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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 4 - 10 November 1999 Issue No. 454
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Nubia in focus
By Injy El-Kashef
At the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan, and for the next six months, a series of art exhibitions sponsored by Accor and curated by Kubel for Engineering Works will be held in commemoration of the hotel's 100th anniversary. Three of the hotel's elegant salons have been singled out to showcase the work of the artists participating. The opening exhibition, "Naive Nubian Art", consists of nine artists from Aswan, none of whom has received any formal training.
The nine Nubian artists share a common feature: a clear understanding of their local culture, seemingly uninfluenced by anything beyond the locale itself. And the only woman among the group, Nefissa Ahmed El-Gebali, possesses, perhaps, a vision far more uncluttered than any of the men. Having only attended primary school, Nefissa found herself spending many hours playing with mud in her native village of Kom Ombo, shapes forming under her fingers. As her passion grew stronger, so did her medium, and she began to work with limestone and sandstone, creating pieces that she herself started taking seriously.
One of the most impressive works on show at the Old Cataract is Nefissa's "Family Struggle," which borrows many formal aspects from scenes Nefissa must have witnessed on Pharaonic murals. Within a circle, a man is depicted pulling a woman by the hair, while children clutch at his galabiya pleading for her release. Obviously a domestic scene, but one informed by ancient conventions governing the depiction of the return of victorious warring Pharaohs. While the sun is shown shining within the circle, two faces, resembling primitive gods, are shown on either side of the circle. According to Nefissa, these are the jinn, or evil spirits, that caused the domestic unrest.
Painting by Salaheddin Adel Omar and "Family Struggle" by Nefissa Hamed El-Gebaly
Nefissa's other sculptures have similarly domestic settings. Perceiving childhood as innocence incarnate and adulthood as difficult, often painful, sometimes brutal, Nefissa gives her distracted little girls lambs to hold, thumbs to suck and floral pupils.
Salaheddin Adel Omar, who grew up among people accustomed to painting signs, patterns and motifs on walls, displayed work redolent of such village traditions. His oil paintings on fabric or wood encapsulate the energy, movement and activity of a traditional Nubian village, with its closely-knit society. Scenes of weddings, departures, celebrations and dancing are colourfully represented by crowds, drink, clapping and open-mouthed figures in the act of singing or ululation. The patterning is formulaic -- set against the backdrop of the Nile and desert with, in the central foreground, a condensed group of almost fusing figures always in motion.
While Salaheddin's paintings are crowded and lively, Ahmed Abbas Hussein (the only other painter among the nine artists) presents a much quieter, individualistic and labourious aspect of village life. His figures, often depicted performing household chores or minding their own quiet business, are perhaps more self-conscious than their Salaheddin counterparts.
Apart from Nefissa, the other sculptors are Gamal Abdel-Sattar Mohamed, Ahmed Ismail Sadeq, Idris, Marwan Hussein Abdel-Rahman Naqib, Montasser Abdel-Hamid Ali and Sayed Abdel-Thaher. Most of their wood, sandstone and limestone sculptures are depictions of the village's life, its people, animals and activities.
The Old Cataract's celebrations also include month-long exhibitions devoted to established artists. Farghali Abdel-Hafiz and Gazbia Sirry will show their Nubia-inspired work, Zakaria El-Konani hand-made glass, Aida Abdel-Kerim ceramics, Ali Dessouki batik, Abdel-Fattah El-Badri folkloric paintings and Abdel-Wahab Morsi recent paintings. Immediately following the Nubian exhibition Michel Pastore and Sylva Nasrallah will exhibit their Nagada textiles and Evelyne Porret her pottery.
