Lot 120: HAMED EWAIS (EGYPTIAN, 1919-2011) America signed and dated in Arabic (lower

HAMED EWAIS (EGYPTIAN, 1919-2011) America signed and dated in Arabic (lower centre left); signed, titled and dated twice in Arabic (on the reverse) oil on canvas 57 1/4 x 45in. (145.5 x 114.5cm.) Painted in 1970

EXHIBITED: Cairo, Zamalek Art Gallery, Hamed Ewais, 2002. Cairo, Zamalek Art Gallery, Egyptian Artists Masterpieces III, 2005. Rome, Egyptian Academy, Hamed Ewais, 2006. Alexandria, The Museum of Faculty of Fine Arts, The Celebration of the Birthday of the Artist Ewais, 2009 (illustrated in colour on the exhibition poster). Egyptian socialist realist painter Hamed Ewais typifed the notion of what it means to be an inspiring nationalist painter. Ewais’ oeuvre focused heavily on politics, and with a highly articulated Aesthetic of strong compositional ability, his work lent itself to becoming iconic images of resistance, political activism and nationalism due to the themes presented and motifs tackled in each of his compositions. His masterpieces were often ‘tableaux vivants’ of a wide range of Egyptian characters set against a backdrop that referenced political events or social realities in Egypt at the time. Despite his oeuvre focusing on his native country, many works produced during his lifetime imparted various messages about national identity, the importance of citizens standing united in the face of enemy threats and the honour inherent in defending one’s country. In his painting America, Ewais focused on the subject of the War of Attrition from 1967-1970, and on Egypt’s role within this historic and controversial period in a manner so technically astute and brilliantly creative, that it exceeds all his earlier works. Ewais founded a collective in 1947 called the Group of Modern Art which believed in creating an artistic style that confronted the challenges of everyday life for the common Egyptian man and woman. Despite the contemporary establishment of Egyptian Surrealism, the Art and Liberty Group, Ewais sought an alternative ideology which would help create an artistic vernacular that was appreciated and understood by the average Egyptian man and woman, avoiding the anarchistic tone of the highly polemical Egyptian Surrealist movement which had its roots in rejecting the current political establishment in Egypt. Ewais hence developed an unprecedented style in Egypt which critics have since dubbed Social Realism after having observed the works of the Italian Social Realist artists that were exhibited alongside Ewais’ works at the Venice Biennale in 1952. Some art historians argue that Ewais was also inspired by the social realist work of Mexican painter Diego Rivera. Indeed, the human bodies of Ewais’ fgures have a characteristic roundness to them, and exaggerated proportions, reminiscent of Rivera’s style. Ewais infused his works with light, saturated jewel tones and colours upon his encounter with the Egyptian artist Mahmoud Saïd in Alexandria. It was there in the coastal city while teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts in the early 1960s that Ewais began to meld colour and light with subjects veering in shape and size on the fantastical thus pushing his work in the direction of magical realism. In his painting America, Ewais provides a visual scathing commentary on the diplomatic stalemate between Egypt and its allies against Isr 3/4 l from 1967-1970. The political vacuum left after the conclusion of the Six-Day War in 1967 resulted in Egypt and its allies refusing to negotiate, make peace or recognise the state of Isr 3/4 l unless it fully removed itself from Sinai. Ewais’ painting on the topic articulates this episode of history by outside parties involvement and support of varying sides in the confict which further complicated matters. Ewais articulated this highly complex stalemate in a tightly constructed and complex narrative of symbolism. Like the work Al Aabour (sold at Christie’s Dubai, March 2016; price realised:

PROVENANCE: The artist’s Estate.