Artists biography – Zaidan Gallery

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Abdelaziz Gorgi’s CHKOBA PLAYERS; EVE OF RAMADAN, with Footnotes, #52

Abdelaziz Gorgi, 1928-2008
JOUEURS DE CHKOBA; VEILLÉE DU RAMADAN (CHKOBA PLAYERS; EVE OF RAMADAN), circa 1960-1969
Acrylic, gold leaf, ink and pen on paper
76 by 55cm.; 29 7/8 by 21 3/4 in.
Private collection

The chkobba is a card game drawn from the scopa and brought to Tunisia by Italian migrants.

It is played with traditional cards . The game is between two players or two teams of two players most often but it is possible, although infrequent, to play three or four independent players.

Depending on the regions, provinces and even villages, the rules of the game and the counting of points vary. More on The chkobba

Abdelaziz Gorgi’s oeuvre is a testament to a strong attachment to Tunisia, both in its form and practice. As one of the founders and last president of the Ecole de Tunis, of whom he remained an active practicing artist alongside Jallal Ben Abdallah and Hedi Turki, Gorgi’s paintings and tapestries are colourful, repeatedly featuring tokens such as ‘chechias’, the traditional Tunisian headgear or Chkoba, the traditional Tunisian card game, which both act to symbolize his personal background. Gorgi was also very active in encouraging the arts within his community, designing the first Tunisian postage stamp in 1956 and establishing the Tunis School of painting which he presided over until 1983. In 2000 his efforts were repaid when the Tunisian ministry of Culture announced that the country to be celebrating a ‘Gorgi Year’ of culture. More on Abdelaziz Gorgi

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Boutros al-Maari’s Antar and Abla, with Footnotes, #59

Boutros al-Maari, (SYRIA, BORN 1968)
Antar and Abla, c. 2019
Acrylic on canvas
130 x 100cm (51 3/16 x 39 3/8in).
Private collection

Antarah ibn Shaddad al-Absi (525–608), also known as Antar, was a pre-Islamic Arab knight and poet, famous for both his poetry and his adventurous life. Stories of his heroic exploits have been circulating for centuries and were eventually written down in the eighth century. Set in pagan Arabia known as the jahiliya, “before the time of the prophet”, the events in the stories have their roots in the history of the Arabs.

The slave-son of an Arab prince, Antar fell in love with his high-born cousin Abla. He was born into tribe of Abs, one of the many tribes roaming the Arabian desert. His mother was an Ethiopian slave and his father was a prince of the tribe. He grew outside the accepted circle of the society and Antar spent his childhood pasturing the tribe’s flock of sheep and goats. On the desert plains he learned to ride skillfully, and practiced throwing his spear until he was better accomplished, stronger and more feared than any other slave. His father also did not recognize him as a son but he excelled and distinguished himself in battle. Antar became his tribe’s hero and poet.

The stories recount his heroic struggles to raise himself above the circumstances of his birth to gain his rightful position within his tribe and to become worthy of his beautiful cousin Abla. His poems to her are highly admired and widely quoted in the Arab world. More on Antar and Abla

Born in 1978 in Damascus, Syria, Boutros al-Maari obtained a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris in 2006, and a degree in Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Damascus University, in 1991, where he is currently Professor of Fine Arts. Al-Maari has held several solo exhibitions in Paris and Damascus, and has participated in a large number of group exhibitions in Damascus, Beirut, Alexandria, Hanover and Paris.

In his paintings, Boutros al-Maari reflects the relationship between time and place, inspired by memories of lived experiences. Utilizing simple, yet strongly expressive characters, he projects his artistic vision by connecting figures from his life in Damascus and Paris. He lives and works in Damascus. More on Boutros al-Maari

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Nasser Ovissi’s Rakhsh and the Simorgh, with Footnotes, #60

Nasser Ovissi, (IRAN, BORN 1934)
Rakhsh and the Simorgh, c. 2010
Paint on gold leaf,
70 x 50cm (27 9/16 x 19 11/16in).
Private collection

Rakhsh (“luminous”) is the stallion of protagonist Rostam in the Persian national epic, Shahnameh of Ferdowsi.

The color of Rakhsh is described as “rose leaves that have been scattered upon a saffron ground” and it is first noticed by Rostam amongst the herds of horses brought over from Zabulistan and Kabul. In this first encounter Rakhsh is described as a mighty colt with the chest and shoulders of a lion and it appears to have the strength of an elephant. He is highly intelligent and his loyalty is legendary. No one but Rostam ever rides Rakhsh, and Rakhsh recognizes no one but Rostam as his master. Also, he is the only horse ever that Rostam could ride, since his great strength and weight would kill other horses.

Due to divine favor protecting Rostam, Rakhsh lives an unusually long life. Rostam and Rakhsh both die by the treason of Rostam’s half-brother, Shaghad. More on Rakhsh and the Simorgh

Nasser Ovissi is an American-Iranian painter whose work is characterized by stylized figures of Arabic women and horses. Set amidst geometric patterns and decorative elements, his figures seem to merge into and out of the space behind them. “My work is dedicated to the beauty of life and I hope those who experience my work will walk away with an experience of beauty.” Born in Tehran, Iran in 1934, Ovissi studied Law and Political Sciences at the University of Tehran before studying fine art at Beaux Fine Art in Rome. The artist has achieved numerous awards and honors, including being exhibited at the 1959 Paris Biennial and a Grand Prize at the 1962 Biennale of Fine Arts of Tehran. Ovissi lives and works in Reston, VA. His works are included in the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum in Madrid and the National Art Gallery of Greece in Athens. More on Nasser Ovissi

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Fahrelnissa Zeid’s Metropolis, ith Footnotes, #42

Fahrelnissa Zeid, (TURKEY, 1900-1991)
Metropolis
Mixed media on paper, circa 1950’s
74 x 106cm (29 1/8 x 41 3/4in)
Private collection

Fahrelnissa Zeid (7 January 1901 – 5 September 1991) was a Turkish artist best known for her large-scale abstract paintings with kaleidoscopic patterns. Also using drawings, lithographs, and sculptures, her work blended elements of Islamic and Byzantine art with abstraction and other influences from the West. Zeid was one of the first women to go to art school in Istanbul. She lived in different cities and became part of the avant-garde scenes in Istanbul, pre-war Berlin and post-war Paris. Her work has been exhibited at various institutions in Paris, New York, and London, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1954. In the 1970s, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she established an art school. In 2017, Tate Modern in London organized a major retrospective of the artist and called her “one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century”.

In the 1930s, she married into the Hashemite royal family of Iraq. More on Fahrelnissa Zeid

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

02 Paintings, Middle East Artists, Ayman Baalbaki’s Anonymous, with Footnotes, #56

Ayman Baalbaki (LEBANON, BORN 1975)
Anonymous
Acrylic on carton laid on canvas
70 x 50cm (27 9/16 x 19 11/16in).
Private collection

Ayman Baalbaki (born in 1975 in Adaisseh, Lebanon) is a Lebanese painter. He studied at the Lebanese University and at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. His large-scale expressionist portraits of fighters made him one of the most popular young Arab artists.

Born the year the civil war started in Lebanon, Ayman Baalbaki draws most of his inspiration from these events. His paintings often depict destroyed buildings, sometimes occupied by refugees who were forced to leave their homes during the combats. After the 2006 Lebanon War he drew series of scattered structures related to the demolitions consecutive to the bombings of Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Ayman Baalbaki’s most popular series depict warriors bearing veils or casks. These portraits of anonymous figures became a symbol of the endless conflicts in the Middle East. These paintings have been exhibited worldwide, including the 2011 Venice Biennale. In 2012, Baalbaki participated in Hoods for Heritage, a project consisting of 16 Porsche 911 hoods transformed into art works by artists and designer and auctioned on benefit of the Beirut National Museum. More on Ayman Baalbaki

Ayman Baalbaki (LEBANON, BORN 1975)
Anonymous II
Acrylic on carton laid on canvas
70 x 50cm (27 9/16 x 19 11/16in).
Private collection

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images — credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Lorna Selim’s Baghdadiyat, with Footnotes, #57

Lorna Selim, (IRAQ, BORN 1928)
Baghdadiyat
Oil on canvas
31 x 26cm (12 3/16 x 10 1/4in).
Private collection

Lorna Selim received a scholarship to study at the Slade School of Fine Arts, London, where she received a diploma in painting and design in 1948. The following year she received an Art Teachers’ Diploma (ATD) from the London University Institute of Education. From 1949–50 she taught art at the Tapton House Grammar School, Chesterfield, England. In the UK, she met Jewad Selim and they married in 1950. Returning to Baghdad, Lorna Selim became a member of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, Art Friends Society, and Society of Iraqi Plastic Artists. During the 1950s, she exhibited her work with the Baghdad Modern Art Group and the Pioneers Group. She was an art teacher at Ta’ssisiya School, Baghdad, in 1951, and participated in the Iraqi Pavilion Design for the International Fair held in Damascus in 1954. Along with Mohamed Ghani Hikmet, she supervised the completion of Jewad Selim’s Monument of Freedom after his sudden death in 1961.

She taught drawing and painting at the Girls College in 1961, and the architecture department of the Engineering College, Baghdad University, in 1965. She lives and works in Abergavenny, Wales. Her work is held in collections including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha. More on Lorna Selim

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Bashir Hammouda’s Still Life, with Footnotes, #55

Bashir Hammouda (Libya, born 1948)
Still Life, c. 1977
Oil on canvas, framed
46 x 46cm (18 1/8 x 18 1/8in).
Private collection

Bashir Hammouda was born in 1948 in Tripoli, Libya. Hammouda graduated from the Accadenua di Belle Arti in Rome in 1974, having mastered painting, engraving and printing during his time in Italy. He became an assistant teacher at Tripoli’s Al-Fateh University. Hammouda subsequently went to study in Budapest, Hungary where he attained a PhD. Hamouda returned to Libya to work at Al-Fateh University where he became a very prominent professor until his retirement. His art practice spans over several decades and he has been widely exhibited. Hammouda beautifully captures his subject matters with an expressive and emotive approach and a vibrant colour palette. More on Bashir Hammouda

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, OMAR EL-NAGDI’s Le Grand Marché, with Footnotes, #56

OMAR EL-NAGDI (EGYPT, 1931-2019)
Le Grand Marché/ The Great Market, c. 1990
Oil on canvas
290 x 232cm (114 3/16 x 91 5/16in).
Private collection

“When I work, I like to work with no limits, that is why I like large format painting,” he says. “It satisfies me and gives the chance to paint a subject with all its elements and details.”

El Nagdi is the recipient of sixteen Egyptian and international art awards, and his paintings have been acquired by museums and renowned institutions throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo, the Museum of Modern Art in Venice, the Museum of Fine Art in Alexandria, the Museum of Modern Art in South Korea, the National Library in Paris, the Congress Library in the USA, the Museum of Pistoia in Italy, the Rasking Foundation in England, the Centre of Aesthetics Research in Italy, and the Museum of the White House in the USA.

A multi-disciplinary artist, he works in oil painting, watercolour, sculpture, etching, and mosaic, and has had his artwork exhibited alongside those of international greats such as Dali, Monet and Picasso. A renowned name on the international art scene. More on Omar El Nagdi

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Ahmed Shibrain’s Letters from Khartoum, with Footnotes, #54

Ahmed Shibrain, (SUDAN, 1931-2017)
Letters from Khartoum, circa 1970
Mixed media on paper
36 x 36cm (14 3/16 x 14 3/16in).
Private collection

Ahmed Shibrain is an integral and leading figure of Modernism in Sudan. Shibrain was born in 1931 in Berber, Sudan. In the early 1950s, Shibrain studied at the Khartoum Technical Institute, and in 1957 he went onto studying at the Central School of Art and Design in London. Alongside his influential contemporaries Shibrain was one of the founders of The Khartoum School in the 1960s. The Khartoum School was a movement of visual artists who cultivated a new visual style called Sudanawiyya, which expressed local and Pan-African traditions alongside Western influences. Through the use of calligraphy, the aesthetics of hurufiyya (transforming Arabic letters into abstract shapes; named after harf the Arabic word for letter) and Islamic motifs, the movement attempted to convey the cultural fabric of Sudan. After returning to Khartoum, Shibrain became the head of the graphics department at his former college in 1970, and its dean in 1975. He was known for his design of presidential medals, postal stamps and various ebony murals. He held numerous exhibitions in Africa and abroad, published several books and critical essays and held many functional and academic positions in Sudan. In 1966 Shibrain founded the non-profit Shibrain Art Gallery which showcases Sudanese artists. More on Ahmed Shibrain

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Louay Kayali’s Cake Seller, with Footnotes, #53

“The Cake (Ka’ak) Seller” is a prime examples of Kayyali’s mature period in which key characters from Syrian daily life merge to the forefront. In this body of work, Kayyali highlights the protagonist’s struggle and vividly captures how political upheaval affected the Syrian population’s demeanor, shaping a culture and society that led to poverty and societal marginalization. Kayyali conveys a mixture of empathetic admiration and sad affection for his poor but noble subject matters. More on this painting

Louay Kayali (20 January 1934 – 26 January 1978) was a Syrian modern artist.

Kayali was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1934 and studied art in the Accademia di Belle Arti after having studied at the Al-Tajhiz School where his work was first exhibited in 1952. He met Syrian artist Wahbi al-Hariri there and the two would share a friendship for the rest of Kayali’s life. Al-Hariri would become his mentor as he was for artist Fateh Moudarres that Hariri introduced to Kayali in 1955. Moudarress and Kayali would together represent Syrian modern art at the Venice Biennial Fair.

Kayali graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome in 1961 and returned to Syria where he started his career as a fine arts professor at Damascus University. That same year, the International Modern Art Hall of Damascus hosted his exhibit of 28 oil paintings on canvas and 30 sketches

He suffered from depression and died in 1978 from burns incurred from his bed catching fire, reportedly from a cigarette. More on Louay Kayali

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Samir Rafi’s The 1948 Nakba, with Footnotes, #52

Samir Rafi (EGYPT, 1926-2004)
The 1948 Nakba, c. 1952
Oil on board,
46 x 62cm (18 1/8 x 24 7/16in).
Private collection

The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba‎, literally “disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”), occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs — about half of prewar Palestine’s Arab population — fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. Between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war, while urban Palestine was almost entirely extinguished. The term nakba also refers to the period of war itself and events affecting Palestinians from December 1947 to January 1949. More on t he 1948 Nakba

Samir Rafi’s (Egypt, 1926-2004) talent was discovered early on in his life which prompted his teacher Hussein Youssef Amin, the founder of the ‘Group of Contemporary Arts’, to organize the artist’s first exhibition in 1943. A work from this exhibition was acquired by the Art Museum of the Ministry of Education. Rafi continued his education and graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo in 1948.

In the late 1940s Rafi joined Amin’s Group of Contemporary Arts. The artistic objective of the members was to employ authentic Egyptian traditions in their art by applying popular symbols and philosophy, in order to counter imported and Orientalist trends, thus producing an indigenous form of contemporary art. Rafi’s works of the 1950’s were described as fresh, vibrant and daring.

Unlike his contemporaries, Rafi’s works do not include elements of traditional Egyptian culture and symbology. Most of his work revolves around the relationships between men and women in a cosmopolitan environment.

Throughout his career Rafi repeated the subject matter of the woman figure with a wolf which was intended to symbolize unfaithfulness. Many of his paintings reflected an angry and serious theme. In the current work he has chosen to merge the faces of the wolf and the woman in a very distinct surrealist style. More on Samir Rafi

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Raghed Ayab’s The Monastery, with Footnotes, #51

Raghed Ayab, (EGYPT, 1892-1982)
The Monastery, c. 1965
Oil on panel
55 x 84cm (21 5/8 x 33 1/16in).
Private collection

Ragheb Ayad was born in 1892 into a Coptic family in Cairo. Ayad was one of the first students to enrol in the School of Fine Arts in Cairo. After graduating in 1911, Ayad worked as a drawing teacher at the Coptic Secondary School in Cairo and made several trips to France and Italy during those years. In 1925 he both received a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of fine Arts in Rome. After obtaining his diploma in 1928 Ayad returned Egypt the following year.

Ayad was the first to propose the idea of creating an Egyptian Academy in Rome on the model of the other foreign academies established in the Italian capital. In 1930, he was appointed the head of the decoration department at the School of Applied Arts in Giza where he remained until 1937. Following this appointment he became professor and director the free section of the school of Fine Arts in Cairo. He also worked as a curator and played an integral role in reorganizing the Coptic museum in 1941. In 1950 he was named director of the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art .

Ayad was also known for painting religious scenes and exterior views of the Coptic monasteries. Coptic monasticism saw a revival that started in the 1960s during the papacy of Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria. More on Ragheb Ayad

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Omar El Nagdi’s The Grand Market, with Footnotes, #50

Omar El Nagdi, (EGYPT, 1931-2019)
Le Grand Marché/ The Grand Market, c. 1990
Oil on canvas
290 x 232cm (114 3/16 x 91 5/16in).
Private collection

“When I work, I like to work with no limits, that is why I like large format painting,” he says. “It satisfies me and gives the chance to paint a subject with all its elements and details.”

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Omar El Nagdi’s Gamilla, with Footnotes, #49

Omar El Nagdi, (EGYPT, 1931-2019)
Gamilla, c. 1993
Oil on canvas,
100 x 70cm (39 3/8 x 27 9/16in).
Private collection

Painter, musician and director Omar El Nagdi was born in Cairo in 1931 and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, after which he continued his art education in Russia and Italy, graduating from the Academy of Venice in 1965. In the 1960s, he initiated a series of works for which he is still renowned today – based on singular forms of calligraphy, predominantly in the repetition of the Arabic numeral for one and the first letter of the Arabic alphabet.
“When I work, I like to work with no limits, that is why I like large format painting,” he says. “It satisfies me and gives the chance to paint a subject with all its elements and details.”
El Nagdi is the recipient of sixteen Egyptian and international art awards, and his paintings have been acquired by museums and renowned institutions throughout the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in Cairo, the Museum of Modern Art in Venice, the Museum of Fine Art in Alexandria, the Museum of Modern Art in South Korea, the National Library in Paris, the Congress Library in the USA, the Museum of Pistoia in Italy, the Rasking Foundation in England, the Centre of Aesthetics Research in Italy, and the Museum of the White House in the USA.

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Nasser Ovissi’s Esphahan, with Footnotes, #48

Nasser Ovissi, (IRAN, BORN 1934)
Esphahan, c. 1959
Oil on canvas
55 x 88cm (21 5/8 x 34 5/8in).
Private collection

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Gamal El Seguini’s A View of Imbaba Bridge, Cairo, with Footnotes, #47

Gamal El Seguini, (EGYPT, 1917-1977)
A View of Imbaba Bridge, Cairo, c. 1950
Oil on panel, framed
65 x 40cm (25 9/16 x 15 3/4in).
Private collection

Born in a popular neighborhood of Cairo in 1917, Gamal El Seguini joined the School of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1933 to study sculpture. Four years later, and after his graduation, he traveled to Paris, where he discovered the works of the French sculptors Jacques Bourdelle and August Rodin. The outbreak of world war II obliged him to leave Europe. He came back later in 1947, after receiving a scholarship to pursue a formation in metalwork and sculpture in Rome. In Egypt, El Seguini became part of the emerging artistic scene: he founded the group called Sawt al-Fannan (The Voice of the Artist) for the promotion of young Egyptian artists and co-founded the Contemporary Art Group in 1947. During the 1950s, the artist was appointed professor of sculpture at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo and then, head of the department of sculpture at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria. Working with a wide range of media like wood, bronze, or stone, the artist notably used a technique of hammered copper to produce bas-reliefs recalling the ones from Ancient Egypt. The themes of his oeuvre appear to be mainly political, but he would reinterpret them through a specific artistic language, including symbols or calligraphic signs that he invented himself. Gamal El Seguini passed away in 1977 in Barcelona. More on Gamal El Seguini

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Gazbia Sirry’s The Boat, with Footnotes, #46

Gazbia Sirry, (EGYPT, BORN 1925)
The Boat, c. 1997
Oil on panel
48 x 58cm (18 7/8 x 22 13/16in).
Private collection

Gazbia Sirry (born 1925) is an Egyptian painter.

Born in Cairo, Gazbia Sirry studied fine arts and became a professor in the painting department of the Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University. Gazbia is considered one of the leading Egyptian artists, with a varied and innovative career of more than 50 years.

Serry’s art expressed the feelings and traditions of the Egyptian woman during the 1960s. In the 1970s, she used the pyramid images and constructional mixture in her works for expressing their daily life, and in the 1990s she helped in liberating the Egyptian woman from the old traditions through her work.

Gazbia Sirry was born to be the conscience of the nation, with its hopes and pains, joys and sorrows.” —Mokhtar al-Attar

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Munir Fahim’s Nubian Women, with Footnotes, #45

Munir Fahim, (EGYPT, 1935-1983)
Nubian Women
Oil on canvas, c. 1980
100 x 80cm (39 3/8 x 31 1/2in).
Private collection

Egyptian women highly valued personal adornment and it was worn by all social classes. In these artistically unique and striking depictions, the Nubian women are seen adorned with bold golden and silver native jewelry. More on this work

Munir Fahim was born on June 26, 1935 in the port city of Rasheed located in Egypt’s Beheira governorate. In 1962, Fahim obtained a degree from the Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts and had his own atelier in Alexandria since 1965. Munir Fahim is remembered as one of the most renowned portrait painters in Egypt, he painted over 800 portrait paintings including ones of celebrities, artists and important personalities such as Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Ms. Gihan Sadat, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Riad and his wife, the Lebanese President and his wife, King Hussein Bin Talal, Queen Noor and Foreign Minister of Jordan Abd Monem Rifai and Marshal Habis Majali and artists such as Seif Wanly, Hussein Bicar and actor Kamal Shennawi and others. His works have been exhibited in numerous exhibitions in Egypt and he participated in the Alexandria Biennale in 1982. He has also exhibited in Lebanon, Jordan, Finland and in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, Germany. More on Munir Fahim

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Kadhim Hayder’s Divine Horses, with Footnotes, #44

Kadhim Hayder, (IRAQ, 1932-1985)
Divine Horses (From the Marty’s Epic)
Oil on canvas, c. 1965
70 x 100cm (27 9/16 x 39 3/8in)
Private collector

Ten mythical white horses, their abstracted bodies collapsed together in grief, wail out to a bare, nocturnal landscape. An isolated green horse turns his body away from the group, exiled under a blood red moon. This painting is from one of Iraqi artist Kadhim Hayder’s most notable series, The Epic of the Martyr, based on a poem the artist wrote in 1965, and exhibited that year at the new National Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad. The poem references the eighth century Battle of Karbala, which resulted in the death of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Hussein Ibn Ali; an event that is commemorated annually through public mourning rituals. The work references this significant moment of martyrdom in Islamic history as an allegory for the tumultuous and rapidly transforming political context of Iraq following the 1963 coup in which many suspected dissidents and political opponents were killed. According to the artist Dia Azzawi, Hayder introduced in this series a new paradigm in Iraqi modernism by drawing on history and cultural memory as motifs, isolated from direct narrative reference, that served as allegories for the present. More on this painting

Kadhim Hayder is among the most revered members of Iraq’s modernist movement and was a member of a number of artists groups. Merging his interests in literature, symbolism and daily life, Hayder articulated multiple levels of readings in his painting practice. He studied painting at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and later attended the Royal College of Art in London to study theatre design and printmaking from 1961 to 1962. After his return to Iraq and infused with a sense of pan-Arab identity, he introduced a new paradigm to his representational style. He focused on the eighth century Battle of Karbala, which resulted in the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Hussein ibn Ali, creating a series of paintings known as Melhamet al-Shahid, or The Martyr’s Epic. An analysis of Hayder’s approach suggests that he re-contextualised the practice of taziya (mourning) through poetry and theatrical re-enactments of the battle. Hayder’s work was exhibited frequently in the 1970s, including at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Baghdad’s First Arab Biennial in 1974. More on Kadhim Hayder

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

01 Painting, Middle East Artists, Dia Azzawi’s Portrait of the Non Existent Bird, with Footnotes, #43

Dia Azzawi, (IRAQ, BORN 1939)
Portrait of the Non Existent Bird
Print in hand painted artists box, c. 2005
45 x 32 cm
Private collection

Born in Baghdad in 1939, Dia Azzawi started his artistic career in 1964, after graduating from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and completing a degree in archaeology from Baghdad University in 1962.

In 1969, Azzawi (with Rafa Nasiri, Mohammad Muhriddin, Ismail Fattah, Hachem al-Samarchi and Saleh al Jumaie) formed the New Vision group (al-Ru’yya al-Jadidah), uniting fellow artists ideologically and culturally as opposed to stylistically. Through his involvement with the New Vision group Azzawi found inspiration in contemporary subjects and issues, particularly the plight of the Palestinians. He was also briefly a member of Shakir Hassan Al Said’s One Dimension group (Jama’t al-Bu’d al-Wahid).

From 1968 to 1976, Azzawi was the director of the Iraqi Antiquities Department in Baghdad. He has lived in London since 1976, where he served as art advisor to the city’s Iraqi Cultural Centre, from 1977 to 1980. Azzawi’s move to London led him to rediscover book art (dafatir), an art form that he has encouraged other artists from Iraq and the region to explore.

With exhibitions of his work have been held in international, private and public collections including the Museums of Modern Art in Baghdad, Damascus and Tunis; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Kinda Foundation, Saudi Arabia; Una Foundation, Casablanca; Arab Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi; Development Fund, Kuwait; Jeddah International Airport; British Museum, Tate Modern, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Institut du Monde Arabe, Bibliothèque Nationale de France and Colas Foundation, Paris; Harba Collection, Iraq and Italy; Gulbenkian Collection, Barcelona; and Library of Congress and the World Bank, Washington, DC. More on Dia Azzawi

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don’t own any of these images – credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: