WATANI International
12 September 2010
A collection of 30 paintings by several of Egypt’s top 20th century artists, including Mahmoud Saïd, Ragheb Ayad, Abdel-Hadi al-Gazzar, Hamed Nada, Seif and Adham Wanly, and Adam Henein, will be auctioned at Christie’s in Dubai next October.
This auction comes following what Christie’s termed its “spectacular success” last April when it sold 25 works of art from the collection of Mohammed Said Farsi for a total of USD8.7 million, tripling its pre-sale estimate. Dr Farsi accordingly decided to part with a further 30 masterpieces from his collection at the upcoming auction of International Modern and Contemporary Art on 26 October 2010 in Dubai.
Dr Farsi’s private collection is recognised as the most comprehensive collection of modern Egyptian art in private hands. It is fully documented in A Museum in a Book: The Farsi Art Collection – the “Egyptian Works” owned by Dr Mohammed Said Farsi by Sobhy Sharouny, published in 1998.
Mahmoud Saïd
The leading highlight in the upcoming auction is The Whirling Dervishes, 1929, a spectacular early work by Mahmoud Saïd (1897-1964) estimated to sell at USD300,000 to 400,000. Born into an aristocratic Alexandrian family, the son of Egypt’s prime minister and uncle to Queen Farida, Mahmoud Saïd trained as a lawyer, working reluctantly in that profession before devoting himself fully to his art in 1947. The painting depicts six Mawlawi dervishes, each identically clad and with similar features but subtly different postures, performing a Sema dance around the circular stage of an Ottoman-era Semahane (ritual hall). The artist is also represented with four additional works including The Suradek: (Qur’an Reciter), estimated at USD80,000-100,000; The Girl in a pink dress (1945) estimated at USD100,000 to 150,000; The Inauguration of the Suez Canal (estimated at USD30,000-40,000) and A Shipwreck in Marsa Matruh (estimated at USD30,000-40,000). A new world auction record for the artist was established in April, when Les Chadoufs sold for USD2.4 million. This price is the highest ever paid for any painting by any Middle Eastern artist at auction.
Hamed Nada
Seven magnificent paintings by Hamed Nada (1924-1990) from his mature period will be offered. The mature work of Hamed Nada is filled with anecdotal details and is rich in nuances of mystery and magic. His upbringing was inspired by the life and vibrancy of the old Cairo district of al-Khalifa, rich in crumbling medieval Mamluk buildings and gracious Ottoman-era monuments, the perfect setting for the popular street puppet shows, which had a profound impact on Nada’s work. The figures of his later work are rendered in both human and animal form. Elongated and stylised, they float around the pictural space, the figures seeming to take on a life of their own, encapsulating the mischievous and vivacious. They become akin to hieroglyphs, generalised symbols rather than particularised personages, as can be detected in Dancer and Pipe (1984), estimated at USD180,000-220,000; Dancing Madness (1989), estimated at USD60,000-80,000; and The Singer and the Pianola (1989), estimated at USD60,000-80,000.
Abdel-Hadi al-Gazzar
Dr Farsi is acknowledged as the most important collector of works by Abdel-Hadi al-Gazzar (1925-1965), which comes very rarely to auction. The sale will offer eight works, including four from his most sought-after middle period when the artist explored the mysterious world of folklore, superstition and myth. A Mad Woman (1958), estimated at USD100,000-150,000, shows a crazy woman rushing through an alley bedecked with anecdotal folk decoration. The Lady Rider which dates back to the early 1950s and is estimated to sell at USD50,000 to 60,000, shows a female figure riding in a folk circus. The Talisman Bowl from the early 1950s, estimated at USD70,000-100,000, is one of Gazzar’s most enigmatic works, showing a one-legged man, his face covered by a blackboard, is among the most important of all Egyptian artists and is perhaps the most inventive. Although Gazzar died very young, his astonishing diverse works of the 1950s and 1960s are amongst the most compelling images of 20th century Middle Eastern art.
In Paris
A last part of the Mohammed Said Farsi painting collection will be offered in Paris later this year on 9 November. A total of 40 paintings will be offered including works of Mahmoud Saïd, Hamed Nada and Seif Wanly. One of Wanly’s largest paintings will be on offer, The Pont Neuf which was painted in 1967, inspired by the Parisian bridge and the French Cubist painters of the period. It is estimated to sell at 40,000-50,000 Euros. Major among the seven works of Mahmoud Saïd offered is Lady sewing (1947), estimated at 100,000-150,000 Euros, in which one can detect the artist’s consideration for women as the source of existential power and as a symbol of national identity.