From the ancient Egyptian portraitists onwards, Egyptian faces have always been an attractive theme for artists, as a Cairo exhibition confirms, writes Reham El-Adawi "", a group exhibition gathering 76 artists at the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum's Horizon One Gallery in Giza, takes as its theme the human face, each artist giving his or her point of view in depicting Egyptian faces. Featuring some of the most important names in modern and contemporary Egyptian art, the exhibition brings together work by artists such as Gamil Shafiq, Samir Fouad, Mustafa El-Razzaz, Mohamed Abla, Adel El-Sewi, Farghali Abdel-Hafez and sculptors Abdel-Hadi El-Weshahi and Adam Henein. Among the younger artists represented are Haitham Nawwar, Fatema Abdel-Rahman, Hend Adnan and Nadine Hammam and sculptors Essam Darwish, Hassan Kamel and Hani Faisal. "Portraiture has been popular historically because it breaks the frame of the sitter's external features to lay bare inner feelings and emotions. Clever rendering and a powerfully expressive technique can reveal signs of sorrow and joy, as can eloquent silence, a wry smile, a broad grin, the sparkle of enthusiasm in the eye, or signs of surprise, misery, panic, despair, hope or nostalgia," writes critic Salah Bisar in the exhibition catalogue. Bisar also traces the history of portraiture from ancient Egyptian times to the modern age. Ancient Egyptian portraitists were admired for their craftsmanship and technique, with forms including murals, bas-reliefs and sculptures being common. Devotion and a sense of belonging were developed in sculptures depicting kings and members of the royal family, with one famous example being the portrait bust of Queen Nefertiti done by an ancient Egyptian sculptor. Elsewhere in the world, ancient Greek sculptors, the pioneers of the classical style, were famous for brilliantly depicting a sitter's features. Roman sculptors were equally known for their martial figures depicted wearing military uniforms and holding shields. Victorious Roman emperors such as Augustus were also glorified by Roman sculptors. An important chapter in the history of portraiture unfolded after the discovery of the Fayoum portraits, which were painted during the first to third century AD in Egypt. These painted panel portraits, commonly referred to as the Fayoum portraits, were originally placed over the heads of mummies, and they are remarkably life-like paintings of the deceased. With their direct, full gaze and strong presence, these portraits bring the inhabitants of Graeco-Roman Egypt before us with compelling intimacy. In the present exhibition, contemporary artist Amr El-Fayoumi exhibits a face inspired by the ancient Fayoum portraits. Later in his essay, Bisar traces the flourishing of portraiture during the European Renaissance, going on to consider 18th-century neoclassicism and then the treatment of the portrait in romanticism, expressionism and surrealism, referring in the last section of his introduction to work in the genre by 20th-century artists such as Picasso, Frida Kahlo and Francis Bacon. While the publicity poster for the exhibition carries the face of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa instead of an Egyptian face or one of the Fayoum portraits, this is justified in the catalogue by the fact that the face of the Mona Lisa has been an icon of portraiture for centuries and it has gained international fame. Among the most distinguished portraits in the exhibition is one created by Adel El-Sewi, who has used abstraction to reflect the features of an African woman and her cultural background. Elsewhere, Farghali Abdel-Hafez refers to folklore in his The Nile Doll, a painting done in acrylic that uses strong, bright colours. For his part, Essam Maarouf exhibits a painting depicting two female faces, one veiled and one unveiled, which aims to reflect a state of duality in Arab countries that creates dual personalities. However, perhaps the surprise of this thrilling exhibition comes in works by Mohsen Shaalan and Mohamed Rizq, artists not known as portraitists. Sculptor Gamal Abdel-Nasser also contributes a bronze sculpture of an irregular face, apparently worn out and exhausted by life. Finally, in a portrait by Mohamed Abla, the sitter's features are transformed into Arabic letters that stand for Arab identity.
