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Mehdi Qotbi Morocco    PWF 2014

Looking at Mehdi Qotbi’s painting is like traveling through signs at the crossroads of language and painting.

“Is it color or language this stream of signs, upstroke of arabesques and regulary rain of fonts? Everything is mystery, silence hidden in the links of writing” remarks Dominique de Villepin.

Mehdi Qotbi was born in 1951 in Rabat. When he first drew a tiger on the wall of his military high school—even though he had never drawn before—everyone was deeply impressed by his work. He decided to quit school and study at Les Beaux-arts—first in Rabat, then in Toulouse and Paris.

During his thirty-seven year stay in Paris, Qotbi’s work has often been done in co-operation with writers: Adonis, Amié Cesairé, Léopold Sédar Senghor, Michel Butor, Nathalie Sarraute, Octavio Paz—and painters such as Jiří Kolař.

In 1991, he created the Cercle d'amitié franco-marocain (Circle of French-Moroccan Friendship). His awards include: Officier des Arts et Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters), Officier de la Légion d'honneur (Order of the Legion of Honour), and Officier de l'Ordre du Trône (Order of the Throne). His piantings are exhibited throughout the world.

In 2011, Mehdi Qotbi was appointed by King Mohammed VI to the position of president of the newly created Fondation nationale des musées (National Foundation of Museums).

Mehdi Qotbi lives in Casablanca.