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 BoumÊdienne, 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
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