RAGHEB AYAD 10.03.2020 31.03.2020
EMMA CALY AYAD
Ragheb
Emma
& Emma
Ragheb
Ragheb
Emma
Ragheb
AYA D 1 8 9 2 - 1 9 8 2•
1897-1989
EXHIBITION 1 0.03 . 2 02 0 3 1 .03 . 2 02 0
w w w. k a n a f a n i g a l l e r y. c o m
&EMMA
RAGHEB 60
A native of Rome, Emma Caly studied painting first at the Albertina Academy of Fine Arts in Torino, before enrolling at the Superior Institute of Fine Arts in Rome. Ragheb Ayad was already in Rome.
Ye a r s o f L ov e a n d A r t
Born in a middle-class family in the Menoufia governorate in 1892, Ragheb Ayad graduated from the francophone Catholic school of Les Frères, and was one the first Egyptian aspiring artists to join the newly founded Egyptian School of Fine Arts in 1908. After his graduation in 1911, he worked as a drawing teacher, but aspired to pursue further art studies abroad. In 1923, he travelled to Rome, first at his (and the impressionist painter Youssef Kamel’s) expenses between 1923-24, then through a state-sponsored scholarship between 1924 and 1928. In total, Ragheb spent six years in the Italian capital studying at the Supreme Institute of Fine Arts (Academy of Fine Arts) and the Accademia di San Lucia under the supervision of the Italian painters Umberto Coromaldi (1870-1948) and Ferruccio Ferrazzi (1891-1978), and graduated with three degrees in oil painting, theater decor, and ornamentation. 1
by Fatenn Mostafa-Kanafani
Ragheb Ayad married Emma Caly at a time when he was well on his way to great fame. Recognized for his utterly human, insanely caricature-like, pioneering depictions of souks in Cairo and cafés in Aswan, Ragheb was thirty-eight, Emma, thirty-three. Five years her senior, the Egyptian painter was more than just a partner for the Italian aspiring artist. Widely celebrated as the founding father of the Egyptian popular expressionist movement, Ragheb Ayad was one of the most innovative painters of his generation, and one of the most respected institutional leaders of the twentieth-century in Egypt. Working in the shadow of her husband, Emma established herself as a distinguished art instructor and an esteemed painter in her own right, but as with many artistic couples, the husband gained more popularity than the wife, and eventually, Emma was lost in the gaps of history.
Two years after Ayad returned to Egypt, Emma followed. She relocated in Cairo, and the two tied the knot in 1930. Ever since, she came to be known as Emma Caly-Ayad. Inseparable ever since, Emma began her career as an art instructor at the newly established Higher Institute of Fine Arts for Women Teachers [al-Ma’ahad al-‘ali li-l Funun al-Jamila l-il-Mo’alimat] in 1938-39. Although the institute’s pedagogic objective was limited to training future school teachers rather than building artists, the studies were a jumping board into the thriving art scene. For many aspiring women artists, the institute was the only accessible alternative to formally study art, since the Egyptian School of Fine Arts was still restricted to males only. Free of charge, it was also an appealing substitute to studying in the costly private studios of foreign artists, or travelling abroad. Emma Caly-Ayad worked under the inspection of the prominent art instructor Habib Gorgi, and was amongst the instructors who taught to several future graduates such as Zeinab Abdel Hamid (graduate of 1945) and Gazbia Sirry (graduate of 1949).
The Italian link acted as the catalyst in triggering the romantic relationship. Ragheb and Emma first crossed path as students at the Superior Institute of Fine Arts in Rome around 1927. This was the beginning of a partnership that lasted well over half a century, until Ayad’s death in 1982.
2
Kamal al-Malakh, Roushdy Eskander, and Sobhy Sharouny, Thamanun Sana min al-Fann 1908-1988 (Eighty Years of Fine Art), (Cairo: al-Hay’a al-Misriyya li-l-Kitab, 1991), p. 31.
Parallel to her teaching duties, Emma painted prolifically throughout her life. Producing works of sculptural composition and luscious colours, she maintained a more conventional approach to art making, basing herself on techniques from Renaissance frescoes and Mexican murals. Inspired by Egypt, but more so, by Ragheb, Emma produced works tackling a variety of subjects, from the fellaha and the countryside, to portraits and nature morte. All the known works of Emma are oil paintings on canvas or wood, with no traces of works on paper or drawings. The duo’s synchronized creativity influenced each other’s colourful styles and resulted in decades of collaborations that explored themes of popular life and Christian iconography. It culminated in the late 1950s when both artists were commissioned by the new St. Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church in Zamalek, designed by the famous Egyptian architect Ramses Wisssa Wassef, to paint inside the church. Ragheb was commissioned to write icons,2 such as St. Shenout and St. Mena, while Emma painted three frescoes situated above the altars. Religious traditions (Coptic and Muslim) completed Ragheb Ayad’s narrative of an authentic Egypt. His depiction of the religious Coptic cosmos told the story of the monasteries, the priests and their daily life, and the church with its celebrations and rituals. Inspired by Coptic icons and miniatures, these records, where prayers and visuals collide, provide a fascinating social commentary on Egypt’s first monotheistic religion and today’s second largest religion. Ayad did not stylize or dramatize the sacredness of the subject. Rather, he kept the down-to-earth rural realism, with a hint of humor Egyptians are notorious about.
Various personal documents from Ragheb & Emma Ayad. Courtesy: Ayad Family.
Merging the literal time-honoured traditions with the metaphorical in a tour de force of uniquely Egyptian subtexts, Ayad produced an extraordinary repertoire of arresting laconic juxtapositions around biblical themes and transformed typical contemporary rural scenes into purely para-religious ones to document the Coptic side of modern-day Egypt. Beside Coptic life, the Islamic festivities too were intermittently a subject which Ayad embraced, and where he recorded popular religious celebrations exercised by ordinary Muslim Egyptians. Combined, Ayad dissected the social fabric, not merely observing it, until he found its soul: simple, if not raw, witty and saintly.
Photographs of Ragheb & Emma Ayad as they presented the icon-paintings specially produced for the Chapel of the Collège de la Salle des Frères, Ayad’s former school in Cairo in 1965. ArtTalks Archive.
Helene Moussa explains that ‘in Orthodox iconographic tradition, [they] say that icons are ‘written’ because they have to reflect the biblical story, the Orthodox tradition, the dogmas of [their] church, and the life and miracles of the saints. Painting, in contrast, is the skill used to write the icon.’ See, Fr. Marcos, Moussa, Ramzy, Marguerite Nakhla: Legacy to Modern Egyptian Art, p. 62.
2
A pioneer on many fronts, Ayad championed the Egyptian state more than once. The first time took place in 1924. A graduate from the Egyptian School of Fine Arts who belongs to the first graduating class of 1911, Ayad persevered to pursue higher studies abroad. Together with his colleague and friend, the prolific impressionist painter Youssef Kamel (1891-1971), the two worked out a plan whereby one would travel to study in Rome, while the other worked in Cairo to help cover the studies’ expenses abroad. Eventually, Ragheb called on the government to launch an annual state-funded scholarship for promising artists, and in 1924, he was the second to travel. The second contribution was Ragheb Ayad’s call on the government towards the establishment of the Egyptian Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, which materialized in 1928. After marrying Emma, Ayad never ceased to ‘revolutionize the academic ateliers’, to use the words of Badr al-Din Abou Ghazi that featured in the catalogue of Ragheb Ayad’s major retrospective in 1979, while challenging the political leaders, the institutions and the establishment. The pair went on dipping together between painting, teaching, managing institutions, and everything in-between. With her support and dedication, Ragheb rose to prominence, both as a pioneering independent artist and an institutional champion. Appointed in several influential adminstrative roles, he led the Coptic Museum (1941-46), the Free Studies Section [Dirassat Hurra] (as of 1942) and the Painting Department (1946-50) at the Egyptian School of Fine Arts, as well as the Museum of Modern Art (1949-54). In this capacity, Ragheb created an annex inside the Museum as a prelude to Mahmoud Mokhtar’s eponymous museum, based on the initiative of the feminist leader and Mukhtar’s godmother, Huda Shaarawi. Multi-tasking, Ragheb took part in hundreds of collective and nearly fifty individual exhibitions in Egypt and abroad starting the year 1920 until his death. By 1965, Ragheb Ayad followed in the footsteps of pioneer modernist painter Mahmoud Saïd, becoming the second artist to be awarded the prestigious State Merit Prize for the Arts by the then-president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Two years before his death, Ayad was awarded an honorary doctorate degree from the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1980. The longest surviving first-generation artist, his six-decade-long career spanned two kings (Fouad I and Farouk), three presidents (Mohamed Naguib, Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anouar al-Sadat) and two national revolutions (1919 and 1952). Cover of al-Musawwar magazine dated August 1926 featuring Ragheb Ayad (second row, far right), with painters Mohammed Hassan (left) and Youssef Kamel (center) in the same row, as the first painters to be granted a government-funded art-scholarship in Rome, Italy. Front row shows on the left, Ahmed Fahmy Qatan Bey, the Comptroller General at the Ministry of Public Knowledge, with Mr. Ottocenti, the Italian Inspector of Fine Arts in Cairo, on the far right. The Egyptian mission was met by Sadek Henein Pasha, the Plenipotentiary Minister at the Egyptian Embassy in Rome and father to the great thinker, Georges Henein. Archive ArtTalks.
Two awards granted to Ragheb Ayad. Top right is from the Salon d’Automne in 1982. Center is an award of recognition by former First Lady, Jihan el-Sadat in 1980. Courtesy: Ayad Family.
One of the last photographs of Ragheb & Emma together. Courtesy: Ayad Family.
One of the most solid couples in Arab art history, Ragheb and Emma translated their bond and life together into art. Whereas Emma has gone to great length to communicate her love to Ayad, by painting no less than a dozen of his portraits, Ragheb confided in an interview in 1959 that “For each artist, there needs to be an angel, and my angel is my wife Emma.”3 Dubbed by the Egyptian press ‘the longest living pioneer of modern popular art,’4 ‘the liberator of modern Egyptian art’ 5 and ‘the father of popular art in Egypt and the Middle East,’ Ragheb Ayad is recognized as one of the most influential artists whose impact on the following generations of artists in Egypt and the Middle East remains palpable. Emma on the other hand, combined her pedagogic mission with a career in painting, regularly taking part in the different Salons du Caire (e.g. 1933, 1945, 1954), as well as various editions of the Alexandria Biennial for Mediterranean countries (e.g. 1957). Adopted by Egypt and passionate about Ragheb, she devoted her life to building a generation of Egyptian women artists, helping to shape a role for female artists along the way, while producing rich and arresting works of art about Egypt and of Ragheb.
“For each artist, there needs to be an angel, and my angel is my wife Emma.” Thirty years into their marriage, Ragheb Ayad said in an interview to journalist Marzouk Hilal in 1959.
After their death however - Ragheb in 1982, Emma in 1987, his legacy continues to live on across the Arab world and beyond, while Emma has been forgotten, overshadowed by the notoriety of her husband. Leaving no children behind, she suffered from the perks that many foreign artists faced, despite having become ‹egyptianized› and living in Egypt for the largest part of their lives. Ragheb & Emma brings together nearly fifty-five paintings and drawings that depict the evolution of the two extraordinary and discreet artists, and explores how the pair played a part in shaping the development of one another’s practice. Ultimately, their bond cemented the career of sheikh al-fananin [Dean of Pioneer Artists] and one of Egypt’s giants. The exhibition also features rare archival material never displayed before, including personal photographs, newspaper clippings and exhibition catalogues. Ragheb & Emma is an homage and a long overdue tribute to the Ayad’s eternal and unshakable bond. Married for over half a century, Ragheb and Emma were never the subject of a joint exhibition displaying the two together and their work side-by-side - neither during their lifetime, nor after their death. Ragheb & Emma seeks to correct that oblivion. In loving memory of Ragheb & Emma.
Left: Ragheb in front of one of his paintings. Right: Emma next to one of her iconic portraits of Ragheb Ayad. in February 1966 ArtTalks Archive.
3 4 5
Ragheb Ayad in an interview with Marzouk Hilal, “Li Kol Fanan Malak la Shitan,” al-‘Athnin wa-l-Dunia, no. 1288, 16 February 1959, pp. 24-25. Obituary in al-Gomhouriyya, “Wafat Ragheb Ayad: Akhir ‘amalikat ruwwad al-fann al-misri al-hadith” [The death of Ragheb Ayad: The last giant from the pioneers of modern Egyptian art], 17 December 1982. Farouk Bassiouny, “Ragheb Ayad,” al-Messaa,” 7 September 1976.
Ragheb & Emma featured in one of the numerous magazines that covered the life and art of both artists. Here in al-’Athnin in February 1959. ArtTalks Archive.
Emma Caly Ayad 1897 - 1989
Emma Caly Ayad | Il Mondo di Ragheb - Ragheb’s World, 1956 Oil on canvas | 76 x 72 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Ragheb’s Portait after receiving an Honorary Degree from Jihan and Anouar al-Sadat, 1980 Oil on canvas | 115 x 83 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Trois Femmes et la Vierge | Oil on wood | 60 x 50 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Motherhood, 1977 | Oil on wood | 76 x 52 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Woman Carrying Oranges | Oil on wood | 83 x 38 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Woman Reading | Oil on canvas | 110 x 58 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Couturière, 1966 | Oil on canvas | 60 x 60 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Vu sur le Nil, 1961 | Oil on canvas | 48 x 70 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Des fruits à la fenètre, 1971 | Oil on canvas | 72 x 76 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Fellaha | Oil on canvas | 55 x 40 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Self-Portrait I | Oil on canvas | 42 x 30 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Des Raisins et un oiseau | Oil on wood | 83 x 38 cm
Emma Caly Ayad | Vase de Fleurs, 1979| Oil on canvas | 55 x 43 cm
Rome, the city where Ragheb and Emma met during their studies around 1928.
Ragheb Ayad 1892 - 1982
Ragheb Ayad | Roma, 1928 | Oil on wood | 70 x 65 cm
Ragheb Ayad |
Le Moine lisant l’Evangile,
Priest Reading the Gospel, 1980 Oil on wood 90 x 70 cm
Ragheb Ayad |
L’église - The Church
Oil on wood 67 x 51 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Danse de cheval, 1938 | 26 x 20 cm | Mixed media on paper
Ragheb Ayad | Vente aux enchères de tapis - Carpet Auction, 1962. Oil on wood | 61 x 55 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Various animals, companions to the fellah, between 1934 and 1937. Mixed media on paper
Ragheb Ayad | Dromadaire - Camel, 1940. Pencil on paper | 45 x 29 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Réunion des Moines au Monastère, 1960. Mixed media on paper | 33 x 46 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Le Monastère, 1960. Oil on wood | 55 x 86 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Vendeur de pain, 1937. Mixed media on paper 45 x 32 cm
Ragheb Ayad | al-Sakka, 1961. Mixed media on paper 70 x 50 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Camel Riders, 1964. Mixed media on paper | 50 x 70 cm
Ragheb Ayad | Le Saint, 16-1-1943. Mixed media on paper | 21 x 32 cm
&EMMA
RAGHEB ( 1 8 92 -1 9 8 2 ) ( 1 8 97-1 9 8 9 )
Founded in 2019, Kanafani | Art Legacy Management is a uniquely qualified Cairo-based Artist’s Estate Management firm. The first of its kind in Egypt, Kanafani offers professional support to heirs of modern Egyptian artists, and specializes in developing posthumous interest and accessibility in artist’s work, ensuring a lasting legacy. Combined with our expertise in modern Egyptian art and extensive archive, we provide robust academic research, authentication, valuation, archival and inventory management, exhibition, up to placement of works, through acquisitions or loans, to private individuals, museums, curators and researchers. Kanafani | Art Legacy Management was founded by Fatenn Mostafa-Kanafani, art historian whose research focuses on Egyptian modernism. She is the author of the upcoming book series Modern Art in Egypt. Published by I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury, the first volume Modern Art in Egypt: Identity and Independence 1850-1936 will be available to the public in July 2020. Volume II, Modern Art in Egypt: Rupture and Revolution 1936-1973 is due in Fall 2021. Ms. Kanafani has contributed to the first catalogue raisonne for a Middle Eastern artist, Mahmoud Said, by Skira (2016), as well as Daughters of the Nile: Egyptian Women Changing the World by Cambridge Scholars (2016).
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Catalogue Published on the occasion of the show
TEXT Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani
ZAMALEK - CAIRO - EGYPT + 202 2736 3948 INFO@KANAFANIGALLERY.COM WWW.KANAFANIGALLERY.COM
Ragheb & Emma 60 Years of Love and Art KANAFANI | Art Legacy Management COORDINATORS Cherine Chafik Engy El-Bouliny Wael Seif El Nasr
PHOTOGRAPHY Wael Seif El Nasr
GRAPHIC CONCEPT & REALIZATION Engy El-Bouliny
& EMMA
RAGHEB 1892-1982
1897-1989
60 Years of Love and Art