However, in the 20’s and 30’s a new school of Egyptian painters emerged who painted Egypt and Luxor in a modern way completely up to date with all the innovations elsewhere.
Here are some examples from both local and Egyptian painters and sculptors focusing on Luxor region scenes and themes or just with an Upper Egypt connection:
If your tastes are aristocratic and traditional maybe Mahmoud Said (d 1964) will appeal. An Alexandrian judge, cousin to Queen Farid and with subject matter from prostitutes to muscular Egyptian males. Here are a couple of his Luxor paintings:
Sunset on the Nile 1945 which sold for about $US1 million:
And another probably depicting a scene in Upper Egypt in the 1930’s:
A neo-Pharonic painting from 1940 by Shaaban Zaki, almost unique in this period in coming from humble circumstances: ‘the Guardian of the Temple in Luxor”:
It’s a loose connection to Luxor, but a striking painting by Fathi Hassan (b1957). Long resident in Italy, from a Sudanese background but with a mother from Toshka – the only good thing ever to come out of Toshka:
The Met in NYC collect him but not in Egypt.
Another, but, contemporary Luxor resident artist is Eiad Orbay who also graduated from the excellent local Fine Arts Faculty. He is featured by Saatchi art https://www.saatchiart.com/eiadoraby1 which might explain why he gets no local recognition. No success should go unpunished. An example is:
Interestingly he exhibited at Luxor galleries: Marsam Abdelrasol, Luxor Fine Arts, and Waset Art and Culture. Are any of them still operating?
A further graduate of the local Fine Arts school, who now lives in Cairo, is Ahmed Abdel fattah. A striking painting with a possible local theme and in an un-nostalgic style is:
Farid Fadel was born in 1958 in Assuit, Upper Egypt, into a family noted for both its musicians and its doctors. He has since excelled at medicine, art and music. He has held 34 solo art exhibitions, has given prominent music recitals and concerts, obtained his M.Sc. in Ophthalmology, and is presently working as a practicing eye doctor at the Memorial Institute of Ophthalmology, Giza.
In 1973, Dr. Fadel was awarded the Pope's Medal and Vatican Award. In 1975, the Egyptian Parliament awarded him a trip to Italy to see Renaissance art. In 2000, Dr. Fadel traveled with his exhibition "On Both Sides" to the USA. Fadel is probably a Christian and, almost uniquely in modern Egyptian art, his paintings contain Christian themes.
A more conventional view from an earlier generation is Mohammed Sabry (Egyptian, b. 1917) and his 1966 view of the Nile at Luxor which sold well at Christies:
He painted extensively at Luxor.
His conventional views extended to politics where he was a minor art propagandist for Nasser.
George Bahgory was a Copt born in Luxor in 1932, trained in Cairo and has spent most of his life in France and swung between Picasso and political cartoon. Here is a caraciature of a noted singer:
a more serious portrait is:
He is still a cartoonist for al Ahram.
In Aswan the sculptor, Adam Henein, b 1929, has established the annual International Sculpture Symposium. His works are far from tourist clichés:
Also painting in Aswan, but from Alex, was Hussein Bicar d 2002, here is his Fellanha in Aswan from the 80’s.
A female painter active in Upper Egypt was Tahia Halim d 2003 and this is her The Happiness of Nubia from 1965
For those visting Cairo there is a (not very good) Egyptian Modern Art Museum in the Opera House Complex on Zamalek. A not very good description of the Museum is at: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/artmuseum.htm. It might be open but others have reported that it was closed for maintenance, together with the nearby the Hanager Arts Centre and the Palace of Arts. Google says it is open but Trip Advisor says it is closed. There is also a Port Said, Museum of Modern Art in Egypt. Its new, built on a grand scale and closed. Other modern art galleries, including commercial galleries in Cairo are profiled at https://theculturetrip.com/africa/egypt ... d-museums/
In Giza on the Nile the privately established Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, expropriated by the government, houses modern Egyptian art and minor French impressionists paintings by Renoir, Monet and van Gogh. It holds the world record for having had the same painting, a van Gogh, stolen twice and regular thefts of other paintings. If its open it keeps it very quiet. It is located due west of the northern tip of Manial Island. http://www.sis.gov.eg/Story/1269?lang=en-us
Also in Giza is the Mohamed Nagy Museum donated to the nation by the famous painter and his artist wife. It appears to be permanently closed.
The Museum of Saad El-Khadem and Effat Nagy (sister to the above) located in Sarrayat El-Kobba, Cairo, devoted to modern Egyptian art and again privately donated to the nation was open in 2011 but I think now closed. https://dailynewsegypt.com/2011/01/21/p ... spiration/. The Ahmed Shawki Museum (music and poetry) in Giza is also likely closed, as are the Greco-Roman in Alex., the el Gawhara (Jewel) Palace in the Citadel, (probably) the Mukhtar (modern) Sculpture Museum, Zamalek, the Qasr Al-Eini Museum opened in 1999 which allegedly holds an original of the Description de l’Egypt worth millions is also probably closed and the Alexandria Museum of Fine Arts in the Moharam Bek neighborhood, again a private donation, allegedly exists after an alleged renovation which finished around 2013.
I suspect that Gurna isn’t the only place in Egypt looted.
A modern commercial gallery in Zamalek which specializes in Egyptian art from the 20’s onwards is http://safarkhan.com/ContactUs.aspx
A brief history of modern Egyptian painting since the 1920’s by the Met. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/egma/hd_egma.htm
His "Whirling Dervishes" was sold by Christies for US$ 2.5 million.
Experience is not what happens to you;
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