Ramsès Younan, Untitled, 1943. Oil on canvas, 60 x 85
cm.
EGYPTIAN SURREALISM
SURREALISM, n. m. Pure psychic automatism by means of which one intends to
express, either verbally, or in writing, or in any other manner, the actual functioning
of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason,
free of any aesthetic or moral concern
--André Breton, The Surrealist Manifesto, 1924
Much of Coptic art is Surrealist. We do not imitate foreign schools but create an art form that has
emerged from the tanned soil of this land and that has been running in our veins from the day we
used to live by unrestrained free thought until this very hour … The word “Surrealism” is nothing but
the modern technical term to what we have always referred to as free imagination: the freedom of
expression, the freedom of style, and the orient, since eternity, has been dwelling to all of this.
–Kamel El-Telmissany, 1939
Art et Liberté (Art and Liberty) group, c. 1945
“The painter works on ruptures. . .In fact, he
obeys the summons to play a double game of
the most radical nature: he crushes what he
sees, undoes what he generates, exorcizes
what he invokes.”
--Art and Liberty Group, Second Independent
Art Exhibition in Cairo, 1941
Fouad Kamel, catalog cover for the second exhibit of “Art and
Liberty”
Georges Henein, Portrait of Gulperie Efflatoun
Boula Henein, Portrait of Georges Henein, undated
Van Leo, Self Portrait, 1945
Silver gelatin photograph
Van Leo, Self Portrait, Sunday, November 1, 1942.
Silver gelatin photograph
Kamel El-Telmissany, Portrait of Albert Cossery, 1938
Oil on canvas, 15 x 10 5/8 in.
Mayo (Antoine Malliarakis), L'oiseau (The Bird), 1937
Oil on canvas, 18 x 8.6 in.
Mayo (Antoine Malliarakis), Coups de bâtons (Baton Blows),
1937
Oil on canvas, 65 3/4 × 95 11/16 in.
Ramses Younan, Untitled, 1939
Oil on canvas, 18 5/6 x 14 in.
Ida Kar, Still Life, Egypt, c. 1940s
Silver gelatin photograph
Ida Kar, Ida Kar with Victor Musgrave, Cairo, 1944
Silver gelatin print
Ida Kar and Edmond Belali, L’étreinte (The Embrace),
1940
Vintage bromide print, 20.5 x 16 1/8 in.
Rateb Seddik, Untitled, c. 1940
Oil on canvas, 47.2 x 86 in.
Amy Nimr, Untitled (Anatomical Corpse), 1940
Gouache and ink on paper, 14 15/16 x 11 in.
Amy Nimr, Untitled (Underwater skeleton), 1943
Gouache on wood, 54 x 45.5 cm
Inji Efflatoun, Composition Surréaliste, 1942
Oil on canvas, 27 5/8 x 23 ¾ in.
Inji Efflatoun, Untitled, 1942. Oil on canvas, 23 5/8 x 31
5/8”
Some two or three months after I arrived in prison [in 1959], I felt a desire to paint and with
it came a refusal to surrender to the status quo…I would go up to the roof of the building to
paint anything I could find, eventually painting the inmates…
One of the most important subjects I painted from inside the prison was Inshirah, who had
been sentenced to death, but her execution had been postponed for one year until her
child was weaned. Those sentenced to be executed were placed in a cell under special
guard so they wouldn’t commit suicide, and they wore red uniforms. While awaiting
Inshirah’s execution, I felt the massive tragedy of her story, as she had killed and stolen
under the pressure of extremely harsh conditions and overwhelming misery. When I asked
to paint her, the director [of the prison] told me that it would be very depressing. I did
indeed paint her and her son - this was one of the paintings that were confiscated by the
Criminal Investigations Department…
Inji Efflatoun, 'Motherhood,' c. 1950s
Oil on wood, 75 x 47 cm.
Inji Efflatoun
(left)-Tree Behind the Walls, 1960.
Oil on canvas, 15 7/20 x 12 1/5”
(right)-Flower Tree Behind the
Bars, 1962. Oil on canvas, 20
87/100 x 10 63/100”
Fouad Kamel, Nude, 1950
Oil on canvas