Lot 7: Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar (Egyptian, 1925-1965)

Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar (Egyptian, 1925-1965)
A Mad Woman
signed and dated in Arabic (lower right); signed and titled in Arabic (on the reverse)
oil on board
36¾ x 27in. (93 x 68.8cm)
Painted in 1957

Sobhy Al-Sharouny, A Museum in a Book: The Farsi Art Collection "The Egyptian Works" Owned by Dr. Mohammed Said Farsi, Cairo, 1998 illustrated in colour, p.291 and illustrated p.282 ref 1/38).
Sobhy Al-Sharouny, Abdel Hadi Al-Gazzar, Cairo, 2007 (illustrated in colour, p.64).
Enas Hosni, Contemporary Art Group: A Surviving Wealth of Admirable Art, Cairo, 2009 (illustrated in colour, p. 71).

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. MOHAMMED SAID FARSI

This large painting is among the most the most self-consciously surreal of El-Gazzar's folkloric period. Charging towards us in a trance-like state is a crazy woman, her gloved clawlike hands held far above her head, her hair reaching almost to her ankles. The covered alley through which she runs, a familiar sight in the older quarters of Cairo, is here shown with distorted perspective and is crammed with symbolic objects, becoming a claustrophobic trap. Enigmatic details crowd the composition- the totemic head at the base of the wooden column on the right; the ornate box at the top of this column from which an anchor is suspended; the huge key hanging on the wall of the left, the animal skin rug strewn across the floor and, echoing its shape, the bald-headed prostrate figure lying on the ground. Together these perpetuate the state of unease.