Wagdy Habashy (1940 – 2024), Watani’s very own art critic, passed away on 8 July, following a long struggle with illness. His passing left us with heartbreak at the loss of a great man, and leaves a conspicuous void among Watani’s veteran journalists. Mr Habashy was a man of integrity, respect, and professionalism; more importantly, he was a person who exuded gentleness and understanding. He worked at a profession famous for conflict and severe competition but, with his calm smile, managed to transcend professional turbulence, keeping his soul and peace intact in the face of adversity. He was a true artist, sensitive to the core, all his words and actions echoing the great love in his heart.
Mr Habashy’s daughter, Donia Wagdy, is a journalist on the team of Watani International. We share her loss, and offer her our heartfelt condolences, assuring her that her father’s memory will always be treasured.
Watani pays tribute to this great man by reprinting a 2018 interview conducted with him, in which he candidly opened his treasure trove of memories to our readers.
“My life unfolded with circumstances and conditions that appeared to be leading me along a path the Lord had set for me. It was as though His hand was painting a beautiful image of my life. Looking back, I wouldn’t change a single line or stroke in this painting because I can see that my life was perfectly formed by the Lord.” That was how artist Wagdy Habashy movingly started his talk with Watani back in 2018.
Mr Habashy was a painter whose works, which display distinctive style and talent, earned a special place among those of Egypt’s contemporary artists. He was especially noted for his depiction of women and the sea, both coming across as timeless, profound, romantically beautiful, overflowing with life and all-encompassing love. He participated in countless exhibitions, and his paintings hang in outstanding places.
Additionally, Mr Habashy was an art critic who analysed and critiqued art works with knowledge, depth, and sensitivity. He was Watani’s own art critic from 1970 till he passed away in July 2024. He has to his credit years of working with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture where, among his other tasks, he did masterly work in the field of museums.
Beginnings
Watani chose to start its talk with Mr Habashy right at his early beginnings, and proceed to the significant stations in his life.
“I was born in the mid-Delta city of Tanta in 1940,” Mr Habashy said. “My father was a roads and bridges engineer, and his work required him to move quite a bit. I remember Tanta as the quiet, calm city in which I went to school and spent pleasant childhood and adolescence. In 1959 we moved to Alexandria where I joined School of Fine Arts which had just opened two years earlier.
“An incident that strongly impacted my career occurred during my student years in Alexandria. I was walking over to a friend carrying a painting I had done when I passed a furniture shop. The owner, who was French, spotted me and asked to have a look at my painting. He liked it so much that he commissioned me to do reproductions of works of French painters, for him to frame and sell together with the furniture. This put me on a path of profound, practical learning of the painting of masters of classic art, and shaped much of my artistic sense.
“Another great artistic influence was the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, a truly cosmopolitan city at the time, richly diverse in culture, music, and art. I felt surrounded by beauty in every sense. As I evolved as an artist, Alexandria endowed me with my blue-and-white phase of painting, as contrasted to Cairo to which I owe my warm-colour sense.”
Museums and exhibitions
“I graduated from the School of Fine Arts in 1964,” Mr Habashy continued. “I had been lucky to study under professors who were among Egypt’s most prominent artists, including painters Seif Wanly (1906 – 1979) and Adham Wanly (1908 – 1959), and sculptor Gamal al-Segeini (1917 – 1977).
“My graduation project was titled ‘Life and Love’ which I depicted in the paintings: Divine Love; Motherhood; and Adam and Eve. The master piece, however, was a fresco which I titled Love of the Earth and in which the theme was that love has the power to change evil and conflict into goodness and peace; it was so unique that the University decided to acquire it.
“After graduation, I moved to Cairo where I joined the community of other contemporary artists, among them painters Gamal Kamel (1926 – 1986), Youssef Francis (1934 – 2001), Nagy Shaker (1932 – 2018), and cartoonists George al-Bahgoury (born 1932), and Salah Jahin (1930 – 1986). They introduced me to those in charge of the weekly magazine Sabah al-Kheir (Good Morning) where I was tasked with drawing illustrations for the cover story and for the poetry published.
“In 1965, I was appointed scenery designer with Egypt’s TV, but I didn’t like that work. A friend and colleague, Hamed Mustafa, helped me get a job with the Culture Ministry’s Museums and Exhibitions sector; I started work as curator of the Museum of Civilisation in Cairo.
“At that time, I also began to actively create paintings with which I participated in many exhibitions. Prominent among these was one held in 1966 in Cairo, titled ‘Inspired by religions’. It was opened by President Anwar al-Sadat, and saw participation of masters of Egyptian painting, among them Seif Wanly, Ragheb Ayad (1882- 1982), Youssef Kamel (1890- 1971) and Salah Taher (1911- 2007). I participated with my Divine Love, Church in the Desert, and Christ on the Cross.”
Joining Watani
June 1967 was hard on Egypt; it saw its bitter defeat by Israel in the Six Day War. “A group of artists held a collective exhibition titled ‘Art and the Battle’. I joined with four paintings that included Christ Re-crucified, and Don’t Kill Peace. Adel Kamel (1942 – 2003), an artist and musicologist who worked with Watani visited the exhibition; it was the start of a long friendship between us.
“In 1969, I held a solo exhibition of my works. Again, Adel Kamel came, this time with Fomil Labib who was then chief editor of Watani. Mr Labib asked me to join Watani, it was the start of a long, fruitful, warm relationship.
“In parallel, I started work on the cinematic front, where I would be asked to do paintings that would represent works of protagonist artists. In Ghaleb Shaat’s 1975 film Thilal Alal-Ganib al-Akhar (Shadows on the Other Side), I drew three paintings that represented different stages of a painting in the process of being drawn throughout the film.
“My work at Watani—I ultimately became editor of the Art page—proceeded smoothly, despite the political upheavals during these years. The years 1967 to 1973 witnessed the War of Attrition between Egypt and Israel till Egypt was able, as a consequence of the October 1973 War, to regain Sinai and sign a peace agreement with Israel in 1979. In 1981 – 1984, Watani was closed by order of President Sadat among his notorious September 1981 clampdown on people of thought and Coptic religious figures including Pope Shenouda III. President Sadat was assassinated in October 1981, and Watani returned to print by court order in 1984.
During the years 1981 – 1984, Watani founder Antoun Sidhom continued to hold the weekly editorial meetings every Monday, and to pay the salaries of journalists and staff; he was certain that it was only a matter of time till the paper would again go into print.”
Paintings… and icons
The very obvious question Watani had to ask Mr Habashy concerned the artistic quality of his paintings. “An artist” he replied, “is primarily influenced by his or her surroundings, environment, and experiences. The artist relays this to receivers of the art; success hinges on the ability to inspire receivers. This is in essence creativity.
“As I already said, I was greatly influenced by the Alexandria marine environment, it inspired my blue-and-white artistic phase. The sea affected me deeply with its continual change, the calm and peace, and the turbulence, even peril. For me, it was a constant reminder of a woman’s changing moods, hence my paintings connecting them. I even held an exhibition titled “The Sea… and Woman”.
“From 1964 to 2012, I held and participated in numerous local and international exhibitions.
“Yet I refuse to sign any of my paintings till I am absolutely comfortable with it. I still have in my possession paintings that are as yet unsigned.
“As to icons, I was first familiarised with that art during my years in university. Later, in the Coptic Studies Institute in Cairo, I got to know renowned modern iconographers such as the pioneering Isaac Fanous (1919- 2007), and the couple Youssef Nassif (1920 – 2013) and Bodour Latif (1922- 2012).
“They were all geniuses in this unique art: Fanous with his strong rigid lines, and Nassif and Latif with their realistic, flowing lines. There was also Girgis Ayad (1939 – 2017) from Minya, whose ingenious style was spontaneous, practically primitive. Noteworthy is that Coptic icons are heavily influenced by ancient Egyptian art, symbols, and colours.
“Icons and iconography have been among the many topics I wrote about in Watani.”
Culture, museums for the public
“Throughout the years,” Mr Habashy reminisced, “I got promoted at the Culture Ministry to director of the Museum of Civilisation, then to Supervisor General of Art and National Museums in the early 1990s. My responsibility included art museums such as the Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Giza; the Museum of Sculptor Mahmoud Mukhtar (1891 – 1934) in Gezira, Cairo; the Modern Art Museum in Gezira; and museums that had been the homes of national figures such as Poet Laureate Ahmed Shawqy (1868 – 1932); Enlightenment figure Taha Hussein (1889 – 1973); Revolution leader Ahmed Orabi (1841-1911), nationalist figure Mustafa Kamel (1874- 1908); and painter Mohamed Nagy (1888- 1956).
“That was a period in which I exercised the dedication, humbleness, and good relations I had imbibed from my mentors, seniors, and faithful colleagues throughout my life. I also fostered that behaviour in all who worked with me.
“My work at the Culture Ministry allowed me to witness first-hand the significance of culture in the lives of ordinary people, and the lasting impact it had on youngsters. My best experiences were with the visits of schoolchildren to the museums; I felt fulfilled once I saw them grasp the culture I had been so privileged to experience as a child.
“At this point, it is fitting to give credit where credit is due: the Egyptian Culture Ministry has over the years untiringly worked to offer the public access to fine art, music and dance, and all cultural fare. We were actively encouraged to express in art the impact of all events. When the Cairo Opera House would present international ballet shows, artists were asked to attend and interpret them through art that would then be publicly displayed.”
Memorable incidents
“Among my unforgettable memories,” Mr Habashy went on, “is a visit to Sri Lanka in 1982. I was dispatched by the Culture Ministry to turn the house in which the Egyptian nationalist leader Ahmed Orabi lived there in exile into a museum. Orabi, an army officer who was originally a peasant, led a nationalist revolt in 1879 – 1882 against the British who were then in control of Egypt; for this he was exiled to Sri Lanka, known as Ceylon then.
“I left for Sri Lanka, taking with me pieces on loan from Zagazig Museum—the town of Zagazig, east of the Nile Delta, was the birthplace of Orabi—together with paintings of Orabi, and a few Islamic artefacts of his era to enrich the museum’s opening. Once there, I discovered there were no stands or bases on which to place the displays, so I decided to use wood from the wooden crates in which the artefacts had been shipped to make the stands needed. Following the museum opening, I was awarded appreciation for my work, and rewarded with a weeklong tour of Sri Lanka.
“Another incident I hold close to my heart is when a dear friend of mine, who was also my boss, Abdel-Qader Rizk, became ill and had to be moved to the Italian Hospital in Cairo. I visited him regularly, and found him so moved by the diligent care he was given by the nurses, who were nuns, that he asked me to paint an image of the head nurse. I did that; I made a life size painting of the senior nun standing in a garden. My friend was thrilled and gave the painting to her as a gift of appreciation.”
Family man
“All through that long journey,” Mr Habashy said, “my wife was the pivotal figure that shared and supported. We had together two children: a girl, Donia who is today a journalist with Watani; and a boy, Tamer who grew up to be an accountant. We gave them a warm hearted, artistically-oriented home.
“I was careful not to cut down on my time with my children on account of my art, so I would let them go to bed in the evening and then start painting. I would spend all night painting; by sunrise, I would usually have my work complete. Incidentally, this used to leave me with a wonderful, joyful feeling of my painting having emerged from out of the dark night into the sunrise.
“I am so happy the Lord has blessed me with grandchildren, four of them. They are the light and hope of my life. My grandson, Youssef, draws well; his lines and colours attest to his artistic aptitude. My eldest grandchild, Farah, has the gift of painting; even as a small girl we went to the Heliopolis festival in 2009 where we together created a lovely piece of street art.”
Watani International
15 July 2024
