Maroc : Un art de vivre, voyage architectural de Casablanca à Marakech

by Lisl Dennis, Landt Dennis

Morocco is an exhilarating combination of vivid sensuality and intense spirituality, an intoxicating blend of cultures. Berber, Arab, French, English, and the country's rich mixture of heritages is matched by its geography, which ranges from coast to mountain to desert.This revised edition of Living in Morocco celebrates the indigenous arts of a country at the height of a cultural renaissance. Morocco is known for fine leather and for pottery that dates back a thousand years. Berber rugs are justly famous, and there is a thriving tradition of woodworking, especially in the native thuya wood. Most extraordinary, though, is Morocco's decorative painting and tilework, where, forbidden by religion to depict human figures, craftsmen have developed a vocabulary of pattern and ornament. The book is filled with brightly colored ceilings, decorated courtyards and walls, plaster of Paris carved and painted in intricate geometrics, tiles so small that 150 could fit in a matchbox.Lavishly illustrated chapters on decorative and folk arts alternate with chapters on Moroccan life today. We visit Chaouen in the Rif Mountains (a city only recently open to Westerners), where the town's undulating surfaces are painted a bone-chilling blue-tinted white. We peer into an abandoned kasbah in the Sahara, and absorb the sights, sounds, and smells of the frenzied souk. We take time out in the shady blue-and-pink environs of the Majorelle Gardens, laid out by French painter Jacques Majorelle, and explore the story behind La Mamounia, the famous hotel that has welcomed such guests as Winston Churchill. Most important, we see Morocco's arts brought to life in its homes -- from former harems totraditional Hispano-Moorish houses.

Genres: Art, Travel, Photography

252 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautiful coffee table book was mesmerizing to me. I traveled to Morocco two years ago and was overwhelmed by the crush of humanity and the filth and trash. I found Morocco nothing like this book. I wonder if I had read the book before I went whether I would have had my eyes open to the basis of the culture's beauty, or whether I would have been terribly disappointed to not see these fantastic places featured in this beautiful book.

The book made me wish I had found one of the beautiful red, black, and grey Berber rugs. They are magnificent.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

good resource book