An Egyptian artist’s passion for people

It’s not unusual for art to provide an element of social commentary. Amid the prevailing atmosphere of Arab nationalism and widespread optimism in the run-up to the 1967 war, a number of Arab artists worked to bring the struggles of the region’s underprivileged – farmers, laborers and urban poor – into the galleries and living rooms of the bourgeoisie.

In Syria, modernist painter Fateh Moudarres captured scenes from the daily lives of Syria’s agricultural laborers. In Lebanon, Paul Guiragossian’s subject matter centered on the everyday lives of his family, friends and neighbors, who are often captured at market or in the streets. In Egypt, modernist artist Hamed Abdalla concerned himself above all with the plight of farmers and Cairo’s poor, capturing patrons at neighborhood coffee houses and toiling in the fields.

The artist’s sizable output, recently reintroduced to the public thanks to simultaneous exhibitions in Cairo and Beirut, has received a second boost courtesy of a monograph by Roula El Zein. The book, which includes contributions from the artist’s friends and family and extracts from his own essays, provides a comprehensive overview not only of his biographical information but of his views on art in general, and his own work in particular.

“The Eye of the Spirit: The Life and Work of the Artist-Painter Hamed Abdalla” opens with a poem penned about the artist by late Lebanese poet and novelist Andreé Chedid.

“His universe was there, mixed with that of Egypt. The Egypt which, once experienced, remains within the intense pulsing of the blood,” she writes.

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An Egyptian artist’s passion for people