Ahmed Cherkaoui is widely recognized as a pioneer and one of the most prominent representatives of Moroccan contemporary art. At the beginning of 1960s he spent a year in Warsaw, studying at the Fine Arts Academy, and his stay in Poland turned out to be a breakthrough in his painting career. Focused on the exploration of matter painting, the Warsaw period heralded the artist’s later experiments in abstract art, replete with references to traditional Berber culture and religious motifs of Islam, as well as to Polish and French avant-garde.