Ahmed Yacoubi  Ahmed ben Driss el Yacoubi (1928–1985) was a Moroccan painter and storyteller. He was born in Fez, Morocco. Yacoubi met the American composer and writer Paul Bowles in Fez in 1947, and later in Tangier. Yacoubi then began doing translations for Bowles. Bowles and his wife, novelist and playwright Jane Bowles, encouraged Yacoubi to draw and paint the characters in his own stories after seeing Yacoubi's illustrations of his translations. Bowles was interested in recording music from different cultures, and invited Yacoubi to translate for him in Spain, Italy, Turkey, India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Japan. Bowles then transcribed Yacoubi's own stories from Maghrebi into English: "The Man and The Woman" (1956), "The Man Who Dreamed of Fish Eating Fish" (1956), and "The Game" (1961). Yacoubi's play "The Night Before Thinking" was published in the "Evergreen Review" in 1961. In 1964, the play was produced by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at their East Village theater and at Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theater in Westport, Connecticut. Yacoubi also contributed to set design and construction for productions at La MaMa during the 1970s, including "Arden of Faversham" and Alfred Jarry's "Ubu", directed by Andrei Serban in 1970, and Oh Taeseok's "Jilsa," directed by Duk-Hyung Yoo in 1974. The Bowles arranged for Yacoubi's first exhibition of visual work at the Gallimard bookshop on Boulevard Pasteur in Tangier. The exhibition was highly acclaimed, and 28 pieces were sold. Later exhibitions were held at the Galerie Clan in Madrid, the Betty Parsons Gallery in New York in 1952, the Hanover Gallery in London in 1957, and elsewhere throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. A wide range of notable collectors began acquiring his drawings and paintings, recognizing his talent and artistic integrity. The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, and the Sao Paolo Museum of Modern Art also purchased his works. In 1952, Bowles invited Yacoubi to his island, Taprobane, off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.