Egyptian School of Fine Arts marks its first centenary with major art show
The show in the ornate gallery of the Arts Palace comprises 436 paintings and sculptures created by 218 modern Egyptian artists. Hanging on the walls are works by Salah Taher, Ramses Unan, Hussein Bikar, Gamal El-Segini, Beshara Farag and others who enriched Egypt’s arts movement during the 20th century.
The exhibition starts in the palace’s main court and continues upstairs to fill the second and third floors. Visitors are welcomed by the works of the first generation of artists representing the first graduates of the Faculty of Fine Arts, including Mahmoud Mokhtar, Youssef Kamel, Ahmed Sabri and Ragheb Ayyad. The works of the second and the third generations of artists that follow are displayed in chronological order.
The Egyptian School of Fine Arts opened its doors on 12 May 1908, thanks to the generosity of the aristocratic Prince Youssef Kamal. Three years later the first group of students graduated from the school, among them Mahmoud Mokhtar, Ragab Abbas and Mohamed Hassan. The school was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Education and was thus recognised as a national institute of higher education.
In those days all the instructors were French, and they encouraged students to travel to Paris for further study. Sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar was among the first group to travel. To his contemporaries Mokhtar was “the fruit of the arts”, with his work echoing the poise and grandeur of ancient Egypt, yet drawing on deceptively simple subjects such as women carrying water jars and rural figures such as the village headman or agricultural guards. Mokhtar brought his nationalist symbolism to a new level of achievement in his famous depiction of Nahdet Masr, “Egypt’s Renaissance”, which represents a woman and a sphinx. This statue now stands in Giza outside Cairo University, and many artists since have tried to emulate Mokhtar’s emotive yet restrained style.
Excerpted from an article by Nevine El-Aref for Al-Ahram
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