Portrait of a Berber woman by Ghizlan El Glaoui

Moroccan artist Ghizlan El Glaoui, daughter of renowned painter Hassan El Glaoui and granddaughter of Thami El Glaoui, the last Pasha of Marrakech, is fascinated with faces and finding beauty in the world. Editor-in-Chief Darius Sanai speaks to the artist about her artistic childhood, African art and her portrait wish-list.

Ghizlan El Glaoui at work in the studio

Darius Sanai: How long have you been living and working in London?
Ghizlan El Glaoui: It’s been 21 years now. I studied and married in Paris and then decided to move to England due to a job offer for my husband. I’ve been here ever since – I like London and was so happy to move away from France. I am half French, but lived in Morocco for most of my life so the French was still foreign to me – even though I had a French mother. When I was in Paris, I suddenly realised that my French side of my personality was not as developed as I thought. I always felt like a foreigner to the Parisians. By experiencing Paris, I always loved people from the South and that the people from the North were very different, so I remained big friends with the South of France. But when I moved to London, I just thought, this is it.

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DS: You come from a great artistic heritage and you are both an artist and a collector, how has that developed? When did you start doing what and how did it all start?
GEG: I had an artistic father and grandfather. I was always surrounded by their art, influences and admiration of arts. I grew up with these passions. I became my father’s muse, posing for his portraits. My father was my first tutor and he knew of such amazing artists himself that I had 4-5 tutors in the room while watching him paint. You have to watch a lot when you’re posing there is nothing else to do, you can’t move, so I observed the way he was looking at me and all the other things around it as well. I have kept this passion of portraiture and so I started to have this need to express myself through artistic means. I was a pianist as well so I suppose it was evident that I had this ability with arts in general. This is why I wanted to study art in general in Paris. The academy I went to taught you art, but also prepared you for finding a job afterwards. Half of it was very intense art courses and the other half was learning how to make a magazine, learning about typography.

DS: When you were a student, did you think you would become an artist or was it just a passion?
GEG: It’s difficult to say. I was never really good at doing what I was asked to do, but what is interesting is that the project we had to do in our last year was about mosaic. We had to take an image and reproduce it on a much bigger scale. We had to cut the pain ourselves, into squares, and had to recreate that mosaic with different tones. I remember very well that I chose an incredibly good-looking model that was posing at the time for all the Armani perfume campaigns. His face was absolutely gorgeous! Since then I have readapted this technique to my own, now I don’t cut the squares, I paint them directly onto the linen.

I painted more after having kids, when I had the time to develop my artistic career. It has been a passion and a hobby for many years and only when my girls started going to school did I have the time to further develop the presence of my art in London, which I hadn’t done before. I was very present in St Tropez and other places where my name perhaps had more meaning. After Morocco, Madrid and other places, I thought London would be a good place. At the time, London was very British orientated in terms of art, focussing on British artists. As a foreigner, it was quite a trick to get into the English art world, so I didn’t want to try until I had proven myself in other places before. More recently, my sister opened the 154 African Art fair which has been hugely successful, so there clearly is international demand for top African artists.

DS: African art is a very broad definition, is that how you define yourself?
GEG: Not at all. I paint beauty, that’s how I define it. On the subject of African art, the King of Morocco is trying his best to create an Africa where Morocco is included. I think Morocco is very different to other places in Africa. It has so much history and culture. I think it’s a very special place and should remain as such. Everybody wants to collect African art now, my sister started it, and at the time nobody wanted to go to her first show. Now, the trend is so big that even Sotheby’s and Christie’s are telling you about their African collections that apparently they have had for years, but never showed. Suddenly they are all becoming experts! Obviously, it is incredibly important to show art from African artists, as it should be seen by everyone around the world.

Blue Blossom by Ghizlan El Glaoui

DS: Do you define yourself as Moroccan or a school of Moroccan art? Is that more accurate?
GEG: I would say, my father always had a fight with the school of Moroccan art, because they never gave him the credit of Moroccan art. They always got jealous, as he was in Paris and had incredible links and connections with artists, even before he was 30. They never considered him as an official part of the Moroccan trend of artists. They put him aside and excluded him in exhibitions in the past. They were very worried that my father has a special position. I do think he deserved it and he did have it. He’s been so successful and has been so incredibly grateful to his country – making it shine all over the world – he’s done that through his talent. To watch him and his career at this stage, I can only be very proud.

Darius Sanai: Would you put yourself in the same category?
Ghizlan El Glaoui: I cannot. I have his art on my walls! I think the big force of my father was that he was so modest. He never believed a painting was finished and he never wanted to sell his art – he was very shy of being in the limelight.

DS: How do you artistic styles compare?
GEG: I took all the positive things that I had learned from my dad and my method has been the same since art school. I paint the same square method and my technique, which is from art school onwards, is to paint on the other side of the canvas, because I don’t like white – it does not inspire me. This comes from my dad as well, his teacher would always prepare the back of the painting before she decided what she was going to paint on it. She would use all the old tubes and palettes to create the next painting, so she wouldn’t waste any paint – everything would be used. We have a cat at the house, which everybody loved. The teacher created a grey background and then she decided to put that cat on it, it looked so incredible! It stayed with me that you have to prepare your background before you paint it.

Read next: Richard Mille’s latest brand ambassador, Olympic athlete Mutaz Essa Barshim on the importance of timing

Many years later, I discovered the light for the background of my paintings – day light, night light, because I wanted my paintings to show different faces. I then realised I could put lights behind it and achieve as many faces as I wanted – not just day and night by this incredible engineering of light. I was also always really fascinated by mosaics in churches and how the light would come through the glasses. I think my artistic style represents who I am and where I come from, it stands for everything I like which I’ve melted together. My technique is based of all my inspirations, melted together and I’m always trying to represent beauty. I think there are so many horrors in the world that we now live in, so it is the artist’s job to bring joy and pleasure. I’m not an artist who destroys beauty – I’m not Picasso. There are so many perfections, to me, in the world. I need to make everything beautiful. This is what I do when I tackle a project. Right now I’m doing a series on Indians in America and make them shine again – giving them their moment, because we always forget how we built our new world; it was by destroying another race. I want them to shine again with their culture, their beautiful costumes, their attitudes, their pride – so many things I admire from this population.

Portrait of Berber woman by Ghizlan El Glaoui

DS:  Where do you take inspiration? Where do you get your ideas from?
GEG: That’s a very good question. I have waiting lists in my mind of people I plan to paint one day. Some days I think about the news and that will make someone move up in the list. Sometimes I look at my past work to maybe develop those ideas. I have a friend who works at Dior now, so I’d like to look at this vintage fashion dresses from Dior – that could be an interesting project to work on. My ideas come from lots of different things. Charlie Chaplin is on my list. I haven’t done many men yet. I’d also like to paint Winston Churchill with his cigar.

DS: You mention beauty, is this very important for your art?
GEG: Yes, I have a big sense of aesthetic beauty. My mother thought we were all muses of Botticelli and her passion of art, I think, influenced her children – we even looked like Botticelli models with the same type of hair. I think my interest is a combination of my mum’s aesthetic and my dad’s aesthetic. My need for beauty is from my childhood. There were also beautiful mosaics everywhere in our buildings, my mum had a big collection of furniture so I was lucky enough to always be surrounded by lovely things and I want to reproduce this beauty.

DS: And what are you most excited about creating for next year?
GEG: I would like to do a beautiful exhibition of Berber ladies from the south of my country, Morocco.

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Mutaz Essa Barshim wearing the ultra light RM67-02

Ultra-luxe watchmaker Richard Mille combines artistry, technology, a nod to architecture, Kitty Harris speaks to their latest partner, Qatari Silver Olympic Highjump Medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim about time and the new RM67-02 Automatic watch.

The RM67-02

LUX: You hold the Qatari national record and Asian record for the best mark of 2.43m. How old were you when you started high jumping?
Mutaz Essa Barshim: I was around 10-11 years old when I started. I began in track and field because my father used to be an athlete. When I was young, he always took me to the stadium, so it was always important to me. But I started running, doing cross-country, long-distance, mid-distance and as I grew up, I stopped liking distance running. I didn’t enjoy just running and at the club, I saw the other kids doing jumps and trampolining. For me, naturally as a kid, it seemed much more fun. Back then, I wasn’t thinking at a professional level. I only wanted to not have to go home and do homework and do something fun instead. I spoke to my coach at the club and told him I wanted to join the jump group and he allowed me too. It later developed.

LUX: Why Richard Mille out of any of the people that you could have partnered with?
MEB: He is simply the best!

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LUX: How did you come to partner with Richard Mille?
MEB: The first time I met Richard was in the Rio Olympics after my competition. We talked and he is a really nice, friendly guy. He told me he loved the way I jump and he wanted me to join him in the family. I said, of course I’d be very happy to. We had been talking about the watch and he asked me if I jump with watches. I said no, because they’re too heavy. Richard said that he could make something very light for me. So I said, let’s do it! I know about Nadal’s RM27-03 Tourbillon watch and it is very light. He said he could do it even lighter than that and I was very impressed. Since then, we have been talking back and forth and sharing ideas.

LUX: Were you involved in the design process?
MEB: Initially, the main target was for me to jump with it – something that wouldn’t affect my jump. It wouldn’t be worth it if it was something heavy that disturbed my performance. Since we realised that he could make something lighter, we discussed design. We thought it could be something with maroon and white, to match my kit. I wanted something elegant and sexy – I didn’t want it to be thought of as a sport watch.

LUX: You said that the watch came out of a necessity for being light. Would they bring you designs that you would tweak, or were you given final products?
MEB: Firstly, we would get a prototype drawing. This would be computerised and three-dimensional. He would ask what I thought. I wanted to see a side angle picture, so I could see how thin the watch was. He said it was so thin that I won’t be able to feel it. When I saw the picture, I was really impressed. He would then show me the back and ask my preferences and how I wanted it to be engraved. What shall we write down? We would discuss the colours and how to change them. Of course, none of the mechanics is to do with me. It’s all his work and genius. I think asking him about the mechanics would be disrespectful, because I know he would make it the best. When it came to the final product, I really was impressed!

Side view of the RM67-02 designed for Mutaz Essa Barshim in maroon and white to match the athlete’s kit

LUX: There is a symbiosis and as you said, you needed something that didn’t affect you when you jumped. What are the commonalities between your practice and your watch?
MEB: Quality. It is the main objective. High jumpers don’t use any objects, they just have to use their bodies in the perfect way, otherwise you will injure yourself. Timing – a few seconds can make a difference between a perfect jump and a really bad jump. You could lose a medal. That’s what this watch is about – quality and timing. Ticking at the right moments. I want something sexy and elegant, with quality and timing.

LUX: By being in the Richard Mille family – you are amongst some of the best sportsmen and women. How does it feel?
MEB: It feels great. The one thing I really love about Richard and how he selects his athletes and ambassadors, is that everybody is so humble and down-to-earth. He is not only selecting people because of what they achieve in sport. He also looks at their social energy, what they value in society and how they interact with different people. I’ve met most of the guys and everybody is so nice. They are so inspiring and they are role models. I feel that is the type of character he wants. Once you’re in, you’re in – it is a family. You don’t want to bring someone in that will destroy this family. Everybody is highly professional, but at the same time they are very nice people. It is just a pleasure to be among them.

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LUX: Timing is obviously crucial to your life. But what do you do in your free time?
Mutaz Essa Barshim: Get interviewed! I don’t have so much free time, since I only have one month off a year. In my free time, I like to stay home. I’m rarely home, as I’m always travelling. I really just want to be home with my mother and my friends, relaxing.

Outside the Richard Mille Mount St. boutique

LUX: What is the life of an Olympic athlete like? You work for eleven months a year. You work and you train.
MEB: You always travel and train, train, train. It is always about what is next. To answer that question, you need to be even more professional than before. It is very hard each time. Especially when there is so much expectation about who will win each time. There is always pressure you have to deal with. In order for a professional athlete to keep that, you need to limit yourself. You can’t go out all the time, because your body needs to recover. This means a lot of treatment and recovery time to make sure you avoid injuries. Since you travel a lot, nutrition and drinking a lot of water to not get dehydrated and tear muscles is also very important. It is hard and at the same time, you need to balance it with training. You must also relax your mind and ease up to be fresh mentally. You need to hang out with friends, and at the same time you have commitments to your sponsors. There are social responsibilities. The life of a professional is nice, but you don’t have much time to yourself.

LUX: What is next?
MEB: In March, we have the indoor World Championships in Birmingham. That is the biggest target for the Winter. For Summer, we have the Asian Games and the Diamond League, which is the world circuit. We have a couple of high class meets also in the Summer. The World Championship is the main goal at the moment.

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