Last week, the exhibition of the 16th Luxor International Symposium for Painting (1-13 November) opened at the Prince Taz Palace in Islamic Cairo. The one-week exhibition, inaugurated by Waleed Qanoush, Chairman of the Culture Fund, and Safiya El Qabany, Head of the Plastic Arts Syndicate, featured paintings by 17 artists from Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tatarstan, Armenia, USA, Russia, Nepal and Japan.
When I received the invitation to be an art critic in residence at the symposium, hosted by the Achti Hotel in Luxor only three weeks after the start of the ferocious war on Gaza, I did not factor in the extreme heat of Upper Egypt at this time of year — I was actually hit by sunstroke which incapacitated me for the first two days. More pertinently, the need to be in air conditioned spaces limited interaction while the artists produced the two 1 m x 1 m pieces required of them.
Artists expressed their astonishment and passion upon visiting Luxor’s sites, including Hapu Temple and The Valley of Kings. Many confided that visiting Luxor had been a cherished dream that came true. Such passion was warmly reflected on the surface of canvases “from zero distance” as they confronted that ancient beauty.
Some artists opted to combine what they saw with existing, recurring imagery in their paintings representing their own culture. Sangee Shrestha from Nepal, who considers art a means of meditation, said that visiting Egypt was truly one of her dreams. “I studied the history of ancient Egyptian art while studying for my Masters degree. There are a lot of similarities between ancient Egyptian mythology and Nepalese and Hindu mythology.” One of her two paintings depicts the lotus flower, a symbol of purity and prosperity, and a common feature between ancient Egyptian and Hindu civilisations, together with a small circle on the horizon to refer to Luxor’s scorching sun.
Equally, scenes from modern Luxor, with its magnificent Nile views and friendly people inspired other artists including Lusine Tumanian from Armenia to use different styles and techniques, echoing the definition of the American philosopher Morris Weitz of art as an open texture.
The established Russian painter Alexander Zhernokluev, for his part, used an expressionist style to make a portrait of a male character standing against a background of a beautiful greenish garden. The painting in oil reflects the artist’s passion for both landscape and portraiture. Using a palette dominated by yellow, which also referred to the sunny weather, Alexander’s work might be read as a call to figure out the relationship between humans and nature. Another piece by Zhernokluev depicted a group of boats on the bank of the Nile, gathered as if they were a group of intimate friends, using a similar palette dominated by yellow and orange.
The bull, a symbol of power in many temples in Luxor, such as the Dendera Temple of Hathor, which also refers to the Sun God Osiris, was depicted in the expressionist work of the established Egyptian-Canadian artist Mohab Abdelghafar, who currently lives in Alexandria. In one of his two paintings, heavy layers of red dominate the lower two thirds of the painting, leaving the upper third for a white space filled with motifs of human remains and a single bull. The painting has a literary quality to it, reflecting the fact that the artist writes poetry. Noha Elhamy, an emerging artist from Cairo who often depicts animals, used mixed media to paint the divine cow Hathor.
Reyosuke Kondo, a mid-career artist from Japan, used acrylics and pastels to paint green and yellow trees small spots against a reddish brown background. “I believe that any landscape is an ever-changing scene due to the influence of light and wind,” he says. He expressed his fascination with Al Karnak and the Valley of Kings, noting that his visit to Luxor changed his concept of time.
In a unique style combining abstraction with pop art, mid-career artist Omar Sinada from Alexandria created an image of intersecting lines and intermingled coloured spaces in what looks like a map of Luxor, supplemented by what he observed while roaming the city: local plants, mountains, palm trees and above all the unique architecture of old houses, especially that of Al Qorna village.
Artwork by Amal Flimban, one of the most prominent Saudi mural artists, reflected a passion for old houses and alleys in her hometown, the old city of Jeddah. This was evident in her two paintings, which depicted dark blue and greyish solid architectural blocks divided into houses and windows against a white background with two palm trees, evoking feelings of isolation.
The most significant shortcomings of this round of the festival is the lack of promotion of such a significant international event both in Luxor and adjacent cities. During the two-week visit, we hardly saw a single poster. It would have been better to have a common working space for the artists too.
During the Cairo exhibition, the senior visual artist Helmi Eltouni was awarded the Ministry of Culture’s badge by Qanoush and Kabbany in a modest celebration attended by some of the artists who had participated in the Luxor Symposium.
The event also included the release of the annual catalog. I had the honour of writing the 60-page, bilingual catalog, which illustrates the artistic character of each participating artist. I also joined critic Suzy Shokry in a talk on different aspects of El Touni’s achievement. While she reviewed El Touni’s career, I talked about his pioneering and revolutionary role in changing the traditional look of children’s book covers since the 1960s.
Born in 1934 in Upper Egypt, a graduate of the department of stage sets at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1958, gave a short talk revealing his relationship with politicians in different eras:
“President Anwar Al Sadat didn’t like me to the extent that he forced me to quit my job in 1971. In the Mubarak era, I was asked to join Al Ahram newspaper as a cartoonist. I was highly celebrated in the 1980s, but as my caricatures grew tougher. I was forced to quit my job for the second time.
“As an artist who belongs to the 1960s generation, our main aim was to connect a wide range of audiences with visual art. I worked with great figures in journalism such as the late editor Ahmed Bahaaeldin. He was a true friend, who taught me the need to produce simple but beautiful art in order to connect with readers.
“After my debut solo exhibition in 1985, I realised the need to figure out my identity as a visual artist. Hence, I started to study the field of popular arts in different parts of Egypt and develop my style to become like an heir of Egyptian folk artists through the ages. This dramatically changed my artistic path.”
In my own talk, I underlined the fact that the work of the pioneering artist was influenced by his study of stage sets, to the extent that his motifs and elements are the same across paintings and book covers.
El Touni has given dozens of solo exhibitions as a visual artist, designing hundreds of children’s book covers with the most prominent publishing houses in Egypt and Lebanon, where he worked for almost a decade. However, in the end, he is best known by powerful designs instantly recognisable as his across the Arab world. While this established his standing, it obscured his achievement as a painter.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 8 February, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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