French Colonial Art Education in Morocco

Abstract

French art education in the Protectorate of Morocco (1912-1956) played a major role in supporting the colonial agenda in this North African country. The tendency to locate Moroccan art production within an explanatory frame of fine arts--understood in its narrowest sense--and with little or no reference to the larger political and economic conditions of its production, has led a number of contemporary Moroccan art historians and critics to offer only partial explanations of the country’s art production during this important and formative period. In attempting to address the formation of Moroccan art production, my aim is to provide, instead, some wider parameters by focusing on art education in relation to the much larger economic and social processes of craft industry. This essay draws mainly from archival material that, up till this date, has not been published in either book form or essays.