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Ragheb Ayad:
1892-1982
"The Dancing Horse and the Musicians of Upper
Egypt"
50x70 cm
Oil on board
Signed
Ragheb Ayad was born in Cairo on the 10th of March
1892 and inscribed himself in the School of Fine
Arts since its opening in 1908. After graduation
he taught art in the high Coptic school and made
several trips on his own to France and Italy to
complete his artistic education. He was the
first to obtain a governmental scholarship to
Rome where he stayed for five years studying art
in the Superior Institute of Fine Arts. Since
his return to Cairo in 1930, he was assigned as
director of the decorative section of the
Faculty of Applied Arts. In 1937, he is named
professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts and
director of its free section. He was in charge
of reorganizing the Coptic museum and since 1950
became head of the Museum of Modern Art where he
made a special section in it for the great
sculpture Mahmoud Mokhtar. Since 1924 and for
half a century he participated in most of the
exhibitions of the ‘Cairo Salon’ plus organizing
40 solo exhibitions. Ragheb Ayad is considered
one of the pioneers of Egyptian art in the 20th
century alongside Mahmoud Mokhtar, Youssef Kamel,
Mohamed Hassan, Mahmoud Said and Mohamed Naghy.
Ragheb Ayad is the first to get rid of the
western influences and to create an Egyptian art
with its own solid identity. For the rest of his
life Ragheb Ayad was dedicated to the popular
themes of the Egyptian life whether it is the
cosmopolitan Cairo or the upper Egyptian
villages and the small towns. He visited all
these places recording the pulsating life of the
soaks, the moulids, the cafes and the men and
women dancers. Ragheb Ayad remained forever the
painter of this true Egyptian universe. Ragheb
Ayad is considered to be the first
expressionistic painter who influenced the
second and third generation of artists. Aside
from the popular Ayad was attracted to the
religious themes where he portrayed the flight
of the holly family in Egypt and the birth of
Jesus. Moreover Ayad is known to be the first
Egyptian artist to be influenced by the ancient
Egyptian art and this quiet relevant in his
paintings dealing with the rural life. In them
we see the succession of different aspects of
the rural life being portrayed vertically on
horizontal layers instead of the perspective
view. The last period of his artistic life
is his portrayal of the monks in the different
monasteries of Egypt as well as capturing on his
canvas the architecture of these monasteries
that are considered to be the purest form of
architecture. In 1965 Ayad was decorated with
the highest honor of the Egyptian state and was
also decorated by Italy in appreciation of his
art. |
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Tahia Halim:
1919-2003
"Al Hawdag"
66x90 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed
Tahia Halim was born in Cairo in 1919. Her
primary education took place inside the Royal
Palace where she was raised, as her father was
the laureate of King Fouad. In high school she
took two years off to learn French, piano and
painting under the painters Youssef Traboulsi,
the great artist Gerom, then under artist Hamed
Abdullah at his studio in 1943. She married
Hamed Abdullah in 1945 and left for Paris to
join Julian Academy (1949-1951). She returned to
Egypt in 1951 and started exhibiting in solo
shows, group exhibitions and international
exhibitions such as the Biennial of Alexandria,
Italy, Brazil, Sweden, England, France, Poland
and finally in the USA in 1982. Her artwork was
divided in 3 periods; from 1941 to 1951 was
first a period of composition, from 1952 to 1962
she developed a more confident and original art
which was named Folkloric impressionism and her
third period was focused on Nubia, clearly
demonstrating the influence of old Egyptian art.
In 1984, she started teaching painting in her
Atelier in Cairo. Tahia Halim was awarded the
Guggenheim prize in 1958 and the Government
encouraging prize in 1968. Her paintings are in
the Guggenheim in New York, the Modern Art
Museum of Egytian Art in Cairo, and in
Stockholm. |
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Nahmia Saad:
1912-1945
"Nude"
50x60 cm
Wax colors & pencils on paper
Born in Assiut, Upper Egypt. Studied painting at the higher
school of Fine Arts on its inception. Was
attracted to graphic art and studied under
Bernard Rice professor of graphic art at the
time and discovered new vista. Exhibited much of
his work in the Salon du Caire exhibitions. He
executed decorative panels for the main entrance
of the Egyptian Pavilion of the Paris
International exhibition of 1937, and was
awarded the exhibition’s Gold Medal. In
conjunction with Mohamed Nagi, Mohamed Labib and
Margot Veillon, he provided the illustrations for
the tourist book “ Egypt, Land of Exploration “
which was produced on the occasion of the Paris
Exhibition. He devoted himself to depicting
Upper Egypt in the Luxor studios, producing some
of his finest graphic works. He died of a
pulmonary disease of the age of thirty-three. |
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El Hussein Fawzi: 1905-1990
"Nile in Aswan"
190x60 cm
Oil on wood
Signed
Born in Helmia district, Cairo on 4 September
1905, El Hussein Fawzi was known in Egypt and
the Middle East for his pioneering work in the
field of journalistic graphic arts. Fawzi began
his artistic studies in 1922 at the School of
Fine Arts, studying oil painting. He won the
first prize at an art competition for which he
received an art fellowship in 1928 and entered
the printing school in Paris, from which he
received a lithography diploma in 1932. He also
studied lithography at the Estienne School in
Paris. He was an artist and professor of oil
painting before joining the Paris Higher School
of Arts and Decoration from which he received a
diploma in 1933. Fawzi was also awarded an
honorary degree for an oil painting exhibited at
the 1939 French Salon. Although Fawzi's fame was
as a graphic artist he also had an active career
in the fine arts. Upon his return to Egypt, he
founded the Department of Graphic Arts at
Faculty of Fine Arts and later was appointed
director of the department, a position he held
until his retirement. He made lots of
illustrations to books by Naguib Mahfouz that
were published in Al Ahram news paper and also
made drawings of all the big mosques of Egypt
that were published in two big books. El Hussein
Fawzi painted one of the most renowned and
beautiful paintings in the history of Egyptian
art called “El Dalalah”. He also supervised the
Fine Arts Studio in Luxor from 1954 to 1960.
Fawzi was one of four Egyptian artists to have
their work engraved on crystal by the Steuben
glass factory in New York (others were Gamal El
Seguini, Hamed Abdallah and Hussein Bikar).
Fawzi was awarded the State Prize and Order of
Sciences and Arts in 1963, and in the same year,
won the Lithography prize at the Alexandria
Biennial. In 1989 he was awarded the State Prize
of Merit.
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Gazbia Sirry:
1925
"Houses by the Nile"
50x50 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed
Not much can be said of Gazbia Sirry that hasn’t already been
said throughout her distinguished career. She’s
been called a living legend, a contemporary art
master and everything in between. Renowned art
critic Mokhtar Al Attar said of Sirry: “She was
born to be the conscience of a nation, with its
hopes and pains, joys and sorrows”. Sirry is
undoubtedly one of Egypt’s living treasures. Her
career spans over five decades, and she shows no
signs of stopping. The very idea of retiring
from her craft is alien to her. Ceasing to make
art is like ceasing to live, she’ll tell you
matter of factly in her Zamalek house come
studio. She is part of what creates and it is
obvious that art is her way of feeling and
communicating. Sirry’s candour and sensuality
are more often than not the most overwhelming
aspects of the work and the woman. The subject
of myriad books and lectures, Sirry has shown in
every major city in the world. Her works are
held in many esteemed public and private
collections and traded with an almost religious
fervour. She was chosen among millions to
exhibit at the Biennial de Sao Paolo; shoulder
to shoulder with the likes of Jean Miro and
Salvador Dali. But this isn’t what maker her
genius. Her talent lies not in the paintings or
in the objects she creates, but in the way she
goes about creating them. She doesn’t use
pre-sketches, blueprints or plans to get her
work out. She thinks on canvas, sketches with
oil and brainstorms in watercolour. Her strokes
are deliberate and yet each one has a life of
its own; it’s almost as if the brush and knife
were furiously going about the work of catching
up with her soul. Sirry believes that the
spontaneity of her work is what keeps it fresh
and makes it her own. |
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Hidayet Chiraz
:
unknown - 1965
"Camel by the water canal"
45x35 cm
Water Color on paper
Signed
Unfortunately very little is known in Egypt
about Hidayet the great Turkish painter and
watercolorist. His name is merely mentioned in
the art books published at the beginning of the
century with some photos of his art. Hidayet
became a very well known voice and even his
works of watercolor are sold at Sotheby’s and
Christie’s. Our knowledge about him is that he
is of Turkish origin and studied art in England
especially watercolor. Early in the 20’s Hidayet
came to Egypt through Palestine to cure himself
from the rheumatic fever he suffered from. His
settling in Egypt seemed to be his cure and he
stayed in it until he died in 1965. So it was
the light of Egypt that gave him the incentive
to practice his art. Thus he produced hundreds
or thousands of Nilotic sceneries and landscapes
of the countryside as well as his recording of
ancient Egyptian relics from Luxor and Aswan and
all over Upper Egypt. Hidayet was known to be
the painter of the royal family and the upper
Egyptian aristocracy. During that era it was
these societies that appreciated and understood
art. So Hidayet became very popular and usually
he was requested to make special paintings
whether oil or watercolors with definite
subjects. His watercolor is supposed to be the
best in the history of Egyptian art. He was able
to capture the scene in front of him whether it
is from old Cairo or Pharonic Egypt in a most
exquisite way with the balanced well studied
effects of shadow and light and men in old
garments. He also recorded activities of the
high society from the Gezira club which was
frequented by the high aristocracy. Hidayet had
a school in his downtown apartment where he
taught art. |
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Hamed Nada:
1924 – 1990
"Woman and Bird"
20x20 cm
Oil on paper
Signed 1974
Nada was born in the district of the citadel
which is supposed to be the oldest popular area
of Cairo. In this district Nada the boy was
confronted with those people believing in magic
and the supernatural powers living their day
dreaming of the next without moving or
attempting to confront what they have. Hamed
Nada’s paintings are essentially
autobiographical. These images he depicted in
his paintings originated in the atmosphere of
the communal home where he was born. They evoke
his neighborhood and its traditions with
folkloric details as the water pipe or
mischievous jinn. At the same time his paintings
are allegorical. They tell stories inspired by
the storyteller. During his first period Nada’s
approach to art was marked by his association
with the Egyptian literary society and their
paper ‘El-Sakafa’. He also was influenced by his
introduction in this period to Youssef Amin’s
group of Contemporary Art and by his school
friend A.H.El-Gazzar. |
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Ervand Demirdjian:
1870 – 1936
"Portrait"
30x40 cm
Oil on canvas
Signed
Ervand Demirdjian was born in May 1870 in
Constantinople where he studied fine arts and
graduated with honors in 1890. In 1893 he went
to Paris and enrolled in the junior academy of
Art becoming a student to painter Jean Paul
Laurens and to the famous orientalist Benjamin
Constant. At the same time he worked at the
Louvre studying and copying classical works such
as Delacroix, Dante and Virgil. After returning
to Constantinople he was faced with the
persecution of the Turks against the Armenians.
In 1896 he fled with a group of Armenians and
reached Alexandria and from where he moved to
Cairo. Together with 2,000 other Armenian
refugees he began a miserable life until the
local Armenian community led by Decran Pasha did
its best to shelter and feed them. After a short
time Demirdjian was able to become a part of the
Egyptian popular life and started studying their
mode of life and mannerism. This led to an
enormous quantity of drawings and paintings
documenting everyday life. He participated in
some of the annual exhibitions of the Circle of
Artists which is the first artistic group in
modern Egypt. In 1901 he began lecturing art and
teaching in the Khorenian Armenian School where
he tutored students privately and the most
talented was the known painter Diran Garabedian
(1882-1963) who became his successor and one of
the first avant-garde in Egypt. |
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Dr. Mohamed Ismail:
1936 – 1993
"Symbolism and mystic figures"
250x120 cm
Oil on wood
Dr. Mohamed Ismail was born in 1936 in Zagazig
in Egypt. He graduated and obtained his Masters
in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts in
Cairo. He received his Ph.D. in the history of
Fine Arts. He held numerous private and
collective exhibitions from 1958 – 1969. Dr
M.Ismail started his globe trotting from 1969
till 1987. He started with Europe visiting
Greece, Spain and France going to North Africa
and then to Turkey in the Near East. He moved on
to Beirut, Kuwait, Iran and India before
breaking camp to his favorite continent the Far
East. In Tokyo he knew love and considered it
home. He has many acquisitions in several
countries and the most important is in Museum of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was then invited by
the Shahbanou of Iran, who was very impressed by
his work to teach art there. Consequence he
learned farsi and headed to Tehran to paint and
lecture there for years until the revolution. He obtained many
International and Arab prizes. |
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Salah Abdel Karim
:
1925 – 1988
"Tubes 2"
100X200 cm
Iron
Signed 1975
Born in Fayoum to a big family of 5 brothers and
sisters. In 1938 he meets the famous painter
Hussein Bikar and he becomes his student in the
Faculty of Arts in Qena. He remained much
attached to his professor all through his life.
In 1940 he meets Hussein Youssef Amin and the
Group of Contemporary Art the secondary
school of Farouk First in Abassya district in
Cairo when he was introduced to surrealism for
the first time. In 1943 he becomes a student at
the Faculty of Fine Arts and graduates with
excellence and honors in 1947. In 1948 he
becomes an assistant to the interior decoration
section at the FFA. He is then sent to a mission
in Paris in 1952 and he becomes a student to
Paul Colin and A. Marie Cassandre for publicity
and theatre design. He then moves to Rome in
1956 to study design for cinema. In 1957 he
received the international prize in painting
from San Vito Romano, Italy and obtains his PHD
from Centro Sperimental di Cinemato Grafia. Back
to Egypt in 1958 he is appointed professor at
the FFA where he started experimenting with his
masterpieces sculptures in wrought iron. In 1959
he receives the first prize for sculpture at the
Biennale of Alexandria. At the same year he
receives from the Biennale of Saint Paolo,
Brazil an honorary merit for his sculpture ‘The
Fish’. In 1960 he receives the award of the
Guggenheim National section for his painting
‘Fighting Roosters’. |
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