About 58 years ago, artist Hassan Mohamed Hassan (1906 -1990) was one of the five pioneers to attend the first school of fine arts in Egypt, which Prince Youssef Kamal established and opened in 1908. The other four were Mahmoud Mokhtar, Youssef Kamel, Ragheb Ayad and Ahmed Sabry. A collection of paintings by Hassan are currently on show atUBUNTU gallery's ground floor. He had creations in sculpture including a black sculpted form on show in front of the Palace of Arts on the Cairo Opera grounds, which was inspired by an ancient Greek drawing. His caricatures were published in Alkashkoolmagazine, and his paintings included portraits of late actors Suleiman Naguib, Zaki Tulaimat and Naguib Al-Rihani. In his primary years, he attended Alexandria Honorary School in Shubra, going on to the School of Arts and Decoration in El Hamzawy (the Faculty of Applied Arts), where he graduated in 1926. He worked in the Faculty of Applied Arts as Professor and Head of the History and Philosophy of Arts Department. In 1931, Hassan married and continued to be based in Shubra. He then moved to El Haram in 1959 where his new studio was located and lived there until he passed away in 1990. 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The exhibition is on until 1 February.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 30 January, 2020 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
