Catalogue sobhy guirguis catalogue final

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1 THE SELF AND THE OTHER SOBHY GUIRGUIS ﺟﺮﺟـــﺲ ﺻﺒـــﺤﻰ

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Transcript of Catalogue sobhy guirguis catalogue final

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T H E S E L FA N D

THE OTHERS O B H YG U I R G U I S!"""#$# %&"""'(

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4 – 25 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4C a i r o – E g y p t

Sobhy Guirguis

The Self&The Other

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 5

ESSAYS 7FATENN MOSTAFA 9SAMIR GHARIB 23MOSTAFA RAZZAZZ 37SOBHY SHAROUNY 41

OEUVRES BY THEME HOPE 43THE MOTHER & THE CHILD WITHIN 59THE TRUTH 67

BIOGRAPHY 86ABOUT ARTTALKS 88

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SOBHY GUIRGUIS was born on the 20th of December 1929 in Cairo, Egypt where he lived and worked. Influenced by his father, a renowned flute player in Om Kolthoum orchestra and his passion for music, Guirguis first enrolled to study music but after two years, decided to switch and studied arts instead. He received a BFA, MFA and PhD from the faculty of fine arts in Cairo in 1958. In 1962 and thanks to a scholarship from the Italian government, Sobhy Guirguis travelled to Florence, Italy, to pursue further studies, which culminated into a post-graduate diploma in 1964. Guirguis would remain in Italy until 1967 working and exhibiting in Florence. In 1976, Sobhy Guirguis represented Egypt at the 37th International Biennale of Venice, Venice, Italy.

In 1993, a museum under Sobhy Guirguis name and containing a collection of his works, was inaugurated in the Contemporary Art Village in Shouna, Agamy, Alexandria. 1994 would become a pivotal year in Sobhy Guirguis life as he would receive the prestigious first prize for sculpture at the Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries and the Grand Prize of the Cairo International Biennale. Finally, he was awarded the State Prize for Arts in 2007. Sobhy Guirguis passed away on January 20th, 2013 at the age of 83.

Sobhy Guirguis: The Self and The Other is a retrospective to commemorate the first anniversary of the passing of this remarkable Egyptian artist. The show brings together over 60 of his most definitive paintings and sculptures, many previously unseen, spanning 60 years of artistic production.

SOBHY GUIRGUIS1929-2013

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art essays

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Sobhy Guirguis departed this world on January 20th, 2013 at the age of 83, leaving behind an unparalleled legacy of avant-gardism, modernity and humanity. As we enter the realm of one of the more perplexing artistic psyches of the 20th century in the Arab world, we soon realize how his art creates a profound and intimate experience. His sculptural or painted shapes are a metaphor to his secluded life, an autobiography in a way, acknowledging the self and the self as an/other. His work is at once conceptual and emotional; minimalistic and complex; mature and childlike; ancient Egyptian and universal; abstract and figurative and above all, human. Abstract geometric shapes such as bulging blocks, linear figures, rectangular or cylindrical heads with delicate features and deformed bodies search for answers to the unexplainable human existence and the dashed hopes in mankind. Isolated between his apartment and studios located in the same building in popular downtown Cairo between Boulaq and Shobra, yet aware of the external events surrounding him, Sobhy Guirguis was probably the most existential Egyptian artist of the twentieth century, beside Abdel Hady el Gazzar, and the most truthful to the child within the adult. The best works of Guirguis take you to the limit of your capacity to be moved by art.

Though he always had supporters and noteworthy shows, his work remained largely unknown outside the tiny circles of Egyptian avant garde art connoisseurs. Sobhy Guirguis had long chosen to be away from the limelight of honors and awards, opting to spend his time inquiring and producing, showing an indefati-gable commitment to artistic creation, which he pursued until his last day. It was not until the Ministry of Culture inaugurated a one-floor museum in Shona Art

THE SELF&THE OTHERby FATENN MOSTAFA

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Center and Museums, Agamy, Alexandria in 1991 dedicated to the sculptures of Sobhy Guirguis and a comprehensive retrospective fifteen years later in 2007 in Horizon One Gallery at Mahmoud Khalil Museum, when he was already 78, that he at last took his place, one of the most inventive and disturbing Egyptian sculptors of the century. Perhaps Guirguis’ choice of liberating himself from the constraints of fashion, success and market pressure enabled him to work entirely for himself, in complete freedom and to unclutter his mind from the atrocities created by men, which he warned against, such as wars, violence, destruction, poverty, the rise of street children; not seeking anything, but absolute silence to observe and understand. His work is a product of contradictions. His rejection of all human ills surrounding him is visible through the deformation of the bod-ies, the abnormality in the shape of the faces, the recurring use of three toes symbolizing man’s relation with the divine, the other and the self. Yet, charged with hope, the works of Sobhy Guirguis are serene and tender, as he puts the values that can save humanity on a pedestal – compassion, love and innocence. While his work resists traditional categorization in a certain school or art move-ment, it derives its influence from multiple sources at different stages of his life, to create his own distinctive identity and establishment. Early on, Coptic and an-cient Egyptian art had a profound influence on his work. In his sculptures, Guirguis’ rejection of classical representational perspective in favor of subjective expres-sionism produced a liberating break from ‘instantaneity’ and strict formalist norms that characterize most sculptors in Egypt. Cubism and surrealism provided him with the freedom to explore the world with great emotional and instinctive feelings, arising from the most profound layers of the psyche. His defiantly unconven-

Sobhy Guirguis with Former Minister of Culture Mohamed Abd El Kader Hatem, 1971

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tional geometric abstraction of form rejected the official prevailing academic-realism, creating a modernism that claimed to tap into the universal. As a result, his oeuvre remains unclassifiable for he fiercely sought independence. “My experiment gives me the feeling of individuality”. In one essay written by the late painter, art critic and poet Ahmed Fouad Selim, Guirguis is linked to a few artists such as English sculptor Anthony Caro, Welsh sculptor Barry Flanagan, German painter and sculptor Penck, Italian painter Enzo Cucci and American painter Jean Michel Basquiat. Others compared his linear works with Giacometti. Nonetheless, crudely assembling human emotions into sculpture using neo-primitivist imagery of human figures, Sobhy Guirguis resembles no one else. His art is predominantly naïve in the sense that inspiration springs directly from emotions triggered by his past growing up as a child in a family with a renown musician father playing the flute in the orchestra of Egyptian singer Om Kolhtoum and by his altruistic eagerness to give, as a solitary genius – a withdrawn artist, thinker and existentialist. Sobhy Guirguis started with linear thin figures, and then proceeded with weld-ing tin foils to achieve con-gregating bulbous forms, working with bronze, iron, brass and wood. In his sculp-tures with unusual forms, juxtapositions, men, wom-en and children are somehow indistinguishable. Many seem trapped or attempt to escape. Some are lying down, imagining, meditating, contemplating; others are peacefully sitting or standing as though crucified or raising

Om Kolthoum with her orchestra and Saad, father of Sobhy Guirguis, ÁXWH�SOD\HU

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Seated WomanBrass

their arms anticipating the final judgment. Some more seem to be the wise voice within, acting as guides and protectors coming to the rescue, wrapped in a Sufi atmosphere. Being part of this whole humanity, Sobhy Guirguis felt a tremendous responsibility and was disturbed by what had become of it. Painting came later, in the 1990s. In his oil on canvas paintings using a lim-ited palette, women seem to outnumber men, with recurring themes of child-hood, motherhood, family and fortunetelling as though they would be the answer to man’s quest for peace, serenity and hope. Clearly, his paintings complement his sculpture repertoire and broaden his exploration of the different states of feel-ings, bringing in a balance the like of faith and despair, peace and internal strug-gle, Adam and Eve. All his sculptures are produced in one single edition, with large formats such as the Guardian and smaller ones such as The Wall series. His invented technique of directly working on the material - bronze, brass or iron, without a prior model out of clay or a drawing, sets Guirguis apart and minimized the intervention of specialized craftsmen. This intimate relationship of welding, bending, blending, shaping, modeling, melting directly on the material is rare, as most sculptors would need technicians to turn their drawings or clay models into the final creation and provided Guirguis with absolute spontaneity and freedom. For viewers not versed in his work and techniques, much of Sobhy Guirguis work may come across as crude and unfinished. In his final works, Guirguis colored and oxidized part of his patina, using vibrant colors and blending different materials using tin and iron rods. His use of red and orange painted in a spontaneous, childlike way with scribbled writings, seems to stem either from his wish to return to his childhood or to indicate that after all, the answer to life is innocence or the child

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Graduation Project 1958Graduation Project 1958

Faculty of Fine Arts, CairoGraduating Class 1958Sobhy Guirguis, second from right to left, of kneeling students

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Graduation Project 1958

within each one of us. His work brings to mind the transience of the human condition, its vulnerability, ills and existential loneliness, for Guirguis chose to be solitary. His work can be read as an assertive existentialist statement, a loud cry against his dashed hopes in mankind, and his career as an example of perseverance.

“The first time I met Dr Sobhy Guirguis was in 2001. At that time, I was the CEO of

Gianaclis Vineyards for Beverages, a daughter company of Al Ahram Beverages.

During my tenure, I was lucky enough to be able to combine my personal passion –

the arts, with my professional responsibilities, by rebranding Obelisque wine into

Obelisk Egypt’s Modern Vine Arts. The idea aimed at creating awareness and

building appreciation of Egyptian arts by placing and changing annually the pic-

ture of different works of art on the three wine labels. Ultimately, the company

would own a decent art collection over time. To make sound choices, we created a

committee with respected art practitioners. One of the members of the committee,

Karim Francis who owned a contemporary art gallery by his name, had brought

pictures of sculptures by Sobhy Guirguis. Karim made an appointment and together,

we went to visit Dr Sobhy in his studio. The moment I shook his hands, I knew I was in

the presence of a beautiful soul and a giant artist. Different kinds of relationships

developed between us across this decade and more, from a mere admirer to a

collector of his works to a sort of confidante, where silence and tea were part of

our conversations. The last time I met Dr Sobhy was a few months before he passed

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away. It was October 2012. On that day, I was returning his personal laptop, a

precious asset, that he had generously lent me, containing his life – personal pho-

tographs, scans of newspaper articles written about the numerous exhibitions he

held, awards he won, his entire body of work, scribbled poems and music he wrote.

His son Ehab had managed to digitize Sobhy Guirguis’ life. And Sobhy was proud

of his son’s achievement, for he was protective of his family and secretive about his

personal life. And I had promised him then that I would one day organize a retro-

spective and publish a book in his honor.

To you, Dr Sobhy!Fatenn Mostafa

Founder . ArtTalks

Sobhy Guirguis Atelier

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When I reviewed the works of prominent Egyptian artist Sobhy Guirguis at ArtTalks Gallery in Cairo, questions about basics and fundamentals were unleashed in my mind: What is sculpture? What is painting? Who is Sobhy Guirguis?For a virtuoso artist such as Sobhy Guirguis, who has lived enough to experi-ence questions on visualizing life and what lies beyond it, his diverse creativity across his life recalls to mind the big questions, and provides us with material to derive the answer from his creations. The works of Sobhy Guirguis have answered questions about what sculpture is, and what painting is as he has prac-ticed both. He is originally a sculptor, and he remained loyal to the art of sculpture for the duration of his career. Yet he prac-ticed painting in the last quarter century of his life alongside sculpture. In both, he practices expressionism in its finest form, focused on human beings and the human form. Yet his manner of expression

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by SAMIR GHARIB

SOBHY GUIRGUIS TRIGGERS

FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS

RECLININGBrass116 x 50 x 35cm

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differs in his sculptures from his paintings. His composition in sculpture is mostly surrealistic, whether in his reassembling or presenting it to us. In the latter, the human form becomes part of a chair, or hangs on a prison cell wall, for example. For Sobhy Guirguis, the human being is a symbol. He rids the body of details, breaks it down, and condenses it to outline his intended message. And how I have adored his painting “The Thinker”, for it possesses a striking feature shared by many of Guirguis’ works, which can be described as “succinct surrealistic expres-sionism.” I would have liked him to sculpt this painting, for he would have rivaled in a striking and original way the famed sculpture by renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin, and which shares the same name “The Thinker.” All of Guirguis’ portraits are masks. Or, they are masks that summarize the faces behind them. He reached the peak of his expres-sionist representations of human masks in

WOMAN AND THE BALLWood, 1970’sEstate of the artist

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the stone sculptures that he showcased at the 1999 Aswan Sculpture Symposium. The beauty of these works cannot be summarized in text. It is a wall made up of a face, or a face made from a wall, stealing the sensitivity and virility of the material, so that it is transformed into a valley for this face. The work is tight in division and bal-ance. This is undoubtedly a beautiful work. For Sobhy Guirguis, the world of child-hood stands victorious over the challeng-es of adults in their grueling world. There is no difference in that theme between sculpture and painting other than the me-dium itself. But it is not a naïve childhood that Guirguis presents. It is an alert child-hood, aware, and at times it is not devoid of cunningness. Or it is that Guirguis devi-ously relies on the world of children and its vocabulary about “bigger” issues, such as time. In all cases, it unleashes freedom of imagination, reorganizing the composition of the world: the adult world. It renders the world creative for the grown-ups. Return to

THE THINKEROil on canvas

Private collection

ASWAN SCULPTURE SYMPOSIUM1999

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your senses ! We hold the tools to rebuild the world as we choose, or as it should be. For the grown-up world is miserable, limited and limiting. Sobhy Guirguis’ diversity emerges from his emotional storage blended with his wide technical experience. This pushed him to not settle for sculpture alone. The canvas of a painting is made from a living creature, and it ultimately seems kind to Sobhy Guirguis’ fantastic creatures. It is a crib for them. It allows for a range of motions: they can stand up, fly, play, sleep, dance, or reveal their secrets. It carries a wide range of emotions: they can laugh, cry, or become surprised. And so his canvas inspires in you, as a witness to the world it houses, ideas, or excites you with dreams. So how do Sobhy Guirguis’ creatures achieve all of this? It is with the color on their skin, the light, shades and “tones.” It seems that Guirguis is a “moalem” (“master” is a colloquial Egyptian expres-sion) of sculpture, and is a professional in MOTHERHOOD

Bronze

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painting, who follows the rules of painting and upkeeps it through balance and an amicable relationship between spaces and shapes. In some of his paintings, he comes close to the world and composition of Hamed Nada, and at times he reminds you of the idea conceived by Picasso for composing portraits, yet he is neither this nor that, he is himself. Painting alongside sculpture added a significant richness to Guirguis. I imagine that he satisfied every corner in his emotional storage, which did not run out until his death. He was a strong stallion of creativity, despite the fact that his appearance did not suggest it. I remem-ber him like the Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. He was tall and slim, who created a tall and very slim man. Giacom-etti and his sculpted human were united. Yet the tall Sobhy contrasted with Gia-cometti, for he created short humans or bodiless figures, or he created new figures that symbolized different types of humans, THE CIRCUS

Oil on Canvas

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They produced two different forms for one human being with the same anxieties. And while Guirguis’ Egyptian identity leaks onto many of his paintings, his sculptures seem to have a universal quality. The idea here is superior over the specifics, and the artistic expression is stronger than the details. Did Guirguis realize this, and that is why he wrote Arabic phrases on the abdomen of one of his figures, and on the head of another, to show that the sculptor is originally Arab? In any case, each artist drew the philosophy of his per-son’s life and reality from similar philoso-phy. Yes, there is no art without philosophy. While philosophy is confusing, the philo-sophical expression of both Giacometti and Guirguis does not confuse you. The expression is as clear as the funda-mental principles of philosophy held by man, any man, one that he expresses but fails to realize the unknown reasons. Despite Sobhy Guirguis’ declared love for English sculptor Henry Moore and Italian

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and placed them in philosophical com-positions. Here, Guirguis is aligned with Giacometti in the realm of philosophy. To me, their philosophies are the same. It is the philosophy of alienation. Each of them created a peculiar person. They express what is strange about life through the shape and posture of the hu-man form. Tall and slim figures emerge in Giacometti’s work, holding their head nor-mally vertical atop long necks. Figures were short and wide in the work of Sobhy Guirguis, and did not bear necks in their usual place, but rather horizontal or misplaced or altogether absent. At times the human head in Guirguis’s sculptures is oversized; a burden on the body. And Guirguis resembles Giacometti in his sur-realistic background, for surrealism was the liveliest period in Giacometti’s career. Meanwhile for Sobhy, surrealism was per-haps more about symbolism and its visual disposition. In any case, both of them took the liberty to invent their human figures.

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sculptor Marino Marini, I find him to be different. The intersection between their works does not imply that he resembles them. For example, there is a similarity between the famous “reclining” position in Moore’s sculptures and one or more of Guirguis’ sculptures, and between the painting of a horse and jockey in Marini’s and in Guirguis’ “The Circus”. The clear difference between Sobhy Guirguis and other artists worldwide is that he expresses his Egyptian identity. He reveals his Egyptian childhood and the characters in national folk tales as seen in e.g “Textile” painting or “The Fate of Mankind” sculpture and the daily real-life stories from Egypt (that I spot in much of his repertoire). There is a Pharaonic and Coptic influence as well in some of his paintings (try to spot them yourself). In the same way that these prominent Western artists expressed the identity of their western societies, he expressed his Egyptian identity. The mode of expression is different yet the language is the same: creativity through form. So, who is Sobhy Guirguis? He is bigger and wider than what I have

tried to present here in the confines of limited space. For any limited space cannot contain a life filled with creativity. Especially for someone who has not received, during his life, what he deserved in terms of analysis and description, or criticisms and documentation, because he has, like his contemporaries in Egyptian art in the second half of the previous century, emerged as a rare plant amid a swamp. They were not lucky enough to emerge in a garden worthy of their kind. This view of mine is not affected by the fact that he received the state prize in arts later than he deserved (2008) for state prizes in Egypt mean very little to me. He created a fascinating world, which someone like me enjoys to visit from time to time, and to save it in the corners of my consciousness with other keepsakes acquired throughout the journey of life of inspiring objects, making up the emotional spiritual energy. January 2014

Samir GharibFounder Egyptian Association

for contemporary art criticsMember of L’ Institut d’Egypte

THE HUMAN BEINGBronze

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I felt sorrow upon learning recently of the passing of my beloved brother, the noble artist Sobhy Guirguis. Guirguis walked out of our lives with the same calmness he lived with, all his life. I remember him now as an individual carrying a heavy weight on his lean body, a man full of passion and emotions, dignity and modesty. And all these are the features of the Egyptian man such as the peasant who combines humility and pride.

Sobhy Guirguis was a luminous face within the Egyptian arts scene. He had a distinctive accent and tempo in his voice that one would recognize before you would see him. When you saw him, you would find a strained yet radiant face greeting you with warmth and zeal. Sobhy Guirguis is, I think, one of the greatest sculptors of modern Egypt. A sculptor of the highest level, if not the rarest of forms.

His artistic experience is long, complex and rich. He always sought diversification

A GREATARTIST

by MOSTAFA RAZZAZZSobhy Guirguis with former minister of cultureFarouk Hosny

RECLINING WOMANBronze

From left to right:Sobhy Guirguis,

Zeinab El Seguiny,Gazbia Sirry,

Abdel Hadi Al Weshahi,Hamed Nada and

his wife,Hind Shalaby

Mid 1980’s

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in craftsmanship and innovation in the methods used in making sculptures, such as forming and processing; in draw-ing and coloring; in the symbolism in his oeuvre, and he had a superior knowledge of primitive, Coptic and African art. Sobhy Guirguis is the vanguard of expressionism in Egyptian modern sculp-ture, together with very few others such as Kamal Khalifa and Mohammed Mustafa. Beside the profound subject matters in their oeuvre, the energy, the emotions and the expressive pulse found in the works of Kamal Khalifa and Sobhy Guirguis set them apart from all other Egyptian sculptors. In front of the works of Sobhy Guirguis, one feels as if iron, copper and bronze turn into living crea-tures - one can almost hear the moans of some kind, the smell of sweat, and an enormous psychological energy, deriving from Guirguis’ unrestrained freedom, pushing one’s feelings and conscience to the extreme.

We have lost an unconventional pioneeringartist, one of the pillars in Egyptian modern sculpture but we have gained through his legacy, the Egyptian genius of the quiet modest monumental man.

Dr Mostafa RazzazzAuthor and critic

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MANTRA

THE MUSIC OF FORM

by SOBHY SHAROUNY

Sobhy Guirguis was raised in a quasi-musical environment. His father was a famous Nai player in Om Kolthoum band. At a very young age, Guirguis mastered playing both the Nai and the Qanoun and later the keyboard. His deep knowledge of music influenced his work all through his career. Sobhy Girguis’ style in making his metal sculptures is a pioneering addition to the methods of sculpting in Egypt. He made his sculptures from wax rather than clay, and then surrounded the wax with a mold of materials that could bear the high heat of melting metal. As the wax model melted, Guirguis would fill bronze after which he would break the mold to find an identical sculpture to the wax model. This style was unprecedented in Egypt.

At first, the works of Sobhy Guirguis used to shock the audience. Yet he persisted in his quest to innovate. Along the years and after sufficient exposure, the works of Sobhy Guirguis became a landmark in Egyptian contemporary art. Guirguis repeatedly said that art is about conception and invention, which in fact could be in contradiction with reality. An artist is affected by reality but never submits to or indulges in or even becomes part of it. Guirguis would rebel to express his independent vision – the struggle between the mass and the surrounding void, a kind of abstract conflict but essentially, the foundation of Sobhy Guirguis work.

Dr Sobhy SharounyAuthor and Art Critic

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HopeArtwork

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TWOSOMEOil on canvas98 x 68 cm

“And despite their child-like

appearance, Sobhy Guirguis’works

bring forth a compelling, mature

feeling in his call to face the un-

known.”

Ezz el Din NaguibArt critic, author and President of the Assala

Association for Protection of Artistic Heritage, since 1994

THE MERCIFULBrass98 x 38 x 45 cm

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PRAYERBronze37 x 19 x 19 cm

FLOWER, Oil on canvas

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TRANQUILITYBronze69x19x21cm

LOVEOil on canvas100 x 70 cm

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STROLLING WOMAN Brass50 x 48 x 48 cm

PRAYER IIBrass42 x 47 x 28 cm

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IDEABronze

26 x 9 x 6 cm

IFBronze&RORUHG�SDWLQD�23 x 18 x 10 cm

“Sobhy Guirguis’ extraordinary

dedication to the human plight puts

him at par with the greatest artists

of the world.”

Makram HeneinArt Critic and Author

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FORTUNE TELLER-CUP READER Bronze and Brass77 x 40 x 20 cm

EMBRACEOil on canvas

98 x 68 cm

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PLAYFULNESS%URQ]H�DQG�FRORUHG�SDWLQD23 x 9 x 6 cm

I LOVE YOU WITH FLOWERSOil on canvas71 x 101cm

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Artwork

the mother&the childwithin

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“These works reveal the

brilliance of an authentic

Egyptian master. “

Makram HeneinArt Critic and Author

RED DRESSOil on Canvas

82 x 62cm

MOTHERHOOD II, 1989Oil on Canvas123 x 102cm

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MOTHERHOOD VOil on canvas122 x 103cm

MOTHER & DAUGHTEROil on canvas

78 x 59 cm

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“I wish we could have a

Happiness day, just like

mother’s day or love’s

day.

Why don’t we wake up

one day and celebrate

‘happiness’? I want

every body to be happy.”

Sobhy Guirguis

BLISSoil on canvas120 x 101cm

INNOCENCEOil on canvas

101 x 71cm

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the truth

Artwork

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“People didn’t understand me or my work. It took a long time.”

Sobhy Guirguis

THE THINKERBrass

94 x 17 x 26

QUESTIONINGBronze32 x 9 x 10 cm

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REST101 x 71cm

Oil on canvas

RESTBrass84 x 51 x 30cm

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WISDOMBronze

50 x 34 x 20 cm

WOMAN AND ROOSTER. 1990122 x 102cmOil on canvas

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“I wanted to invent, create,

break all the rules.”

Sobhy Guirguis

WHERE IS THE LIGHT?Brass65 x 35 x 41 cm

MEDITATINGBrass

96 x 41 x 44 cm

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THE THINKERBrass

149 x 50 x 40 cm

DIALOGUE IIIOil on canvas

101 x 71cm

ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE Brass

117 x 40 x 20 cm

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“ Sobhy Guirguis’ career is a testament to an unprecedented contri-

bution to Egyptian contemporary arts. Grandson of the Pharaohs,

Guirguis is like a priest who devoted his entire life to the altar of

his art – sculptures that glorify the ordinary, the marginalized and

the street children; that scream and demand their rights in life

and their rights for a better future. “

Izhak AzmyMember, The International Council of Museums, IMCOM, UNESCO

Founder, Shouna Art Complex in Alexandria, Egypt

REFUGEBrass and Bronze70 x 20 x 13 cm

SOUL MATEBrass

100 x 71 x 36 cm

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“All that is between us, how can we forget it, how?

What is between us, my love, is yet to come.

Forget about the past, forget

Small talks, forget them, small talks of strangers, forget them

Forget about stories and tales, forget

But come with me, come, what is between us, my love, is yet to come

I miss you my love, come, come, come

My eyes are filled with happiness, and the smile is waiting for you

My smile and I will listen to you, my happiness

My eyes are filled with happiness

But come with me, come, what is between us, my love is yet to come.

How can I forget, how?

What is between us, my love, is yet to come.

But come with me, come, what is between us my love, is yet to come.”

Sobhy Guirguis

ME, MYSELF AND I68 x 88cm

Oil on wood

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“Without Sobhy Guirguis, Egyptian sculpture

would have suffered a significant void.“

Makram HeneinArt Critic and Author

TIME101 x 71cm

Oil on canvas

SILENCEBrass

66 x 22 x 13 cm

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CONTEMPLATIONOil on canvas120 x 100cm

THE PROTECTORBrass

148 x 33 x 40 cm

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Born 1929, Cairo, Egypt Passed away 2013, Cairo, Egypt

1964 PhD, Fine Arts Academy, Florence, Italy1958 MFA, Fine Arts School, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt

PERMANENT MUSEUM1991 One Floor Museum Dedicated to the Works of Sobhy Guirguis, El Shouna Agamy, Alexandria, Cairo

SOLO EXHIBITIONS2007 Retrospective, Horizon One Ofok, Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt2004 Rateb Sedik Gallery, Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt2002 Rateb Sedik Gallery, Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt 1999 Espace Karim Francis, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt1997 Espace Karim Francis, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt1996 Duroub Gallery, Cairo, Egypt1994 Extra Gallery, Cairo, Egypt1994 Akhnaton Gallery, Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt1981 Akhnaton Gallery, Gezira Art Center, Cairo, Egypt1971 Kasr El Nil, Cairo, Egypt1971 Akhnaton Gallery, Kasr el Nil, Cairo, Egypt

GROUP EXHIBITIONS2009 Panorama Sculpture, Zamalek Art Gallery, Cairo, Egypt2008 Salon d’Automne, Paris, France

SOBHY GUIRGUISBIOGRAPHY

2008 Olympics Celebration, Peking, China2008 Horizon One, Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo, Egypt2008 31st National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt 2007 Awarded The Mubarak Prize for Arts2007 Egyptian National Salon, Ministry of Culture, Cairo, Egypt2006 “Towards The Sun”, 1st International Ecuador Arts Biennale, Quito, Ecuador2006 Fenoon Art Gallery, Cairo, Zamalek2005 29th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt2005 Fine Arts Palace, El Qasr, Cairo, Egypt2004 Cairo Atelier, Cairo, Egypt2003 27th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt2002 Small Artworks at the Center of Art Cairo, Egypt2002 Espace Karim Francis, Cairo, Egypt2002 Honorary Guest At Hamed Nada In Memory Exhibition, Cairo, Egypt2001 53rd Cairo Atelier Salon, Downtown, Cairo, Egypt2001 26th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt1999 4th Sharjah International Arts Biennale, Sharjah, UAE1999 Honorary Guest, Aswan Sculpture Symposium, Aswan, Egypt1998 Centennial Anniversary of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo, Egypt. Honorary Award. 1997 7th Salon for Art and Design, Egyptian Institute for Art and Design, Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt1997 25th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt1995 24th National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt1994 Sculpture, Extra Gallery, Cairo, Egypt1994 5th Cairo International Biennale, Opera House Arts Palace, Cairo, Egypt. Awarded Grand Jury Prize1994 18th Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Fine Arts, Alexandria, Egypt. Awarded Sculpture Grand Prize 1994 Gezirah Art Center with Taha Hussein and Mostafa Razzaz, Cairo, Egypt1991 Italian Culture Center, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt1990 21st National Exhibition for Fine Arts, Akhnaton Center of Art, Cairo, Egypt1976 Venice Biennale, Egyptian Pavilion, Venice, Italy1975 Arab Contemporary Artists Exhibition, Kuwait1973 International Gymnastics Exhibition, Madrid, Spain. Awarded Honorary Prize

PUBLIC ARTOctober 1973 War Panorama, Egyptian Armed Forces, Ministry of Defense, Cairo, EgyptHumanity Sculpture, next to Aswan Airport, Aswan, Egypt Cairo Metro Underground Egyptian Museum for Modern Art, Opera House, Cairo, EgyptDanshoway Museum, Delta, EgyptShouna Art Museum, Agamy, Alexandria, Egypt

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Founded in 2010, ARTTALKS | EGYPT is a contemporary art gallery established in Cairo. Acting as a selective search engine for Egypt’s next generation of contemporary artists, the gallery is committed to the defense of freedom of art in Egypt and to strengthen Egypt’s position on the regional art map. Additionally, the gallery has established itself as an authority on high quality secondary market works by twentieth century Egyptian masters. ArtTalks manages the estate of the late painter and sculptor Sobhy Guirguis.

Part of ArtTalks income is channeled into an Art Fund to support emerging artists and to finance an extensive educational program aimed at growing the number of art collectors and art patrons in Egypt. A yearly curriculum on the history of Egyptian modern and contemporary art takes place at the Gallery targeting art lovers, artists, art critics and collectors.

ArtTalks is founded by arts patron Fatenn Mostafa, former CEO of Gianaclis Vineyards for Beverages and former advisor to Bozar, Center of Fine Arts in Brussels, Belgium. She is a regular lecturer on Egyptian modern art history and has curated several fund-raising auctions in support of non-profit independent art spaces in Cairo. .

ABOUTARTTALKS

Catalogue published

on the occasion of the show

Sobhy Guirguis

The Self and The Other

04-25 February 2014

$UW7DONV�_�(J\SW

Graphic concept

& Realization:

.DPDU�6KDÀH

Texts:

Izhac Azmy

Samir Gharib

Fatenn Mostafa

Mostafa Razzazz

Sobhy Sharouny

Translations:

Sara ElKamel Farag

Mohammed Saad

Maysoon Mahfoudh

Photographs:

Ehab Sobhy Guirguis

Lisa Lounis

Printing:

Concorde Press

&RS\ULJKW��������

$UW7DONV_(J\SW

Family of late artist Sobhy Guirguis

All rights Reserved

www.arttalks.com

Cover

The Thinker and The Merciful

Brass, Private collections

“The art of Sobhy Guirguis needs to move out from the Nile Banks

to the rest of the world, as an Ambassador of Egypt.”

Mohamed Abdel Kader Hatem,

former Minister of Culture and Media.

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92

ARTTALKS | EGYPT8 el Kamel Mohamed Street

Zamalek, Cairo, [email protected]