20 May – 21 July 2012

Group Exhibition by: A Fine Selection of Late, Modern & Contemporary Egyptian Artists

Al Masar Gallery for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the start of a special group exhibition titled “Gallery Collection” featuring paintings & sculptures by a fine selection of Late, Modern & Contemporary Egyptian artists. The exhibition showcases a selection of some of the finest artworks from exhibitions the gallery has held over the past four years. The exhibition features the artworks of late, modern & contemporary Egyptian artists who have marked milestones on the art’s path as well as the works of different generations of the renowned Egyptian Art Movement. Al Masar Gallery’s collection will present the evolution of Egypt’s eminent artists starting with the stars of the 20^th century’s Egyptian Modern Art; late artists, the pioneers of the third, fourth & fifth generations, up until the young & vibrant artists of today. The exhibition celebrates Al Masar Gallery’s 4^th anniversary.

To view full painting with its caption, click on the image to enlarge it.

Adel El Siwi

Ahmed Fouad Selim

Asmaa El Nawawy

Emad Ibrahim

Essam Darwich

Essam Marouf

Farouk Hosny

Georges Bahgory

Hamdi Attia

Hany Rashed

Ibrahim El Dessouki

Kareem Al Qurity

Leila Ezzat

Mahmoud Abdullah

Nermine Hammam

Nagi Farid

Omar El Nagdy

Sami Aboul Azm

Samir Rafi

Taha Hussein

Said El-Adawi (1938 – 1973, Alexandria, Egypt) was one of the most talented artists in his generation and his wild imagination was fed by the dramatic reality of events occurring in the 1960s. He joined the first class of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria in 1957. He received his MA degree in Engrave Art about the Arabic Calligraphy in 1972. In the 1960s El-Adawi worked closely with Mahmoud Abdallah and Mustafa Abdel Moity, and his influence can be seen in both their work. Together they established their movement called the Alexandrian Experimentalists Society (the Tagribiyin) and staged its first exhibitions in 1965 and its foundation idea started 1958.

The figures in his paintings are treated as if they were cartoons; their appearances are distorted and abstract. These contortions resemble the work of Pablo Picasso and Joan Mirò, but are combined with calligraphic forms and motifs derived from Islamic art. Underlying El-Adawi’s abstract surrealist compositions are figural scenes with a moral message, inspired by the important political events of that time and by the sweeping social changes.

El Adawi was a member of the Syndicate of Fine Artists. He has had a number of solo shows in both Cairo and Alexandria. He participated in local as well as International exhibitions. El Adawi was the winner of the 2^nd prize in Alexandria Biennale. He has acquisitions among several state collections including the Museum of the Modern Egyptian Art in Cairo, Museum of the Modern Art in Alexandria, Museum of Institute of the Arab Work in Paris & Museum of the Egyptian National Bank.

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Adel El Siwi (Egyptian, B. 1952)
The Red & the Blue | Diptych | Mixed Media on Canvas | 220 x 340 cm | 2011 | Lot #33

Adel El-Siwi’s elongated faces have a monumental presence in The Red and The Blue diptych. The polarities of warm and cold are instantly suggested through the dominant colour fields. A deadpan face is presented on each canvas portraying faces of tribal features. The inherently vertical nature of the work is one that perpetuates elevation. Recalling the African totem masks Picasso discovered at the Trocadero Museum in Paris during his Black Period or époque nègre in 1906-1907. Siwi’s face dominates the large canvas where each figure is laboriously painted with gold leaf. The female appears to be emerging from the blue monochromatic background. The contours of her face are delicately rendered. The male head appears slightly tilted and has a red band interrupting the centre of his face. There is a push and pull gravity between the two figures, even as they habituate separate spaces – the male and female versus the hot and cold. Siwi is celebrated for his sense of flat shapes of lines offering a voyeuristic journey into an exotic where colour reigns.

For more information on the auction & the lot above, click here to visit the auction’s page on Christie’s website.

Click here to view available artworks by the artist at Al Masar Gallery website.

OPENING RECEPTION | In the presence of the artist | Sunday 8 April 2012│7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

The exhibition will continue through 15 May 2012

“The Golden Calf” features paintings by internationally renowned contemporary Egyptian artist Kareem Al Qurity (b.1982). The exhibition marks the first solo exhibition for the young artist.

The god Apis or (Hapi-ankh) is known in Egyptian mythology as a bull-deity worshiped in the Memphis region; its worship began from the second Pharaonic family and up to the modern state. It is considered the most important divine animal in ancient Egypt and it symbolized fertility and prosperity. Ceremonial rituals took place when the calf dies and the rites of burial were held during its embalming and its successor is chosen based on specific characteristics that match the status of a worshiped god.

There’s a famous historical event in the monotheistic religions that relates to Apis, the holy god of ancient Egypt. It was the story of the message of Moses to his people when he helped them cross to Sinai fleeing the tyranny of Pharaoh and they saw signs that confirmed the truth of Moses’ prophecy. During Moses’ forty days of worship on the mountain, they took advantage of his absence and made a golden calf similar to the one they saw in Egypt as a holy god, something that was instigated by the Samaritans who were against the message of Moses.

By virtue of the geography of this historical event, the artist through this exhibition shares a reenactment of that scene from a contemporary perspective, within a whirlwind of ideas and conflicting visions seeing that some of us held on to the truth from the moment it was revealed to us and some of us, the Samaritans, want to hold on to the old ways promoting the ideas that belonged to an era that was dominated by the misguided.

Among the artworks exhibited is a painting titled “The Chair Preaches II” which is an extension of one of the artist’s previous paintings titled “The Chair Preaches I” which represents the theme of power and its manipulation on man which is a recurring theme in the Qur’an. The theme is mainly manifested in the story of Pharaoh & the dialogues between Pharaoh & Moses which is manifested in the form of calligraphy written on the chair situated in the center of the painting.

The Golden Calf

Our daily lives have become rich with political, social & religious concepts that we repeatedly discuss such as social polarization, the relationship of religion to politics & the meaning of conflict. As a result, we have entered a state of confusion & lack of understanding caused by the frequent struggle between people claiming heroism, which led to an even wider struggle.

Through this exhibition, I am trying to expose those charged clashes of ideas & visions. The exhibition is inspired by (Apis), the ancient Egyptian deity who was known in the monotheistic religions as The Golden Calf based on the story of Moses & his people when the people were broken up in continuous oppositions of holy beliefs after truth has been revealed to them; some followed the new holy message while others stuck to the old regime.

Kareem Al Qurity

The Chair Preaches

In the Arab culture, the chair remains a symbol of authority & power, one that whispers to the ruler and guides only him to the path leading to the throne. On the other hand, one finds the ruled ambitiously trying to turn the chair from being that malicious whisperer into a preacher guiding the ruler to justice.

The theme of power and its manipulation on man is a recurring theme in the Qur’an. The theme is mainly manifested in the story of Pharaoh & the dialogues between Pharaoh & Moses.

This artwork is a product of the artist’s previous collection titled “Safe Haven”, produced over the past 3 years which expressed the idea of people’s inner feelings about self security.

People & the Constitution:

Constitution is a set of basic principles governing the State’s authorities; they are set to serve the rights of both the rulers and the ruled, religious and political practices, partisan life and social justice.

The artist here is in search for the relationship between the people and the Constitution, to clarify the consistency of the Constitution as text written with behaviors and attitudes of people in the community. He is also trying to find out whether the people develop texts that are not written or codified, and if so how they are reflected in their daily practices as a safe haven to ensure the circumvention of the Constitution while the text remain locked into the paper it’s written on.

From here comes the idea of part of the artist’s project “People & the Constitution” consisting of three big panels under the name of “People Against the Constitution” that was exhibited in the Cairo International Biennale XII 2010 which marked his first experience with the Cairo Biennale.

Safe Haven:

The people on the streets of Cairo are the artist’s main inspiration with their variety of features and characteristics which hold a set of social values and concepts and culture diversity which in turn reflects in the artist’s artistic expression. Despite the diversity of features that those personalities on the streets possess and their different social roles, they share the same approach of dormancy in which they are dealt with on the artist’s canvas. The artist believes that the Egyptian street has more sadness than any other street in the world. He has deeply felt this after spending many days sketching and filming people on public transportation in order to decipher the subtle variations of their moods, the richness of their resignation, and the depth of their sadness. “Safe Haven “expresses the idea of people’s inner feelings about self security in Egypt.

To view full painting with its caption, click on the image to enlarge it.

PREVIOUS ARTWORKS

*The artwork titled “People Against the Constitution” was previously exhibited in Cairo International Biennale, 2010.

Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1950 where he currently lives and works.

Farid is one of the very many autodidact Egyptian painters who trained privately in immersion apprenticeship in established artists’ studios. With a degree in social sciences and an early career in marketing communication and business, Farid’s encounter with painting came through extensive travels in the early seventies, an era that he lived fully with its European post May 1968 culture, its American summer of love and Woodstock repercussions, and above all, its local Egyptian political and social effervescence. Perhaps this local and international concurrent cultural exposure left residues of desire to create the art he cherished and consumed, but was never able to practice except at a later stage in life, precisely in 2005.

Inspired by few Egyptian Artists such as Farouk Hosny & Hamdi Attia , and training with the Italian Rafaele Minotto and living their studio ambient atmosphere, Farid started to develop his own painterly personality. Farid possesses a brushstroke that is obsessed by textures and thick pastes of paints; the content of his canvases are many times reminiscent of the Egyptian abstract expressionist Gazebia Sirry or the European expressionist Nicholas de Steal, and his painting practice demonstrates an undeniable visual attraction to less textural American color field painting.

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4 March – 29 March 2012

Al Masar Gallery for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of a special solo exhibition titled “EAST…WEST” by internationally renowned Egyptian artist Taha Hussein (b. 1929) who belongs to the third generation of the Egyptian art movement. This special exhibition gathers the accumulation of 3 years of work (2009 -2011) & is dedicated to the artist’s 83rd birthday & a life-time achievement in art which is about to complete six decades.

إن التفاعل مع الثقافة الأجنبية يؤدي إلى تنشيط القطب الذاتي نحو طرقه عملية معايشته في الطريقة الذاتية” جوته -١٨٢٨ م“

The exhibition does not relate in its content and meaning to the geographical sense of a place, but it is rather dedicated to the cultural and creative sense behind the arts, and other human creations and its various activities that of which civilizations and cultures have lived through across the ages in the “East and West”.

For a long time, the relations, cultural interactions and influences between the East and West went uninterrupted which resulted in the richness, diversity and tremendous innovation of people’s thought and culture which marked the ancient, modern and contemporary times.

In this exhibition, the artist is inspired by the thought and philosophy of pioneering German poet “Wolfgang Goethe” (1748 – 1832 AD), who embraced his relationship to the East which he had communicated in his book “Al Divan Al Sharky lel Mo’alef El Gharby” (1819 AD) (AKA Westöstlicher Diwan/ The West-Eastern Divan) as well as in his daily and yearly journals (1828 AD) that is kept in his museum in Dusseldorf, Stuttgart in Germany.

Through the paintings, the artist is inspired by several European & Oriental artists thus establishing a dialogue with their own personal characters & selves which is represented in his own adaptations of famous paintings by Michael Angelo, Matisse, Leonardo Da Vinci, Van Gogh & Bronzino.

Artist Statement:

The exhibition does not relate in its content and meaning to the geographical sense of a place, but it is rather dedicated to the cultural and creative sense behind the arts, and other human creations and its various activities that of which civilizations and cultures have lived through across the ages in the “East and West”.

For a long time, the relations, cultural interactions and influences between the East and West went uninterrupted which resulted in the richness, diversity and tremendous innovation of people’s thought and culture which marked the ancient, modern and contemporary times.

In this exhibition, the artist is inspired by the thought and philosophy of pioneering German poet “Wolfgang Goethe” (1748 – 1832 AD), who embraced his relationship to the East which he had communicated in his book “Al Divan Al Sharky lel Mo’alef El Gharby” (1819 AD) (AKA Westöstlicher Diwan/ The West-Eastern Divan) as well as in his daily and yearly journals (1828 AD) that is kept in his museum in Dusseldorf, Stuttgart in Germany.

Goethe delved into cultural awareness and communication between East and West “the other (the foreign) and the self in the other”, which is the concept that expressed the idea of what the “self” & the European heritage has been through since the era of political transformations in the late nineteenth century thus becoming part of the European culture and its institutions in the fields of science as well as the power of its culture and its cultural policy.

Goethe states in his book that the interaction with foreign culture contributes to the understanding of self culture. This saying shows his strong relationship with Iranian poet “Hafez Shirazi” which began after studying translations of his works. The wonderful thing is that despite the fact that “Hafez” lived in the fourteenth century, Goethe referred to him across the years as his “twin brother”.

This was the European thinker Goethe and his portrayal of his relationship with “Hafez” which corresponds to the relationship of Europe with the Arab Islamic & the Persian worlds since then and until the modern times.

Perhaps the discovery of self in the other and Goethe’s views and writings on the subject best describes the content and the direction of this exhibition. The artist is inspired by Goethe’s idea of communication with the East which inspired the artist to select a few international artists “European & Oriental” and some of their famous paintings to start a dialogue with the style, technical trend and artistic direction of each artwork as well as forming a self analysis and a critical reading in order to gain a full understanding of its time, vision and place. “With the self techniques that are characterized in their uniqueness of the private path and approach they take”.

Artist Mohamed Taha Hussein
February, 2012

كلمة الفنان

“إن التفاعل مع الثقافة الأجنبية يؤدي إلى تنشيط القطب الذاتي نحو طرقه عملية معايشته في الطريقة الذاتية…” جوته (١٨٢٨ م)

المعرض لا يرتبط في مضمونه ومعناه بالمعنى الجغرافي ، بل بالمعنى “الإبداعي” في مجالات الفنون، وغيرها من الابداعات الإنسانية ، و التي عايشتها الحضارات والثقافات على مر العصور “شرقاً وغرباً…”.

فمنذ زمن بعيد لم تنقطع العلاقات والتفاعلات والمؤثرات الحضارية بين الشرق والغرب بما أحداث ثراءاً وتنوعاً وتجديداً هائلاً في فكر وثقافة الشعوب، قديماً وحتى العصر الحديث والمعاصر.

هذا المعرض، أقدمه اليوم منطلقاً من فكر وفلسفة الرائد والشاعر الألماني “فولفجانج جوته” ( ١٧٤٨ – ١٨٣٢ م) والذي تواصل عن طريق علاقته مع الشرق والممثلة في مؤلفاته ومدوناته “الديوان الشرقي للمؤلف الغربي” عام ١٨١٩ م ، كذلك المدونات السنوية واليومية (١٨٢٨ م) والمحفوظة بمتحفه (دوسلدورف – شتوتجارت، بألمانيا).

عايش جوته جدلية التعرف والتواصل الثقافي بين الشرق والغرب “بمعنى الغريب والذاتي في الغريب”، هذا الفكر المعبر عن المفهوم الذي عايشته “الذات والتراث الأوروبي منذ عصر التحولات السياسية في اواخر القرن التاسع عشر الملادي والذي أصبح جزء من ثقافة أوروبا ومؤسساتها في مجالات العلوم والثقل الثقافي والسياسة الثقافية.

يقول جوته كأحد الشخصيات البارزة في مدوناته… “إن التفاعل مع الثقافة الأجنبية يؤدي إلى تنشيط القطب الذاتي نحو عملية معايشته في الطريقة الذاتية…” هذا القول الذي ابداه جوتة في علاقته مع الشاعر الإيراني “حافظ شيرازي” الوثيقة؛ والتي بدأت بعد اطلاعه على ترجمات عنه.. ومن الرائع ورغم أن “حافظ” عاش في القرن الرابع عشر الملادي، إلى أن جوته وصفه عبر الزمان “بأخوه التوأم”.

هذا كان جوتة المفكر الأوروبي محقاً في وصفه لعلاقته “بحافظ”… هذا الوصف المطابق لعلاقة أوروبا بالعالم الإسلامي عربياً وفارسياً وحتى عصرنا الحديث.

لعل في إكتشاف الذاتي في الآخر، وما أتى به جوته من أراء ومؤلفات ما يفسح عن مضمون وإتجاه المعرض والذي استدعيت فيه “جوتة” بفكرة التواصل مع الشرق ومجموعة مختارة من بين فنانين عالميين “اوروبيين وشرقيين” في حوار مع النمط والفكر والإتجاه الفني لكل عمل منفرد وتحليل “ذاتي” وقراءة نقدية في إستيعاب للزمن والرؤية والمكان الذي أنجز فيه “بتفرد ما يحتويه من خصوصيه في ألإتجاه والأسلوب“

فنان محمد طه حسين،
فبراير ٢٠١٢

Taha Hussein was born in Gamalia on 14 February, 1929. He was raised in the historical districts encompassing the environs of El Azhar and Sayedna El Hussein mosques. Both areas are rich with Islamic architecture and centers of cultural activity as places of religious and political discourse with its richness of social and political pulse, and human behavior. Living in a unique atmosphere of a special place in the Arab world inevitable contributed to the depth and religious references in his work.

Having excelled in drawing at school, earning affectionate nicknames as “the teacher of drawing”; he was trained with the finest art teachers at that time. All this led to Taha Hussein joining the Applied Arts Royal college, where he completed his studies in 1951 ranking the top of his class, gaining his path into Arts which he is still continuing until this day through lecturing at the College of Applied Arts, and painting in his country side Atelier among the greenery and enjoying the gentle breeze, an atmosphere, which he says, charges of his soul.

To view full painting with its caption, click on the image to enlarge it.

22 January – 25 February 2012

Al Masar Gallery for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of a special event dedicated to the first anniversary of the Egyptian white revolution titled “Bahgory on Revolution”

Bahgory on Revolution is a special event on the revolution & the Egyptian people by renowned Egyptian artist Georges Bahgory showcasing all the artist’s post revolution artworks to date.

Through his paintings, he’s expressing his feelings and musings on the Egyptian revolution & the Egyptian people shedding light on the rundown of events in 2011, the warmth of the Egyptian social life, some familiar everyday scenes from the streets of Cairo & other inspirations such as the charm of Egyptian music & the music legend, Um Kolthoum, who sang a lot of patriotic & nationalist songs that embodied the will of the Egyptian people.

Some paintings mainly represent and depict scenes from the events that took place on the 2nd of February 2011, referred to as “The Battle of the Camel” where dozens of thugs, horseback riders and owners of camels in the tourist area surrounding the Giza Pyramids were reportedly hired to attack Tahrir Square protesters using bladed weapons to force them out.

Georges Bahgory is an eminent Egyptian artist from the third generation born in 1932 in Egypt, and currently living between Cairo and  France. Bahgory studied Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek, Cairo, 1955 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1970. Upon a special invitation from the Society of Art Lovers in Paris, his works were selected to represent the Egyptian Pavilion at Louvre Museum in 1999. A face from Egypt was given the Silver Medal award and his name was added to the list of great masters of art. His wood and bronze engravings were on display in many galleries in France and Canada. He also created two granite works during the Aswan International Symposium of Sculpture. Bahgory was also a prominent cartoonist of the two weekly magazines of Sabah Al Khair and Rose El Youssef. He was voted the No. 1 Artist of Portraiture in France, Italy and Spain. He published “Trilogy of Icons”, a novel which was acclaimed by prominent literary critics such as Dr. Salah Fadl and Edwar Al Kharat. Some of his works were acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in Amman and the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo.

The True ‘Path’

“Never did I imagine that the echo of one scream, one call, “The [Egyptian] people want …” could give way to a revolution, and a million revolutionaries then eighty million more; I’m one of those.

From Tahrir – Liberation — square to my studio, I walked with arms raised up waving among the droves, millions of them; I chanted yet again.

In my studio, I gathered my drawings from my one thousand and first sketchbook; it was as if my arms had turned to a brush after the first [revolutionary] call and subsequent ones, and as if my five fingers have turned to hot red, orange and yellow colors; mirroring the flames around me [on the street] and inside my own chest. My own screams have become the canvases that you see in this exhibition.

Following the success of the revolution, I wandered through Tahrir Square to Opera Square in downtown Cairo, meditating again, watching [the statue of] Ibrahim Pasha sitting on his horse, the Pasha pointing his finger at the Mediterranean. And I thought this is the true ‘path’ of the January 25 Revolution.”

George Bahgory, 2011

“المسار”… الحقيقي…

لم أتصور أن تحدث دوى صرخة واحدة وهتاف واحد “ الشعب يريد …”  ثورة ومليون ثائر ثم ٨٠ مليون و أنا واحد من هؤلاء . أعود من ميدان التحرير لمرسمي وذراعي الذي يتموج وسط مليون ذراع أصرخ معهم من جديد , و في مرسمي جمعت رسوم دفتر إسكتشاتي رقم واحد بعد الألف وقد تحول ذراعي المتموج مع الصرخة الأولى و الصرخات المتتالية إلى فرشاه وتحولت أصابعي الخمسه إلى ألوان ساخنة من الأصفر والبرتقالي والأحمر , ألوان ألسنة اللهب المشتعل حولي وبداخلي فتحولت لوحاتي بصرختها إلي هذا المعرض. بعد نجاح الثورة  ,اأتجهت من ميدان التحرير إلى ميدان الأوبرا بوسط البلد لأتأمل من جديد حصان ابراهيم باشا وهو يشير بإصبعه نحو البحر المتوسط وقلت : هذا هو “المسار” الحقيقي لثورة ٢٥ يناير  .

جورج بهجوري٢٠١١

To view full painting with its caption, click on the image to enlarge it.

Dilemma II – People from Our Lives | Diptych | Mixed Media on Canvas | 55 x 110 cm | 2009

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Ahmed Askalany (b. 1978, Qena, Egypt) has exhibited in many places in Egypt & internationally as part of both solo and group exhibitions. He exhibited his artwork in Al Masar’s previous exhibitions “Contemporary Views II”,  “Contemporary Views III” & “Contemporary Views IV“. He exhibited his work in the 11^th Cairo International Biennale; he also took part in the 5^th Miniature Exhibition at the Cairo Opera House. In 2000, he exhibited in the 12^th Youth Salon, Cairo Opera House. In 2001 he exhibited in Cairo Modern Art, Circus Theatre, and The Hague, Netherlands. Askalnay lives and works in Cairo.

The artist had created a large scale of the sculpture titled “The Thinker” which has accomplished a huge success in Christie’s Auction of April, 19, 2011.

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Hussein Youssef Amin (1904 – 1984, born in Cairo, Egypt) was a painter and a teacher who belongs to the second generation of the modern Egyptian Art Movement; he taught some of the most ground-breaking Egyptian artists. He founded the Contemporary Art Group in the 1940s. In 1948, he won the first modern art prize at the Sao Paolo Biennale.

As a teacher, in 1944, he created a circle of students, with artists Hamed Nada, Ibrahim Mas’ouda, Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar, Maher Ra’ef, Kamal Youssef, Mogli (Salem El-Habshi) and Samir Raf’I who also became stars of the 20^th century Egyptian Modern Art. Collectively, their attitude towards painting was expressionistic — to paint in an intuitive and emotional manner, to work on both the detail and the whole picture, balancing the harmony of colour and volume. And the subject was Egypt. Amin taught them to paint rather than imitate.

Amin has been part of several exhibitions held by Al Masar Gallery, however Al Masar Gallery had the pleasure to exhibit his artwork in the group exhibition “Remebered | Late Artist | Hussein Youssef Amin” which featured his artwork alongside the artwork of his students, the ones who has been greatly influenced by his art & approach.

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