By Sarah Fuller
The blues and browns that bring to life Farghali Abdel Hafiz’s “Bride of the Nile” fill me with childlike wonder. They inspire me to learn the story behind this ethereal work of art, part of the exhibit “One Hundred Years of Painting: Arab Art from 1916 to 2017.”
Farghali Abdel-Hafiz was a prominent Egyptian artist recognized for his unique contributions to the world of contemporary art. Born in 1941, Abdel-Hafiz’s work spanned various mediums such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking, each embodying a unique fusion of Egyptian heritage and modern artistic sensibilities. He was a graduate of the Institute of Art Education and the Academy of Fine Art in Florence. His art was typically centered around themes of identity, cultural heritage, and social commentary, resonating with both local and international audiences.
Abdel-Hafiz turned to traditional materials to present unconventional, dreamy images by blending oils and acrylics on canvas. In his paintings, his focus appeared to be more on the situation than the place. To me, Abdel-Hafiz’s “Bride of the Nile” portrays a woman that has everyone stopped in their tracks, captivated by her beauty. My attention is on the striking shades of blue and the earthy texture of the bride’s silhouette, which is almost reminiscent of a mermaid. I can see how Abdel-Hafiz is influenced by folklore and uses natural materials like straw, sand, mud, and clay to create his art. His work carries a distinctive projection of Egypt’s ancient heritage on the modern civilization. Legend says that a festival was celebrated in Pharaonic times in Egypt, where a young virgin was picked from the most beautiful women in the land and thrown into the Nile as a sacrifice to the river god Hapi. This was also to ensure that the water would flow and flood abundantly. Later, however, it is believed that a woman-shaped clay effigy was thrown into the Nile each year to pacify the god.
Interestingly, Abdel-Hafiz is said to have drawn inspiration for this painting from Marc Chagall, a Belarusian-French artist known to be one of the 20th century’s most influential modernist artists. Chagall is a representational artist who merged recognizable scenes with dream-like images and symbols from his Russian Jewish heritage. His masterful use of color and symbolism have been globally lauded. Picasso once stated that when Matisse died, Chagall would be the only one who really understood what color was, adding that his canvases were really painted and not simply tossed together. It is hard to miss the similarities between “Bride of the Nile” and many of Chagall’s works, including “Le rêve de Chagall sur Vitebsk” (pictured below), which is gouache, watercolor, pastel, and mixed media on paper.
Throughout his career, Abdel-Hafiz experimented with various mediums like watercolor, acrylics, pencil, and elements of the earth such as sand, mud, and corn stalks. His paintings frequently depict scenes from everyday Egyptian life, capturing the spirit of street scenes, landscapes, and historical ceremonies with a keen eye for detail and color, whereas Chagall's works are rooted in his Jewish heritage, often highlighting memories of his home in Vitebsk, Belarus and its folk culture.
Check out “Bride of the Nile” and other artworks at our exhibit “One Hundred Years of Painting: Arab Art from 1916 to 2017.” The exhibit runs until October 13, 2024. For the duration of the exhibit, guided tours will occur on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:00 am and on Saturdays at 6:30 pm. If you would like to select a different time, please call us at +97144474050, send a message on WhatsApp at +971505837714, or email info@kutubna.ae.
This post was written by Sarah Fuller, program associate at Kutubna Cultural Center. Sarah is a writer, marketing enthusiast, book lover, and art novice.