ArteEast is pleased to conclude its historical modernisms series by featuring the work of Egyptian painter Hamed Nada (1924-1990), a revered figure in Egyptian art history who has still not received his due international recognition. Nada invented a style of figural manipulation and introduced a symbolic vocabulary that continues to influence many artists in Egypt.  He also taught generations of students in art colleges in Cairo and Alexandria.  Drawing on sources as diverse as European expressionism, Egyptian folk art, and ancient Egyptian art, Nada's work is most well-known for its surrealist commentary on the life of the urban poor and working classes.  His tragicomic celebration and disdain of these people embodies the ambivalent nature of the support for social justice among many mid-century Egyptian modernists.  This exhibition is accompanied by original and translated texts on his work by some of the most historically well-known art writers in Egypt.
 

ArteEast would like to thank Dr. Amany Fahmy (Cairo College of Fine Arts) and Alexandra Seggerman (Yale University) for their extraordinary assistance with this exhibition.  Special thanks are also extended to Mohammed Talaat.

Kirsten Scheid and Jessica Winegar introduce the work of  Louay Kayyali, a Syrian artist whose work was well-known in Syria during his life-time but was little known beyond Syria, perhaps due to his socialist commitment and lyrical figurative style. His posthumous entry to the auction market has not been accompanied by awareness of his goals in using modernism. This exhibition provides translations of Louay's own reflections on his work as well as paintings representing the array of his formal interests and approaches.