1977

“In far earlier and happier days, the exhibitions recording my often prolonged stays in Morocco would elicit a flurry of articles, most of them laudatory. One of my former pupils even preserved an interview I had given a journalist in 1947. It described in the following words the delectable impressions I harvested from my journeys to Morocco, and I can assert that, with the passage of time, they have survived undimmed: “Journeying to Morocco has nothing of Ulysses’ Odyssey, or Byron’s peregrinations. And besides, I don’t think many adventurers would have strayed down this avenue. This is a country far better suited to people of Baudelairean inspiration, who afford room for observation and contemplation. Here, travel is an invitation to let time stand still, to engage in nostalgic retrospection, to discover the muted yet deep harmony that Baudelaire saw in Delacroix’ sense of colour. The full realisation of this penetrating insight can come only from intimate knowledge of Morocco. Could this harmony spring from the Moroccan sun? Its light, unrivalled and striking, generates contrasting atmospheres and tones. And yet, through all the shades and hues it generates, it nourishes the Moroccans’ spiritual and materiel harmony.

During my many stays over there, I have been shown hospitality in both humble dwellings and magnificent riads. All the inhabitants share the same veneration for harmony, regardless of their lifestyle. Harmony pervades their beliefs and hopes, just as it insinuates itself into the everyday objects of which the manufacture reflects centuries-old tradition, as do clothes, carpets or pottery. The Moroccans have subtly struck root in this harmonious environment. Besides, they have some share in the general balance of this ambient décor which centuries have built up. I am well aware that this harmony in everything, both visible and spiritual, can disconcert a Westerner obsessed with progress and dominated by materialism to the point of imposing on other cultures his cult for brash novelty. A Moroccan or a poet is felicitously predisposed to perceive such harmony and let himself be pervaded with its beauty.”

“A testimony of the affectionate esteem in which Edy Legrand always held me.”

“Artcurial had purchased the exclusive rights to all my works from 1974 to 1979 and, during that period, my Moroccan canvases were hung both at the exhibition devoted to me at Avenue Matignon, and also at my exhibitions mounted by this impressive gallery abroad.”