The Life and Mystique of Abbas Saladi
A Creative Exercise
Foreword
The following text is a creative exercise I have taken on to demonstrate my admiration for Abbas Saladi and his work. Often, artists become canonical throughout history posthumously. For centuries, art historians have taken on the role of writing about artists through speculative narratives. In this sense, I like to believe that this is a similar exercise. However, considering Art History is very westernized, I am breaking free from the canon to pay homage to an artist who lived in the margins of all other possible margins. This exercise also epitomizes everything about my framework; understanding that speculative narratology is a tool that can bring us closer to a truth. Ultimately, our place in a colonial paradigm is nothing more but a speculation in motion.
Everything that Abbas Saladi (1940-1992) touches become fiction. Suspended between a colourful imaginary and a life weighed down by shadows, Abbas Saladi is the archetypical tortured artist. Forgotten by his peers and the rest of the world, Saladi is an orphan to his own life and work. His paintings, however, often perceived as mystical and a window to the world of spirits are also testament to his own imprint (or lack thereof) in the art world. In writing about Saladi, perhaps I am also trying to understand and capture an essence that I seek for in my own identity. Looking at Abbas Saladi’s paintings, one can sense that his art transcends verbal and textual communication. Additionally, the absence of a thorough record of his life as an artist is perhaps a necessary detail that allows me to directly look at his paintings for the answers, a universe where reality is fiction and where the narrative prevails[1].
The city of the Seven Spirits[2], that is where Saladi was born, on the 27th night of Ramadan. Morocco is still under French occupation in 1950, and Marrakesh was slowly losing its colours under the oppression. Abbas Saladi will grow up as an orphan, surviving in Jema el-Fna[3], the legendary city square that has witnessed congregations of artists, acrobats, storytellers and people from all corners of the world for centuries. From the day he opened his eye in this ochre city, Saladi has been bathing in delirium and creativity. Snake charmers, trance gatherings, red kasbahs and the walls of the local psychiatric hospital; that is the world of Abbas Saladi for four decades. When not institutionalized, Saladi sells his paintings to European tourists in the old city square for a few dirhams.
In a historical place like Marrakesh, locals believe that the city hides a spiritual realm, one that can only be unlocked through a strong connection with the jinns and spiritual ancestors. With no immediate family to support him, Saladi turns into the spiritual world from a young age, searching for answers (and comfort beyond anything else). These otherworldly subconscious encounters are then transmitted into his paintings, which become larger in scale and more colorful toward the end of his life.
It is the case of L’offrande (c. 1990-1992) (fig.1), a 206x103cm oil painting depicting what looks like a large gathering or rather a Sufi festival (mawsim)[4]. This painting appears to be constantly in movement the more we look at it, capturing the lively essence of the city of Marrakesh. One can notice the main door of Marrakesh (Bab Dokkala) in the centre of the painting behind the main scenes, a door believed to have been the main entrance for traveling saints and anybody coming to the imperial city for healing. The foreground depicts a large group of beings that resemble each other. A chimeric green creature stands in the centre, on an adorned horse. This detail seems to be reminiscent of classical medieval depictions of al-Buraq[5]. In this sense, L’offrande is about an offering to spiritual beings and ultimately could point to a mystical ascension. Considering L’offrande was Saladi’s last painting, which took almost a full year for him to complete, between his modest home in Marrakesh and the hospital where he would be institutionalized occasionally. During the last 5 years of his life, Saladi’s work was slowly receiving more acclamation, especially from French art collectors. Saladi, however, remained an isolated artist, always vacillating between survival and delirium.
L'offrande is reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s pictorial universe, but Saladi paints an idiosyncratic vision of paradise where Bosch paints hell. In his last year, Saladi does not appear to be fearful of death or his battle with his mental health. In fact, as depicted in the painting, it seems that he views this transition as an ascension toward a more harmonious colourful world. Saladi takes the same route every day to go to the souk, he meets friends or journalists sometimes over coffee and tea in the Old Medina. He is embraced by the ether that is Marrakesh, with its street vendors, snake charmers, fortune tellers and performers. He returns home before the Maghrib prayer, sundown is the time when the two realms collide for a moment to open the gates of the night for the jinns to dwell. This is when Saladi sits down to complete his painting, illuminated by the candles around his room against the blue hues of the evening with which he paints the ground of his vision on canvas. In these moments, L’offrande takes on the fabula[6] of the artist’s life itself, almost conjuring up the forces and the spirits that have guided him his whole life. Beyond the argument of the tortured artist gone mad, this painting is a window into his time in the zawiyas[7], dancing and chanting through the nights to heal with the power of the seven saints. The grounds are blue to emulate the heavens, Saladi is not painting another world, he is painting the Night of Power[8]. He depicts himself as a bird, ready to ascend on the holiest night of the Islamic calendar, the same night he was born. Two months after completing his painting, Abbas Saladi’s soul ascends to the heavens, leaving behind but pictorial visions to remember him.
1. Mieke Bal, “Introduction,” in Narratology: Introduction to a Theory of Narrative,” 3.
2. “Seven Saints of Marrakesh,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Saints_of_Marrakesh.
3. “The Cultural Space of Jemaa el-Fna Square,” UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/cultural-space-of-jemaa-el-fna-square-00014.
4. “Mawsim,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawsim.
5. Christiane Gruber, “Buraq in Islamic Pictorial Traditions”, 321-22.
6. Fabula: The chronological sequence of events experienced by actors. From Mieke Bal, “Introduction,” Narratology: Introduction to a Theory of Narrative,” 5.
7. “Zawiya (Institution),” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawiya_(institution).
8. “In Islamic belief, the night when Muslims believe the Quran was first sent down from heaven to the world, also the night when its first verses were revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.” From
“Night of Power,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_Power#cite_note-Saleh-2.
Thank you for always opening windows on north african culture and arts. Is Abbas Saladi still recognized in Morocco?
Beautiful narrative and a really thoughtful approach. Thank you for teaching me many new things with this. 🫶🏽