Fez — Mazad & Art is preparing one of its most ambitious sales yet at Sofitel Marrakech, with more than 160 works that move from 19th century Orientalism to some of the most recognizable names in modern and contemporary Moroccan art.
The auction will take place on Saturday, December 27 at 5 p.m., with public viewings scheduled in the days leading up to the sale.
A tribute that opens the catalog
The catalog opens with a text by Mazad & Art founder Chokri Bentaouit, paying tribute to Tangier artist Najoua El Hitmi, who passed away in 2025. Known for creating cultural spaces such as Zaouia and Factory and for her restless curiosity that took her from Peru to Japan, El Hitmi is remembered in the introduction as an artist who left a lasting mark on Morocco’s contemporary scene. The homage sets the tone for a sale that looks at Moroccan art as both memory and ongoing movement.
Orientalist views and Moroccan landscapes
The first part of the auction is devoted to Orientalism, with paintings by Edwin Lord Weeks, Henri Pontoÿ, Narcisse Berchère, Max Tilke, Gaston Durel and Marcel Busson. Their works revisit familiar motifs of the genre: markets, horsemen, kasbahs and everyday life in cities and desert edges.
Moroccan landscapes also occupy a central place. Scenes of Fez, Marrakech, the Atlas Mountains, the Bouregreg valley and the Souss region appear in works by artists such as Jacques Majorelle, Brondy, Anderbouhr and Barranco. Together they offer an image of the country that is both mineral and luminous, moving from dense urban fabrics to open horizons.
From modern masters to today’s voices
The sale then shifts toward Moroccan modern art, with works by Chaibia Talal, Miloud Labied, Mohammed Hamidi, Hariri, Fquih Regragui, Bencheffaj and Hassan El Glaoui. These pieces span abstraction, bold color fields and more intimate narratives, showing how Moroccan painters have reworked form and tradition across the 20th century.
Contemporary artists are also strongly represented. Soufiane Idrissi, Soumaya Khattabi, Aziz Benja, Hind Lahrichi, Narjisse El Joubari, Mahi Binebine and Zakaria Ramhani bring a more current vocabulary of gesture, texture and storytelling. Hind Lahrichi’s paintings, in particular, invite viewers to slow down and look closely. Critics describe her approach as capturing fragile moments where nature seems to hesitate between full brightness and disappearance, turning subtle shifts of tone into emotional landscapes.
Photography and sculpture complete the picture. A key lot is Youssef Nabil’s photograph “Trois filles en studio,”, shot in Cairo in 1993 and presented here in a rare 1/3 edition. Sculptural works by Bencheffaj and Fquih Regragui add a three-dimensional counterpoint, extending themes of balance, mass and movement into space.
A sale open to the public
Ahead of the auction, the public will be able to discover the works at Sofitel Marrakech during open exhibition days on December 25 and 26 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on December 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For collectors, students and art lovers, the event offers a compact view of Moroccan visual culture, from Orientalist gazes on the country to the many ways its own artists have chosen to represent it since.
