Mohamed Khadda

Self-taught painter born in Mostaganem, Mohamed Khadda worked as a printer before studying art in Paris in the 1950s. Rather than copying European schools or nostalgic orientalism, he formulated a distinctly North African modernist aesthetic rooted in the sign, the glyph, and the arid colors of the Sahel.

Co-founding the National Union of Plastic Arts (UNAP) in 1964, he authored seminal theoretical essays on post-colonial art and illustrated the poetry of Jean Sénac and Tahar Djaout. His canvases hang in major museums across Europe and the Arab world.