-21 March

His very personal technique captures the movement so that in its crowd scenes, for example, it does not just paint a moment in time, but a "time slip" of a millisecond, seizing the character motion, light and shadow, and shimmering heat.

Using inert media such as his brushes, his paintings and his paintings, he is not trying to evoke a photographic stillness, but rather seeks to represent the cinematic quality of what he observed. In DOS Fatimah, a fauvist composition promptly executed, it seeks not only to represent the kaftans draping his subjects and the quality of fabrics, but also by quick brushstrokes and executed sparingly on the hips, buttocks , shoulders and arms, he instills a real sense of kinetic energy. This is not a dryly academic painting, a study of ethnic dresses bought at the bazaar, run by a poor Orientalist without any sense of reality, his canvas is instead imbued with a real sense of place , time, culture, the essence of a Moroccan on which there is no escape.

The ability to imbue his paintings gives Belyasmine a real sense of kinetic energy is also evident in his landscapes. In Kouba in Spring Landscape grasses swaying in the wind and clouds run in a turquoise sky. The direction of movement is specific, from right to left wind gently fragrant spring embrace the landscape, before those of the summer does make it as dry as firewood. Once again, the artist demonstrates his talent for capturing time, movement and a wonderful sense of place. It is a sensitive work of an artist in pursuit of a love affair with Morocco, its fields and streets, its mountains and mosques, but also his soul, that distinctiveness granted by God to different people, before globalization and multiculturalism are not corrupt.

In Table to Lemonade, the artist combines the art of the portrait and landscape painter, but none of the two elements do not dominate the other, a synergy of differentiated brush strokes, palette and a moderate movement harmonized. Again, there is a Moroccan in this work, an observation in love with real people at some point. But, alas, the world is not static. Change, like death, is a result of the "fall". The lemonade bottles, glass, plastic and cloth are the harbingers of change, relentless pressure to achieve "modernity", this marketing nirvana wrong!

Lunch with Jemma El Fna is an evocative portrait as it is honest. It is essentially devoid of any reference iconographic howl: "Marrakech!". Chiefs and servers, with their white caps and aprons, could work anywhere in the world, in a McDonald's in Beijing or in Roman trattoria, but there is something in the roof slopes, the cuboid buildings, walls, tinted pink, long tables on their stages, which are an absolute way this humble scene in Marrakesh, as well as the obvious presence of the majestic Koutoubia!

The Lawrence Arnott Gallery has a well deserved reputation for discovering and promoting talented artists. This reputation can only be enhanced by this exhibition. Mustapha El Belyasmine has what unfortunately many painters lack, an artist's soul and his soul is a soul of a Moroccan lover of his country. It is this palpable love, added to its undeniable technical qualities that make his paintings so aesthetically pleasing they are spiritually good!

Andrew Clandermond and Dr. Terence MacCarthy
Art Critics




Opening Saturday 26 February 1900-2100.