Caricature Museum in the Fayoum Oasis
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The small artist colony of Tunis is located at the western end of the Fayoum oasis on a small elevation overlooking the lake. It is home to a number of writers, painters, and, above all, potters, whose work has made the village famous.
Five years ago, Mohamed Abla opened the Fayoum Art Center. Courses in painting, video art, sculpture, and graphics are regularly offered here.
The 55-year-old artist opened the Caricature Museum in Tunis a year ago, the first such museum in the Middle East.
The idea of the museum specifically took form after the controversy surrounding the Danish Mohammed caricature.
The spacious traditional adobe building, in which the Caricature Museum is housed, currently holds 200 caricatures from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. Most of the drawings are originals with the exception of a few items that come from newspapers and magazines.
The drawings are in color, and they seem daring, direct, and, even for their times, are political and critical of society. The styles of the artists are as various as the topics they choose to draw.
Mohamed Abla’s goal for the future is to establish contacts with caricature museums from all over the world and promote collaboration in order to achieve a greater awareness of Egyptian caricature art abroad.
He is also concerned with the issue of artists being properly paid for their work. In order to change this, the painter would like to start up a publishing house to print books and postcards of the caricatures.
After the Fayoum Art Center, the Caricature Museum, and the already envisaged caricature publishing house, the painter dreams of setting up an additional museum in Tunis devoted to the theme of Egyptian photography.
Excerpted from an article by Amira El Ahl for Qantara.de
Special thanks to Andie Byrnes for the link to the above story.
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