Last Saturday, the Arab world lost a major cultural icon, Helmi Al-Touni, one of the most prominent figures in Egyptian art and a pioneer in the arts of the book. Al-Touni, who passed away at the age of 90, is celebrated as much for his book covers and illustrations as his distinctive oil paintings. He worked with every major Arab publishing house, and his work can be seen in magazines including Al-Hilal, Al- Kawakeb, and the great Kuwaiti glossy Al- Arabi. He was a cartoonist as well as a painter and illustrator. But he will probably be best remembered for his role in children’s books since the 1960s.

Born in 1934 into a well-to-do family in Beni Sueif, south of Cairo, Al-Touni graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts’ department of stage sets in 1958. His first solo exhibition took place in1975 in Beirut, where it was followed by another ten years later. Many of his later exhibitions were held at the Picasso Gallery in Zamalek. His awards include the 1979 UNICEF International Child Day Award and the 2002 Bologna Children’s Book Fair prize. He worked with such towering figures as Al-Ahram editor Ahmed Bahaaeddin. As he said during the last round of the Luxor Painting Symposium, his Al-Ahram cartoons were published regularly until the regime deemed them too harsh towards the end of the 1980s.

An exuberant and dedicated artist, Al- Touni belongs to the sixties generation. “Our mission,” he said, “was to connect a broad segment of the public with visual art.” He saw himself as an heir to folk artists through the ages, and his favourite motifs – windows, doves, horses, watermelons and sometimes calligraphy – reflect ancient, Coptic and Islamic art as much as grassroots culture. Utilising all this, the covers he designed for books by phenomenally celebrated authors such as Ihsan Abdel-Quddous and Anis Mansour, and his illustrations of such books as Hussein Ahmed Amin’s 1984 One Thousand and One Tales from Arabic Literature made his images a constant presence in the Arab household. He also produced colouring books for both children and adults. His trademark style is cheerful, with a balanced palette and a constant decorative element.

Women are his most frequent subject, from small girls jumping rope or combing their hair to houris swimming with the fish or playing the oud. The title of his last exhibition, Long Live Love, held at the Picasso Gallery last March, sums up his lifelong message: a constant pushing back against ugliness and violence. A lifelong supporter of the Palestinian cause, he employed his art in its service, developing motifs to refer to the house key, the olive branch and the Dome of the Rock. Indeed his final Facebook post was an image of a Palestinian woman with Al-Aqsa Mosque in the background, and a calligraphic phrase from a patriotic song by the Lebanese diva Fayruz, addressing Jerusalem: “Our eyes fly away to you every day, and I’m praying.”

* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly