Lot 58: ABDUL HADI EL-GAZZAR (EGYPTIAN, 1925-1965) A Boy with a Dog signed in Arabi

ABDUL HADI EL-GAZZAR (EGYPTIAN, 1925-1965) A Boy with a Dog signed in Arabic; signed and dated ‘Elgazzar 57’ (lower right) ink and watercolour on paper 22 x 14 3/4 in. (56 x 37.5cm.) Executed in 1957

PROVENANCE: The artist’s Estate. LITERATURE: A. Al Hindy, Abdul Hadi El Gazzar: Reading into the Consciousness of People (in Arabic), Cairo 2010 (illustrated in colour, p. 139). The artist’s Estate has kindly confrmed the authenticity of this work. Perpetually challenging in subject matter, the work of Egyptian artist Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar always provokes thought and investigation about the composition presented to viewers. Although Gazzar is known for works detailing themes and motifs relating to Egyptian vernacular culture derived from traditions of mysticism and traditions of the moulid, A Boy with a Dog is unique in its departure from his more usual subject matter. Gazzar’s personal circumstances and living environment greatly infuenced the works he produced. Originally born in the neighbourhood of Akkabri in the coastal town of Alexandria, Gazzar moved with his family to the district of Sayyida Zeinab in downtown Cairo when he was ffteen years old. His new home was in a decidedly lower-middle class neighbourhood in a historic area whereby Islamic monuments including mausoleums, mosques and shrines were centers for gatherings of Sufs, pilgrims and mystics alike. Gazzar would have encountered on a daily basis a motley crew of individuals amongst the historic monuments. No doubt this move left such an impression on the young man thereafter as to continuously serve as inspiration for him throughout his short-lived life. Gazzar’s father was a sheikh, and the family’s modest social background did not bar him from studying abroad. Granted several scholarships by the Egyptian government, Gazzar rejected the Western canons of his art education in Europe to focus instead on creating an Egyptian art Aesthetic that was shaped by local themes. As one of the founding members of the Contemporary Art Group in 1944, spearheaded by Hussein Youssef Amin, Gazzar created a pictorial vernacular rooted in magical realism, creating a unique pictorial vocabulary that would clearly mark his work as Egyptian. Magical realism had its roots in the Egyptian Surrealism movement, known as the Art and Liberty Group, of the early 1940s. Much of Gazzar’s work sought to highlight the working class, exaggerating the size of their hands and feet as a way of suggesting their labour-class origins. Gazzar created illustrations to complement stories that he used to tell to his frst-born daughter Tayseer upon her turning two years old, of which A Boy with a Dog is an example. At frst glance, A Boy with a Dog appears to be a departure from the magical realism which pervades much of his other work, yet Gazzar’s signature Aesthetics permeates throughout. Executed in 1957, this watercolour illustration appears to be more benign in its intention, yet a closer inspection and interpretation by the viewer proves otherwise: an enigmatic air wields tension and a slight feeling of unease, in a manner similar to the rest of his oeuvre. The work shows a boy holding a black puppy on a red leash and standing in a room with a panting hanging on the wall behind him. A. Al Hindy argues in her book Abdul Hadi El Gazzar: Reading into the Consciousness of People (in Arabic; Cairo 2010) that Gazzar’s inclusion of the red leash helps the viewer to trace a relationship between the boy and the dog because of the visual alacrity of the red leash against the muted beige, orange, brown and black colours in the work. The scene further troubles the viewer because of the inclusion of two female fgures. One is drawn in white outline, and she is laying down on what appears to be a daybed. Her closed eyes suggest she is sleeping, but the arch of her back, and the revealing low cut of her dress suggests otherwise. There is a strange ghostly quality to her due to the minimal details sketched out in white. The painting on the wall also includes a female fgure, but she appears to be actively looking out at the scene beneath her. She appears to be a young girl more so than a woman, but what her context is or what the role she is playing in the overall composition is not inherently clear and leaves the viewer perplex. The fgure of the boy himself alludes to one of Gazzar’s most recurring themes: androgyny. The gender of human fgures in Gazzar’s works were always clearly identifed by the dress or accessories which he clothed them in. In contrast, their actual human fgures rarely helped to distinguish male from female. For example, the hands, feet and facial features were oftentimes interchangeable due to their large size. This deliberate androgyny on Gazzar’s part always evoked a sense of mystery and complexity. In A Boy with a Dog symbolism and androgyny are also very much at play. Although black animals, particularly cats, are considered with superstitious suspicion in Egyptian vernacular culture, the dog’s small size connotes a level of security and domesticity in the scene; thereby softening the usual tension and unease we usually fnd in Gazzar’s work. The outline of a large hair bow resting on top of the boy’s head hints to androgyny and intrigues the viewer with regards to the interpretation of the scene. The boy is wearing an orange button up shirt, and trousers atop masculine lace-up shoes. His eyes stare straight at the viewer, and his lips are drawn thick with a prominent cupid’s bow, thereby suggesting a degree of femininity to the face of the boy. As one of the last available works by Gazzar from his most sought-after period, the rarity of A Boy with a Dog is further enhanced by its typical Gazzarlike ambiguity combined with its anomaly within the artist’s oeuvre due to its family connotations, used an illustration for story-telling.