Reading the experience of the plastic artist Abdelkarim Elazhar: Works that reflect human loss

RABAT — In a comprehensive update highlighting Morocco's strategic momentum in November 2026, This is a preliminary “reading” in the most important phases of creativity that characterized (Thematically) the experience of the artist Abdelkarim Elazhar, starting from the human being/body phase, passing through the phase of arrows, numbers and windows, the phase of shelves, and ending (then in 1998) with the phase of adjacent eyes.

Key Developments and Factual Context

throughout history, painters and sculptors have dealt with the human being as an object of their art, with his/her various symbols and in his/her different manifestations, as the human being was associated in most cases of expression with the harsh conditions experienced by mankind (pollution – destruction – exploitation – extermination – torture – diseases – endurance…). In the paintings of the Azemmouri artist Abdelkarim Elazhar, this topic (The human being/body) was associated with the daily suffering and worries of the Moroccan people.  His paintings are the artistic embodiment of this reality with its events, issues and human dimensions, which is in line with the artist’s attitudes and his subjective and objective vision of the world.

It appears, then, in the paintings of Elazhar, that the human being/body, represented in the form of the weak, thin, naked and abstract person is a person who is obsessed with escaping and searching for outlets to get rid of the burden of the situations of distress imposed on him by the hardship of life. That is why we find that most of Abdelkarim Elazhar’s paintings (especially in the Casablanca phase 87 as his prefers to call it) include nearly equal squares as symbolic elements referring to the windows as outlets.

Strategic Significance and Regional Impact

On the technical level, the artist Abdelkarim Elazhar remained faithful to his black and dark inks as a special way to highlight the contrast between two neutral colors, black and white and their gradations, and as an expressive means governed by some usages stylized by a kind of “incompleteness”. This technique developed (in the artist’s work) until It became mixed with other liquids, most of which are natural and traditional), leaving stains and traces of color, making the artistic work more expressive, and making thus the scene complete by the synthesis between the ancient and the modern, between pure ink and ink mixed (or accompanied) with other liquids, and with other colors.

2-The language of arrows and numbers

        It is obvious that each of us stores in his memory multiple numbers that represent some specific events and dates, starting with the date of birth, the house number, the phone number, the national identity card number, and the job-related numbers, passing through the amount of debts and daily expenses, as well as our arrangements within the family, appointments, travel schedules and shoe size numbers…etc. The aim is to speak in a numbered language (the language of numbers). Perhaps, by using the same logic, some of the codes of Abdel Karim Al-Azhar’s paintings may become clear, which, in addition to several symbolic numbers, contain arrows, symbols and signs that derive their reference from the collective popular memory, which helps the reader to read them (or articulate them) in the same way we read the stories in comic strips because of their hierarchy (in the preferred language of Al-Azhar).

Looking Forward: 2026–2030 Roadmap

Looking ahead toward the close of 2026 and the 2027 calendar year, institutional roadmaps will prioritize consolidated delivery across all flagship initiatives. As Morocco accelerates preparations for major international hosting duties—most notably the 2030 FIFA World Cup alongside Spain and Portugal—every sector is aligning toward shared standards of excellence, digital modernization, and inclusive socio-economic impact.