Designed by the great Egyptian architect Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911 – 1974), the museum of the sculptor Mahmoud Mukhtar (1891 – 1934) has stood on the Nile island of Gezira in
Designed by the great Egyptian architect Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911 – 1974), the museum of the sculptor Mahmoud Mukhtar (1891 – 1934) has stood on the Nile island of Gezira in Cairo for some 60 years now. Mukhtar is the godfather of modern Egyptian sculpture and, despite his early death, has had a colossal impact on the contemporary art movement in Egypt. He took his inspiration from the famous ancient Egyptian statues and pharaonic monuments, emulating their majestic brilliant lines.
The collection
The Mukhtar museum has been renovated by the Ministry of Culture at a cost of EGP80,000, and was reopened to the public last week. The museum was first opened in 1962 by the then Culture Minister, the late Tharwat Okasha, himself a leading figure on the Egyptian cultural scene during the 1960s and 1970s. Until a special museum was built to house the Mukhtar collection, the sculptor’s works were among the collections of the Egyptian Modern Art Museum. In 2003, the Mukhtar Museum was refurbished at a cost of EGP9 million after a closure period that lasted for four years.
The newly-opened museum houses 85 of Mukhtar’s masterpieces in bronze, stone, basalt, marble, granite and plaster. Among them are some of his famous depictions of daily life in rural Egypt including The Pot Bearer, The Farm Guard, Sheikh al-Balad, On the Nile Bank, Returning from the River, The Secret Keeper, The Peasant Women, Isis, The Nile Bride, Saad Zaghloul, The Queen of Sheba and The Khamaseen Winds.
Mukhtar was a core member first generation of modern Egyptian artists who were, according to curator Salwa Mikdadi, “driven by a renewed appreciation of their national identity and the return to ancient Egyptian art.”
Recapturing Mukhtar’s spirit
The inauguration of the Mukhtar Museum is a monumental event, said Saber Arab, the Minister of Culture, during the opening ceremony, which was attended by a host of figures from Cairo cultural circles.
“We urgently need to recapture the spirit of Mukhtar’s art which projects majesty, brilliance and good-cheer,” Arab said. “Every one of Mukhtar’s works puts the viewer in a mood of that regains the national spirit and takes it back to the roots. A visit to this museum is a joyful experience of reaching out and communicating with our ancient Egyptian past and its rich civilisation.” Mukhtar was no ordinary sculptor, said Arab dreamily, he was a master in expressing the Egyptian features, inside out.
Former culture minister, Emad Abu-Ghazi, who was present at the opening ceremony, said that the modern paints and colours used to renovate the museum enhanced and highlighted the beauty of Mukhtar’s works.
Salah al-Meligui, head of the Fine Arts Department at the Ministry of Culture explained that the museum’s garden had been reorganised, its lightning system renovated, and the statues polished. The security system was modernised, said Meligui, and some retouches were made to the museum’s walls and flooring as well.
At the end of the opening ceremony, Meligui presented Arab and Ghazi with the Mukhtar Shield, and also gave out medals to those who participated in the renovation of the museum.
WATANI International
19 May 2012