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Revision as of 18:04, 15 March 2015 by King Solomon's Ring (talk | contribs) (Comments on some arguments set forth by the author of the initial article)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Ahmed Yacoubi (1928–1985) was a Moroccan painter, fine chef and story-teller. He was born in Fes, Morocco in 1928.
A Moroccan art scholar describes Yacoubi as "the best cultural ambassador Morocco ever had", having created a prolific body of spellbinding drawings and oil paintings of a caliber surpassing anything having been made since the Renaissance. In the process he portrayed the intelligence and grace of someone from the highest level of education although his background was of the oral traditions of ancient Fez. In the course of his life he generously informed, entertained, and amazed the international elite with his knowledge of the Koran, Moroccan traditions, fine cooking, and independent artistic accomplishments.
Paul Bowles, the American composer and writer, met Ahmed ben Driss el Yacoubi in 1947 in Fez and later in Tangier. Bowles and his wife Jane Bowles (the playwright) encouraged him to draw and paint the characters of his tales after seeing how well Yacoubi illustrated his translations for them.
Focused on recording different cultures' music for record labels in various countries, Paul Bowles invited Ahmed to continue to translate for him in Spain, Italy, Turkey, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Japan and then transcribed Yacoubi's own stories from Maghrebi (Moroccan Arabic) into English: "The Man and The Woman" (1956), "The Man Who Dreamed of Fish Eating Fish" (1956) and "The Game" (1961), and a play "The Night Before Thinking" which was published in the Evergreen Review in 1961 and later produced at The White Barn Theater in Westport, Connecticut.
The Bowles arranged for Yacoubi's first exhibition of drawings at the Gallimard Agency bookshop on the Boulevard Pasteur in Tangier. His art was highly acclaimed and 28 works were sold. Further exhibitions were held at the Galerie Clan in Madrid, the Betty Parsons Gallery in New Yorkin 1952, and then throughout the world. A wide range of notable collectors began acquiring his unusual and unselfconscious drawings and paintings, recognizing his level of rare talent and integrity.
In 1952 Paul Bowles invited Yacoubi to his island, Taprobane, located off the southern coast of Ceylon where Yacoubi prepared memorable meals for their guest Peggy Guggenheim (mentioned in her book Confessions of an Art Addict) and where she purchased several of his drawings.
Although Ahmed had begun painting in oil, upon meeting in Tangier, Francis Bacon catalyzed him further by, according to Allen Ginsberg, painting four small canvases blue and telling him to 'Paint'! The two collaborated and painted together, remaining friends for the duration of their lives.
Further exhibitions followed in 1957 at the Hanover Gallery in London and worldwide throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, receiving serious acclaim with his paintings being collected by the world's top collectors, including the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, La Musee de l'Art Moderne in Paris, and the Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Yacoubi lived and travelled with an American writer named Ruth Marthen and in 1965 in Tangier had their beautiful daughter Karima Yacoubi who demonstrated at an early age the same highly creative talents as both of her parents. Yacoubi continued to exhibit in Tangier, London, New York, Cleveland, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Paris, and Rome.
Ahmed Yacoubi evolved what was originally described as a "primitive" style to a highly complex, sophisticated and secret technique of layering in oil glazes that produced canvases of mesmerizing depth and complexity, amazing viewers and critics alike.
In 1966 Yacoubi moved to the United States and continued to work prolifically, exhibit and travel, meeting and being host to diverse and international artists, writers, collectors, politicians and connoisseurs.
Befriending Peggy Hitchcock and her husband Walter Bowart, owner and publisher of Omen Press, Yacoubi collaborated with friends at their ranch in Tucson and eventually published his first cookbook, "The Alchemist's Cookbook" that became something of a collector's item. Returning to New York, thanks to the support of Ellen Stewart (La Mama of the Off Off Broadway theatrical world) Yacoubi lived and painted on Great Jones Street in the East Village where he met the artist Carol Cannon in 1976. They lived and painted together for seven years, parting as friends and still collaborating on exhibits and projects such as the screenplay of his play "The Night Before Thinking". Three years later, Yacoubi received news of the robbery of his paintings and beautiful Moroccan antiques from his studio in Tangier simultaneous to his being diagnosed with lung cancer. He died on December 25, 1985, at the age of 57.
His heir, daughter Karima, died suddenly of respiratory problems in London in 2004 at the age of 44.
His work and life has yet to receive the full measure of study and appreciation that critics, collectors, and all of those who knew him and his work believe they deserve. In 2006 his remaining estate of work was purchased by Carol Cannon from Karima Yacoubi's heirs in order to preserve and further the public's knowledge of this great artist. An art enthusiast and agent from Morocco named Mohammed Tazi contacted Cannon to help promote the revival of his reputation in Morocco and suggested the return of Yacoubi's remains to Morocco which transpired through the direction of the King of Morocco and the signature of Yacoubi's son Soufian, whom the artist never had the opportunity to know. Yacoubi received an honorary burial in Tangier where he had a studio for decades, his grave overlooking the Mediterranean rather than the expected region of his family's native Fez.
Tazi's hard work and collaboration with Cannon came to an abrupt end when he withheld the sum of a major auction sale in Casablanca of "Man and His Objects" in December 2010. The painting is said to have been acquired for a museum in the United Arab Emirates.
Yacoubi's personality and unique work has begun to enjoy global appreciation again. The American Archives of Art, an arm of the Smithsonian Institution has requested Yacoubi's archives of letters, photographs, poetry, and newspaper articles. The French writer, Mona Thomas, published Tanger 54 about a pastel portrait of Yacoubi mysteriously signed "William Burroughs" although likely done by Francis Bacon at William Burroughs apartment in Tangier in 1954. The pastel was featured in a major exhibit in The Lambert Collection in Avignon, France in 2013. The entries into Ahmed Yacoubi's Catalog Raisonne has greatly increased thanks to world-wide collectors submitting the information on the works of his that they still enjoy and usually obtained through some remarkable meeting with Yacoubi. An official and in-depth biography and monograph have been compiled by the art scholar Nadia Choukri who has also organized a retrospective of collected works expected to be presented in Casablanca. In June 2014, The Barjeel Art Foundation of Dubai acquired a large, untitled pastel colored oil painting at auction in Tangier. Two more works from French and Canadian collections are featured in Christie's Dubai auction of March 18, 2015. Ms. Anura Saparamadu is writing a book on artists who produced work while in Ceylon in which some of Yacoubi's vibrantly colored drawings and history are featured. My Years with Ahmed is being written by Cannon that reveals much of Yacoubi's history from 1976 through to present day. A major retrospective of his work is expected in North America in 2016.
Mr. Mohammed Tazi did not withhold the sale of the painting as the author of the article suggests. Instead he deposited Carol Cannon's share of the money in a bank account and wrote a letter for her to come and collect her money in Morocco because the auction house who took care of the sale of the painting did not keep the promise to transfer the money to Carol Cannon's account in The US and there was no way Mr. Tazi could have wired the money to Carol Cannon because of the ongoing exchange control in Morocco. Mr. Tazi sent a letter, still available, to Carol Cannon in this respect telling to come to Morocco where the money was waiting for her. Ms. Cannon had given ultimatums to Mr. Mohammed Tazi to get her money by February at the latest while the auction house was late in paying Mohammed Tazi who received the money in March.
It was a whole scheme by Carol Cannon to dispossess Mr. Tazi of the hard work he had put in the whole project for four years and who had attained excellent results that is the revival of Ahmed Yacoubi's work. Even the exhibitions list which is in Ms. Cannon's web site: www.ahmedyacoubi.com is the work of Mr. Tazi not of Ms. Cannon.
The whole correspondence by email between Ms. Carol Cannon and Mr. Mohammed Tazi is available from the latter to prove all the arguments put forward by Mr. Tazi.
As to "Tanger 54" written by Mona Thomas, it was a work unworthy of such a reputable author who gave a version of Ahmed Yacoubi's life completely erroneous, full of lies and pervert to serve the purpose of her book with the support of Ms. Cannon who had also the reputation of her forthcoming book in mind. In www.ahmedyacoubi.info Mr. Mohammed Tazi gives a completely different version of the whole story and even demonstrates that the famous "Norman Drawing" on which the whole Mona Thomas' book is based, is attributed to Brion Gysin, a very close friend of William Burroughs whose face is the subject of the drawing and therefore cannot be attributed to Francis Bacon, hypothesis confirmed by the Francis Bacon's Foundation to whom Mona Thomas had written two years before her book was published but despite the Foundation opinion attributes the drawing to Francis Bacon; more comments about the book can be found on www.ahmedyacoubi.info
Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).</ref></ref>==External links==
- Unknown Aspects of Ahmed Yacoubi's Life & Art
- Ahmed Yacoubi official website
- Ahmed Yacoubi biography
- The Francis Bacon Foundation