Color, Vision, Angles is the complicated title of artist Attiyat Sayed's latest exhibition, selected from work produced in the last seven years and currently on show at the Picasso Gallery in Zamalek. There the viewer has the impression of being in a variety shop full of extraordinary objects: old sewing machine and tea pots, spare parts and ailing chairs. Only later do the drawings of fish begin to appear, taking over the exhibition, but it is that first impression that controls the experience. Born in Cairo in 1935, Attiyat graduated with a diploma from the Institute of Art Education in 1958 and worked as an illustrator at Al Gomhouria and Al Misaa newspapers. The year she retired to become a full-time painter, 1995, was a major turning point. She had given but one exhibition in the 35 years of her newspaper career, at the hall of the Al Gomhouria headquarters, which was well received. Now is her first real chance to demonstrate the true extent of her talent. The sewing machine invaded my mind, it landed there. It did not feel like a normal object in a still life. It was wild, almost ready to devour the viewer. “I tend to mix perspectives and vertical lines for variation,” Sayed explained. “The intersections and contrasts express the inner movement concealed in the figure, which might seem lyrica. Sometimes, while painting an object, I tend to replace the dark colours that should be at the back according to the rules of perspective with light ones, to create a kind of unusual movement.” Sayed went on, “I have always found myself infatuated with old machines. I like their complexity of gears and tubes. I have a passion for the sewing machine, I consider it a symbol of the Egyptian woman's struggle for better life. It was common back in the sixties and seventies for women who lost their spouses to work as seamstresses to support their families. I had visited many factories during my career, and made many sketches of woman workers. It was an amazing experience — another world,” she beams. But machines are not the only thing. Large chairs painted in the course of the last three years of political upheaval look like a collapsing human figures. “The chair is a symbol of political authority,” she says. “I wanted to paint it from different perspectives so as to reflect this drama of power.” Yet the theme proves repetitive even with nude women added for good measure. It remains a trope among others. In her life Sayed says she had an unusual freedom: “Because I was not a pretty girl, I was allowed to go out for the whole day, without restrictions. Sketching is a very important asset for any artist. I had done hundreds of sketches of machines, nudes and women in textile and medicine factories and in popular markets. Hassan Hakem and Mustafa Hussein are among the greatest masters of the sketch, and I learned a lot from them.” Besides chairs and machines, nudes take up their own walls. “I have always had a passion for sketching female nudes,” Sayed comments, “which wasn't prohibited in art schools until the 1980s...” Color, Vision, Angles is on show till the end of the month.
