SAMIR RAFI UNCENSORED

UNCENSORED SAMIR RAFI

UNCENSORED SAMIR RAFI

OPENING EXHIBITION 24th of September 2019

EL ZAEEM AHMED

EXHIBITION 24th of September - 5th of November 2019

RAFI UNCENSORED

“We used to paint all day

BY

FATENN MOSTAFA KANAFANI

[at the Maison des Artistes in Darb al-Labbana in the

1940s]. And from time to

time, we would select our best paintings and organize a party at night to burn and destroy them.” (p. 16).

Samir Rafi’s early life consists of a chain of

subconscious, he began his career in Egypt

chance encounters that would ultimately

close to World War II producing works depicting

shape his career as an artist. Later when he

ordinary daily life, that were far ahead of his time.

took matters in his own hands, the trajectory

This explains why the “Cairo Years” between

of his life took different forms depending,

1942 and 1954 are generally considered the

among other things, on national and regional

highpoint of his career, and cemented Rafi as

context, colonial politics, personal ambitions,

one of Egypt’s most important revelations when

and commercial interests. Born in the Sakkakini

he co-founded what became to be seen as

district in Cairo on 15 August 1926, Samir Rafi

the most inventive art movement in twentieth

was a painter, sculptor, arts educator and

century Egypt. Driven by the hope to achieve

author. An ambitious individualist from the

international recognition, Rafi however left

beginning, Rafi was destined to an impressive

Egypt at the peak of his career in June 1954.

career in his homeland. A prodigious trendsetter

He remained abroad until his death in 2004,

who broke boundaries with visual innovations

never returning, albeit for one month during the

that linked Egyptian imagery with the human

summer of 1964. Initially sent on a government

scholarship to pursue doctorate studies in art history at the Sorbonne University in Paris, the

then

twenty-eight-year-old

ambitious

artist gambled when he decided to follow his dream of fame, and remained in the French capital, leaving all behind and somehow getting lost along the way. The sequence of events thereafter is a long and painful tale between Paris (1954-1964) and Alger (1964-1969), and back (1969-2004).

After his departure from Cairo, Rafi repeatedly exploited his style and themes throughout the remainder of his life. Only this time, they became more Egyptian, and a close alignment between his on- and off-canvas persona emerged, demonstrating a reclusive man torn between success and struggles, wealth and poverty, health and sickness, family and separation, fame and anonymity, freedom and prison, and eventually, loneliness and death.

And yet despite his short productive period in Egypt, Samir Rafi created an Egyptian spirit that surpassed the contingencies of race and geography to reach the human absolute, and worked prolifically to create what he dubbed in 1945 ‘an International Egyptian Surrealism movement.’ To do that, he sacrificed homeland, wife, children, friends, and colleagues, and Samir Rafi in his studio in Paris painting La momie ressuscitĂŠe in 1959. (picture serial #9)

spent the last decades of his life, in seclusion in Paris. Only Sami (1931-2019), his younger brother and the architect behind the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, remained his lifetime pen friend and confidant. By the time of his death, Rafi belonged neither in Egypt nor in France, and his ability (or rather inability) to overcome obstacles became the subject of his work which explains the more somber, enigmatic, highly sexual and darker side. Scattered around the world and divided in two periods: Egypt until 1954 and postEgypt, his exceptionally prolific production easily exceeds thousands of paintings using different media, (lost) objects and sculptures, drawings, collage, sketchbooks and tapestries, and invites a deeper examination into folk surrealism to seal Rafi into the historical art cannon.

SR-102. Samir Rafi, Untitled [Woman and Turtle], 1964. Ink on paper, 1964, 20x27cm.

1

Samir Gharib, al-Hijra al-Mostahila: Min Darb al-Labana ila Paris, (Cairo: Maktabit al-‘Osra, 1999), p. 47.

THE CAIRO YEARS From the time when he began drawing as a high school student, Samir Rafi was recognized as a promising talented artist who had found his own voice. He demonstrated a very early independence and the espousal of a tradition far removed from Western-inspired Egyptian Classicism, which was the prevailing and approved academic style amongst majority of the artists, the elite and the academy. This in turn helped attract the attention of influential mentors keen on nurturing Rafi’s talent during his formal training. When his parents succeeded in transferring him from the Taher Primary School to the ‘prestigious’ Farouk I Secondary High School at the age of sixteen in 1942, Rafi met the drawing teacher and influential arts educator, Hussein Youssef Amin (1904-84). A historymaking and highly controversial relationship between student and teacher developed. During his studies in the Decor [Zaghrafa] section at

the Egyptian School of Fine Arts between 1943

helm of the Art & Liberty Group [Jama’at al-Fann

and 1948, Rafi became the protégé of the painter

wa-l-Hurriyya], when Rafi was a few months

Hussein Amin Bicar (1913-2002), and gained the

short of his nineteenth birthday. By 1954, the

support of Maurice Louis Savin (1894-1973), a

year of his departure, Rafi had represented

French master in the art of high-warp tapestry

Egypt in the prestigious Biennale of Venice in

posted in Cairo in 1948. Eventually, Rafi’s graduation

1952 and 1954, where a room was exclusively

project, which consisted of a surrealist tapestry,

dedicated to his works, as well as the Biennale of

received the highest honors placing him the first

Sao Paulo (1953), to the acclaim of the Egyptian

of his graduating class, and introduced surrealism

press and the arts community. Hussein Youssef

as a movement in the confines of the conservative

Amin, Hussein Amin Bicar, Maurice Savin, Fouad

institution. By the time of his graduation, Rafi had

Kamel and the Telmisany brothers were able to

had two solo exhibitions. The first was held at the

recognize Samir Rafi’s precocious talent, but

Qatan Library in 1943 during Rafi’s final year of high

also his genius mind.

school, with the help of the then-twenty-fouryear-old surrealist painter Fouad Kamel (1919-73); while the second was organized the following year by the surrealist painters and brothers Kamel and Hassan el-Telmisany, at the Smith Bookstore, whose director was the Marxist activist and writer Lotfallah Soliman (1919-95). In between, the Ministry of Public Instruction acquired one of Rafi’s paintings [Shells / al-Qawaqiy’e, 1942], and bestowed upon him a gold medal as the best nation-wide drawing student in 1943. By 1946, Rafi had co-founded the transformative artist-collective Jama’at alFann al-Mo’assir [Contemporary Art Group / CAG]. This support system eventually led to Rafi’s participation in the fifth and last group exhibition of Independent Art that took place at the foyer of the Lyçée Français du Caire in May 1945 under the

SR-135 Invitation designed by Samir Rafi, for a Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, 1948.

Pen and pencil on paper, 21x23cm.

In majority of the works produced in Cairo, Samir

prey to, and no longer the Western-influenced

Rafi confronted the miseries of everyday life

surrealist language spoken by his elder-partners,

and human anxieties in figurative renderings

the Egyptian surrealists of the Art and Liberty

and bold colors to develop a powerful mode

Group. Rather, it revealed a metaphysical blend

of social criticism. His unique vision emerged

of overlapping movements and styles to depict

in 1942 with a work of confounding originality:

the Egyptian man to which Rafi added ‘a universal

Chevaux aux épines (1947), which depicts two

soul.’3 By reconciling different if not opposite

horses with thorns on their back that stand

aesthetic elements from various ‘ism’ schools of

nonchalantly drinking water. Bluish grey, surreal,

modern and ancient art, Rafi eventually created

painful, and very local, it was a parody of a less

a singular painting school that the French painter

frequently depicted theme, donkeys being the

and influential teacher André Lhote (1885-1962)

more familiar, and was probably greeted with

defined as ‘Totalisme,’4 or [Wholeness]. The ‘whole’

a sense of shock back when it was exhibited

appears like “still” narratives with a mordant, or

in Cairo. Salvador Dali rated it as Rafi’s best

rather poignant wit, usually depicted in geometric

work , but since ‘any painting not signed Dali

and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes. By

or Picasso is not painting,’ then, it too, was not

1945, Rafi had sealed the movement of “Rafi’sm” as

considered painting.

a recognizable visual style, as demonstrated by his

Rafi’s early interpretation of Egyptian ordinary

masterpiece5 Time (al-Zaman, 1946). Painted while

life struggled and triumphed in finding different

he was still a student at the Cairo Academy, it was

visions, techniques, and materials to express

Rafi’s all-encompassing attempt at Egyptianizing

the huge oppressions, upheavals, and hard-

surrealism as it exemplified the sensibilities and

won freedoms that have been epitomized

techniques of a mixture of local and universal

Egypt’s sprawl, and reveal Rafi’s transient

elements, and offered ‘a deep and romantic

allegiance to the French surrealists. In search of

philosophical view.’6 Inspired by the 4500-year-old

the unknown and the depth of human feelings,

limestone mythical Great Sphinx of Guiza and a

he set out to draw a different Egypt: neither

photograph of an older Egyptian fellaha, it blended

the European Orientalist stereotype depicting

the glorious past, the symbolism of folklore, and

lazy people or lavish scenery in a souk or bath,

the surrealism of the subconscious to depict the

nor the classic post-card imitation of reality

plight of ordinary people patiently waiting for a

that many first-generation native artists fell

better future:

2

2

Salvador Dali in an Interview with Samir Rafi, 22 May 1960, reprinted in auction catalogue, Samir Rafi-125 Oeuvres by Machoïr-Bailly, 3 March 1991.

You the immortal mighty! You, who contemplate the valley of life through your deep inertia. You are the divider between wrong and right. You are death and life. You are the cynical of life. You are the meeting place of contradictions.

Inspired by life, I painted you.

3

7

Comte Philippe D’Arschot, introduction to Samir Rafi exhibition, Lawyer’s Syndicate, Cairo, April 1951.

4

Andre Lhote, letter, 6 January 1959.

6

Hussein Youssef Amin, cat. Exh. Exposition de l’art contemporain, May 1948, Service de la Jeunesse, p. 5.

7

5

Gerard Méssadieh, La Bourse Égyptienne, 2 February 1951.

Samir Rafi, Mijallat Misamirat el-Jib, no. 45, 19 May 1946 (S Gharib, p. 89).

Playing with different forms, media and sizes,

objection. This is Samir Rafi. He is Egyptian, Italian,

the most extraordinary art based on a deep understanding of the localities (past and present) and the

Rafi used pure colors interspersed with the

French, Ugandan…all nationalities united, and he

psychology of ordinary people, and sought to address the present conditions and struggles of the nation.

heavy atmosphere and pulsing rhythms of

calls this [different path]: Complete Humanism

Dubbed the makers of a ‘young Egyptian revolution,’ they brought to light the traditionalism particular to

folklore, legends, and symbols, to tell the pain

[‘Insaniyya Shamla].

the underprivileged class as well as the superstition that transforms into magic rituals many of the tragic

’8

facets of their private life, whence the folk, somber, cruel, theatrical, wistful and somehow foreclosed

of colonialism, poverty, cholera epidemic, patriarchy, love and freedom (or lack of).

Building on the revolutionary thinking and avant-

character of their paintings. Since such social environment represented the vast majority of the Egyptian

Working in layers of ideas, he commented on

garde European art movements he got acquainted

population and the family roots of many of the artist-players, it enabled them to give a genuine and pure

the emotional resonances of ordinary life in

to during his involvement with the Egyptian

Egyptian sense to make heard the unknown voices so far either ignored or misrepresented. For the first

representations that range from a surrealism

surrealist Art and Liberty group at the Maison des

time, a pressing authentic Egypt affirmed itself and pushed forward towards a social revolution that the

that evicts the inner realities stored in his

artistes in Darb al-Labbana, Samir Rafi, together

ordinary people could grasp.

subjects (humans or animals) to the harsh and

with his mentor Hussein Youssef Amin, established

melancholic figurative depictions of human

Jama’at al-Fann al-Mo’assir [CAG] and invited

misery, and back again, in search of a social and

a number of artists to join. Together, they took

collective remedy. By the time he married the

the dramatic step to egyptianize to the core the

painter Etimad Ali Abdel Rahman, and later had

international language of surrealism. Following

two children, Saher and Sahar, his well-known

the demise of Art and Liberty, Rafi and the other

representations of family life [e.g. Egyptian

artist-members seem to have accepted that

Family, 1949] and motherhood, both recurring

most Egyptians resented the surrealists as elitist

central subjects, include hybrid individuals

artists and a threat to the nation, promoting a

immobilized and numb by their daily troubles

difficult-to-grasp alien Western movement, morally

and fearful of their destiny. Reviewing a group

suspicious. In that context, Rafi was instrumental

exhibition in which Rafi took part, a journalist

as he insisted on promoting an ideology centered

concluded: ‘[The exhibiting artists] strive to

around local aesthetics and influences, in order

pave a path to reach the same destination. All

to achieve his vision for an international Egyptian

depict an identical path. But there are very few

surrealist school of art. According to Rafi, the act

others who carve a different path, and convince

of Egyptianizing surrealism was also an act of

themselves that, as long as they are moving

resistance in the sense that it symbolized liberation

towards the same destination, then there is no

and was meant as a head-on confrontation against academic art (symbolizing Occupation and statusquo)9. The Contemporary Art Group produced

8

Rose al-Youssef, no. 1198, 29 May 1951, p. 3.

9

Samir Rafi, “Maarakit al-Fann,” al-Balagh.

Samir Rafi with other members of Jam’at al-Fann al-Mo’assir, late 1940s (picture serial # 12)

Whether the Groupe d’Art Contemporain [CAG]

styles, genres and themes, the CAG presented

Heralded as a pessimist and by then appointed

was the brainchild of mentor Hussein Youssef

a single-minded proposition and visual language

professor of Décor at the Cairo School of Fine Arts

Amin at the time when he was Inspector of

to address the ills of ordinary people. Likewise, in

after he earnt a two-year teaching diploma in 1950,

Fine Arts at the Ministry of Public Instruction

contrast to the cosmopolitan Jama’at al-Fann wa-l-

Rafi was at one point denied a traveling exhibition

as most historians account for, or whether it

Hurriyya [Art and Liberty] which attracted foreign

in 1952 by Taha Hussein, the-then Minister of

was Samir Rafi’s idea that Amin appropriated,

and female artists to exhibit in their yearly shows

Public Instruction [Wizarit al-Ma’arif], under the

as Rafi claims, remains unclear and a mystery.

during the 1940s, the CAG was the first to be solely

pretext that Rafi’s paintings, according to Rafi’s

What is certain however is that the group

‘Egyptian’, albeit male only, as it was essentially

personal documents, gave ‘a bad image of the

made it possible for native artists to work

made up of eight native Egyptian artists (Rafi, el-

Egyptian society. They are unexhibitable abroad.’11

together on a single vision and permanently

Gazzar, Hamed Nada, Ibrahim Massouda, Kamal

Rafi responded that there were different ways of

changed and embedded the understanding

Youssef, Salem Abdallah el Habashi, Mahmoud

resisting, including the depiction of courage vis-

of the local vs. the universal. They challenged

Khalil and Maher Raef) who persisted on producing

à-vis ‘the enemy’: be it time, the British, injustice,

the notions of contemporary Egyptian art with

militant works even after they witnessed the return

betrayal or social ostracism/exclusion etc. In his

lasting repercussions on the generations that

of sovereignty to Egypt at the end of British rule.

last two exhibitions of 1953, the year after the

10

followed, and launched the career of some of

Military Coup of July 1952 and before his departure,

Egypt’s most important twentieth-century

Samir Rafi presented over fifty paintings in each,

practitioners such as Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar

with

and Hamed Nada. In his letters to his brother

important historical subjects. In one example, the

Sami dated 1986, Samir Rafi revealed that it

1906 atrocious Denshawy Incident is depicted in

was Hussein Youssef Amin who insisted on the

Dinshawy’s Dove [Hamamit Dinshawy] through a

inclusion of Gazzar and Nada to the group. The

pigeon struggling to rise from beneath dead bodies

second truly cohesive artist-collective to be

of innocent Egyptians in protest against the unfair

established in Egypt, it differed on two fronts

verdict and their atrocious execution by hanging

from every other group or collective that was

by the British. In another example, Rafi depicts

established before. Unlike Jama’at al-Khayyal

a group of courageous Egyptians standing in a

[La Chimère] or Jama’at al-Da’ayia al-Fanniyya

circle, defiant though in fear, surrounded by British

[Art Propaganda Group] of the 1920s and

soldiers ready to execute them with their guns, to

1930s, both of which gathered a medley of

symbolize resistance against imperialism.

Samir Rafi in four letters addressed to Mokhtar al-Attar in preparation to Rafi’s biography. Handwritten Letter #1, dated 1 November 2000, Paris Archive ArtTalks Gallery. See also Samir Gharib, al-Hijra al-Mostahila: Min Darb al-Labana ila Paris, (Cairo: Maktabit al-‘Osra, 1999).

10

11

many

politically-charged

works

tackling

Samir Gharib, The Impossible Migration: From Darb al-Labbana to Paris, (Cairo: Maktabit al-‘Osra, 1999).

THE PARIS YEARS During his self-imposed exile in France, Samir Rafi repeated many of the subjects he depicted

accentuated Egyptian-inspired “Rafi’sm”, where his

words when prompted to evaluate Rafi’s work

liking of geometric forms such as circles or straight

are particularly resonating: “We become who

lines gained particularity. For example, women

we are when we are no longer at home.”13 This

breasts are perfect circles; depiction of nature

also explains why Rafi’s work evolved into an

morte consists of apples and pears; a penchant for

inward biographical testimony. Probably guilty

ninety-degree-angles, reminiscent of millennia-old

of “abandoning” his wife and children, couples

ancient Egyptian art, are often visible in the arms

trapped in domestic interiors suffer, hold on to

of his subjects. Similarly, his treatment of the eyes,

each other, cheat, lie and deceive in enigmatic

when painting his subjects from profile, links him

scenarios, and in which it is never clear who is

again to his predecessors. La momie ressuscitée

the victor and who the victim.Animals (e.g. fox,

(1959) is a good example, and it recently sold

bird, cat, horse, bull, scorpion and fish) began

at Christie’s in London.

to play a more significant role in the imaginary

12

If anything, Picasso’s

in Egypt, only this time, he began to apply techniques and ideas he was able to see firsthand in the works by French and European avantgarde modernists. Rafi regularly visited Parisian museums and galleries, at times visiting the same exhibition twelve times. Pharaonic influences also became increasingly more visible, after Rafi completed his studies in ancient Egyptian art at the École du Louvre in 1958. Drawings and paintings produced in Paris recall the forcefully expressionist art found on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples, to which Rafi blended freerstyle Cubist elements essentially from Braque, producing both representational and cubistic images, and incorporating surrealist ideas into his work. The result was a markedly more

12 Christie’s, Middle Eastern, Modern and Contemporary Art, Lot no. 10, illustrated on page 29 in catalogue, London, 24 October 2018.

Hammer price: USD 36,000.

world of Samir Rafi. They are either entwined in the bodies of his subjects, or are their (sole) companion. What significance and meanings they carry offers a large space for interpretation.

Similar to ancient Egyptian artists who depicted sacred canines-a mythical creature combining features of jackals, dogs, and foxes, Samir Rafi intentionally depicted an ambiguous animal whose specific identity is often uncertain. For example, the repeated use of what resembles a

SR-135 Invitation designed by Samir Rafi, for a Contemporary Art Group Exhibition, 1948.

Pen and pencil on paper, 21x23cm.

fox or a wolf around women may be symbolizing unpredictable change and a heightened sense of awareness. Known as cunning and devious animals, they may be viewed as the single best partner or symbol to guide women down a destined path.

13

Pablo Picasso, Letter to Sévérini, 1 June 1960, reprinted in auction catalogue, Samir Rafi-125 Oeuvres by Machoïr-Bailly, 3 March 1991. See also Samir Gharib, The Impossible Migration: From Darb al-Labbana to Paris, (Cairo: Maktabit al-‘Osra, 1999), p. 72.

THE ALGIER YEARS But home in France did not seem fulfilling. In the summer of 1964, Rafi abandoned his career as a rising artist for a second time. He also ignored his thesis defense, and travelled to Algeria with a group of Algerian political freedom fighters he had met in Paris. What might have driven Rafi to make such radical move seems to be the election of Ahmed Ben Bella as the first president of independent Algeria, who Rafi had met when Ben Bella was a revolutionary political activist studying and hiding from French police in Cairo in 1949. During his five-year stay in Alger, Samir Rafi was appointed Consultant of Fine Arts to the Algerian Ministry of National Education.

But with the deposition of President Ahmed Ben Bella in 1965 and the consecutive imprisonment of all his Algerian friend-activists by the new government of Houari BoumĂŠdienne, Rafi became a target too and was imprisoned on suspicion of spying for the regime of Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Already on his way to Algiers in the summer of 1964, Rafi was held by the Egyptian police when he briefly stopped in Cairo, and was questioned about his decade-long absence from Egypt. The investigation by the Egyptian police and what is said to have been a violent and cruel imprisonment in Algeria had their toll on Rafi’s mental and physical health.

SR-108 La Visite au prisonier, 1964. Mixed media on paper, 27x21cm.

BACK IN PARIS – THE FINAL YEARS Back in Paris in 1969, Rafi underwent his first operation and remained bed-ridden between 1972 and 1976. In 1987, he had a heart surgery.

The final blow took place in 1990, when, according to Samir Rafi’s letters to his brother, he consigned a French auction house, MachoïrBailly, to sell hundreds of works he owns by important

European

modernists

such

as

Picasso, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, and De Chirico, in addition to 125 of his own paintings.

After the sale, Rafi received a trivial sum of money, and launched a law suit against the auction house, that led nowhere until the time of his death. Consequently, the impoverished Rafi was ejected from three of the four apartments he used to rent, and was forced to settle in the smallest two-bed room apartment on PhilippeAuguste Street in the eleventh district in Paris, where he remained until his death in 2004, producing works of autobiographical nature in isolation.

SR-118 Samir Rafi, Untitled [Rafi’s Tombstone], 1988.

Mixed media on paper, 21x30cm

A TALE OF HOPE OR THE TRAGEDY OF HOPE

The title of Samir Gharib’s book is a resonating description of the life of Samir Rafi. Titled The Impossible Migration: From Darb al-Labbana to Paris (Cairo: 1999), Gharib’s book is primarily based on letters by Samir Rafi written between 1986-88 to his brother Sami, and on interviews the author held with Rafi in Paris in 1997. By then, many of the key protagonists that participated in or shaped Rafi’s life one way or another had passed away and could no longer respond to the accusations or confirm the veracity of Rafi’s account of events. This forces us to take the stories told with a grain of salt since many are one-sided. Interviewed at a time when Rafi was past his seventies, and his reputation largely waned following his long absence from Egypt, the account certainly lacks in objectivity and demonstrates a rather bitter persona who views himself as a constant victim. This is further demonstrated in handwritten letters dated August to November 2000 acquired by ArtTalks from the archive of the late art critic Mokhtar al-

Attar. In those letters addressed to al-Attar, Rafi claimed to seek ‘to correct history’, as the two agreed on the publication of Rafi’s biography.

Rafi admitted: “The whole responsibility falls upon myself, as I had chosen silence.’

Neither

celebrated

in

his

homeland,

nor

recognized as he had expected in Europe, Rafi’s legacy began to be revived when all his belongings left in his two-bed room apartment in Paris were repatriated to Cairo following his death in 2004. Only then did Rafi begin to “taste” the appreciation he truly deserves in Egypt and the region, as well as in the so-coveted Western world.

While the growing collective visibility of the Contemporary Art Group and our understanding of how their seminal work contributed to various movements are part of the re-envisioning of Egyptian art history, Samir Rafi deserves particular attention. The challenge however will remain in gathering the letters and handwritten

biography consisting of three thousand pages; the books and articles he authored in Cairo during the 1940s; finding the whereabouts of the 125 works sold at the Parisian auction house in 1991, as well as the works, conferences and articles produced in Algeria. To make matters more complicated, the former Egyptian husband of Sahar, Rafi’s daughter, migrated to the USA, with many early works and invaluable letters.

When Rafi’s massive belongings were repatriated to Egypt after his death in 2004, his children also sold a big bulk, and it may well have been their way to erase the memory of a father who ‘forgot’ them. The Museum of Modern Art in Cairo and several blue-chip Egyptian collectors were able then to amass a large number of works at extremely reasonable prices. Such investigation, including the letters and works in the possession of Sami, Samir’s brother who passed away in 2019, are invaluable means to shed light on the puzzling artist, who seems to have never

admitted that the grass is after all not greener on the other side. Intriguing, singular, Rafi was a highly individual artist who has not received the attention bestowed upon his more famous “brethren” in the Contemporary Art Group, Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar and Hamed Nada in particular.

While the latter two continue to be the hottest subjects for museum exhibits and auction sales, their attention has been trickling down to the other surrealist and folk painters. In addition, the recent touring international exhibition Art and Liberty: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt 1938-1948 curated by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath triggered a major interest in the members of the Art and Liberty Group and helped bring attention to Samir Rafi and others.

Rafi’s uncensored story is a tragic tale of hope, and invites a deeper examination of the “Rafi’sm” school of art, thereby recognizing Samir Rafi as the pioneer he truly was.

SR-158 Self-Portrait, 1969. Mixed media on card board, 54x42cm.

BIOGRAPHY 1926 1942 1943 1943 1943 1943 1944 1945 1945 1946 1946 1947 1947 1948 1948 1948-50 1949 1949 1949 1950 1951-53 1950 1951 1952 1953-54 1953 1954 1954 1954 1955-58 1955 1956 1957 1957 1958

Born in Cairo.

Farouk I Secondary School, Cairo.

First Solo Exhibition, Qattan Bookstore.

First acquisition by the Egyptian State of Rafi painting [Shells].

Gold Medal by Ministry of Public Instruction. Best drawing student nationwide.

Student, Faculty of Fine Arts.

Second Solo Exhibition, Smith Bookstore.

Paints in Darb-al-Labbana with Art and Liberty members and Pierre Beppi-Martin.

Exhibits at V Independent Art show, Art and Liberty, Lycée Français du Caire.

Co-founder, Contemporary Art Group with Hussein Youssef Amin.

First CAG Exhibition, Foyer Lycée Français du Caire (May).

Honorary Prize of Young Painting.

Participates in International Exhibition, Cairo.

Graduates, Egyptian School of Fine Art. Highest Honors. First of graduation class.

Second CAG Exhibition, Dar Khidmit al-Shabab, Soliman Pasha str., Cairo (May) Diploma, Higher Institute of Pedagogic Art Studies at Ain Shams University.

Participates in Exhibition France-Egypte, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

Meets Ahmed Ben Bella, Algerian activist studying in Cairo.

Third CAG Exhibition.

Drawing Teacher, Tanta Secondary School / Khalifa al-Ma’mun School.

Assistant Professor, Funun al-Zaghrafiya, Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo.

Produces 120 gravures to illustrate a State-published book [Taisir al-Nah].

Third Solo Exhibition by CAG, Bureau des Avocats, Cairo (5-12 April).

Represents Egypt at Venice Biennale.

Professor, Faculty of Fine Arts, Cairo.

Fourth Solo Exhibition by CAG, Museum of Modern Art, Cairo (April).

Participates in Venice Biennale. Travels to Rome (June and July).

Travels to Paris (July) on Government Scholarship. Settles with wife.

Exhibition, Contemporary Art Group (9 artists), André Maurice Gallery, Paris (Aug.) Student, History of Modern Art and Museology at École du Louvre, Paris.

PhD Student, Purism at Sorbonne, Paris.

Rome (meets Ibrahim Massouda who emigrated to Italy) (2 months). Returns to Paris.

Registration, Doctorate Studies under Prof. André Chastel, Sorbonne University.

Meets André Lhote.

Meets Picasso.

1959 1961 1964 1964 1964 1964-68 1964-65 1965 1968-69 1968 1969 1970 1972 1972-76 1987 1987 1987 1991 2004

Meets Le Corbusier.

Participates in IX Salon d’Automne, Graduates of Fine Arts School, Corniche el-Nile Thesis approved by Prof. Chastel.

Moves to Alger, Algeria (June).

Visits Cairo for one month. Interrogated by Cairo Police.

Appointed Technical Advisor Fine Arts to Ministry of National Education, Alger.

Jailed in Algeria, accused of spying for Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Expected to present Doctorate Thesis in June.

Professor History of Modern Art, Faculty of Letters in Alger.

Exhibition, Centre Culturel Français in Alger. (March / 62 works).

Leaves or ejected from Algeria. Returns to Paris, France (July).

Solo Samir Rafi 1945-1969, Lovicine for Arts & Culture, Mairie de Lovicine, France.

Undergoes first operation in Paris (June).

Home-bound following 3 other surgeries in Paris.

Heart surgery in Paris.

Retrospective Art and Liberty Group, curated by Samir Gharib, Egyptian Center for International Culture, Zamalek (Nov-Dec.).

Retrospective Samir Rafi, curated by Sami Rafi, Akhnatoun Gallery (Dec.) Ripped off by Machoïr-Bailly Auction House, Versailles, France (125 paintings) Death in Paris.

ARTICLES BY SAMIR RAFI 1947

“al-Mazahib al-Haditha fi al-Fann,” Egyptian School of Fine Arts, magazine.

1953

“al-Fann layssa Mira’a” [Art is not a mirror], al-Balagh, 31 May.

1953

“Maarakit al-Fann,” al-Balagh, 17 June.

1968-69

“Mozakirat Fannan Misry fi Paris,’ al-Hilal (total of 7 articles)

ARTICLES ABOUT SAMIR RAFI 1948

Etienne Miriel, “Le Groupe d’Art Contemporain,” La Bourse Égyptienne, 18 May.

1948

Hussein Youssef Amin, “Missaliyat al-Fann al-Mo’athir,” al-Rissala, no. 480, 9 March

1948

Hussein Youssef Amin, “Missaliyat al-Fann al-Mo’athir,” Donia al-Fann, no. 87, 25 May

1951

Author unknown, “Bi’tha ila Paris,” Al-Jil, 6 October 1952

BOOKS 1951

Samir Rafi et son oeuvre, Comte d’Arschot, Ed. el-Riad, Le Caire

1953

Le Message de Samir Rafi, Aimé Azar, Ed. La Patrie, Le Caire

Untitled, 1956, Mixed media on board 23x17cm

La belle et la bĂŞte no. 131 1973, Mixed media on paper 31x24cm

Untitled, 1949, Mixed media on board 49 x 63cm

Untitled, 1955 mixed media on cardboard 42x29cm

Untitled, 1992, Mixed media on board 49 x 63cm

Les Amis, 1959, Oil on cardboard 48x63cm

Untitled, 1993, Mixed media on carton 57x42cm

Untitled, 1948, Oil on wood 72x41cm

UNCENSORED SAMIR RAFI Catalogue Published on the occasion of the show UNCENSORED SAMIR RAFI 24th February 2019 ArtTalks | Egypt Coordinators Cherine Chafik Engy Tarek Wael Nsr Graphic Concept & Realization Omar Mobarek Text Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani Photographs Hossam Ellouan Wael Nsr Engy Tarek

8 El Kamel Mohamed Street, Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt +202 2736 3948 info@arttalks.com www.arttalks.com