Wagih Yassa, a leading watercolour painter in the nearly nonexistent Egyptian tradition of Samir Fouad and Mohammed Tarawy, last week inaugurated his second solo exhibition at the Doroub Gallery in Garden City. Simply entitled Serenading with colours, the show is a veritable symphony of some 30 paintings in oil as well as watercolour reflecting Yassa's fascination with the portrait and the still life as well as such Sufi traditions as whirling dervishes. One of the most amazing watercolour paintings, for example, depicts a beautiful baby girl. The prevailing colour is pink, the cheerfulness of the palette contrasting with the sad look on the subject's face. Yet the true subject of the canvas is the colouring itself, a feverish stroking that drives your eyes off the surface into another scene. Another captivating painting features two boats converging romantically on the surface of the water, with a yellowish mountain-like background embracing them. Only a few steps away, another painting of two boats portrayed in an abstract way seems to be in conversation with this one. “Painting models and still lifes cannot grow old or too classic, as some might believe; it is all about the way the artist sees the subject and the way he infuses his own spirit into,” Yassa explains. “My interest in the whirling dervishes is not entirely about the subject itself, for example. It has a lot more to do with the movement, the joy and the limitless freedom.” And indeed, since his exhibition at the same gallery last year, the idea has developed into more and more abstract form: first one, then three, then a whole troupe of dancers almost without details at all. “I found the black and white costumes of the dancers very captivating. I wanted to portray this Sufi tradition in an abstract way, in a spiritual way that doesn't show the configuration of human features like arms or faces...” Yassa, who has been painting for 40 years, is completely self-educated. Through trial and error, a limitless number of sketches, he has achieved a peerless position in the art world. “I love with watercolours more than any other medium,” he says passionately, “because of the beauty they impart. I like this transparent nature of theirs. The three-way combination of colours, water and paper is just wonderful. Sometimes, the results of the painting surprise me. It is more like a game. It is amazing.” Born in 1955 in Cairo, Yassa graduated from Cairo University's Faculty of Arts, English department, and later emigrated to Canada. He currently divides his time between Toronto and Egypt, producing more work, he says, while in his birthplace. He is a member of the Canadian Portrait Society, the Watercolour Society in Canada, and the Toronto Board of Art Education, teaching fine art. He has painted many portraits of famous people using different media and worked for many magazines in Canada and the US. In Egypt in the 1980s, Yassa also worked as an illustrator at Rose Al Yusef and Sabah Al Kheir magazines, and for the American University in Cairo Press, where he produced covers for books by Naguib Mahfouz. Yassa participated in many group exhibitions including the Art Bouquet exhibition and the Small Art Works exhibition, both at the Duroub Gallery in 2012, the exhibition of Art Corner Gallery 2013, and the General Exhibition at the Opera House Arts Palace in 2013. From 1992 until 2010, he participated annually in group exhibitions at the North York and Jesse Art Gallery in Toronto. In 2007, Yassa, along with artists Mohammed Sabry, Aly Dessouky, Mustafa Rahma and others established a new cultural phenomena in the art scene in Cairo: a weekly art lounge where artists meet to practise and discuss their work. In time, this lounge has attracted more and more young and established artists, and helped many to develop their careers. I was lucky enough to join a number of these artistic meetings at his residence in Al-Rehab. Watching Yassa paint is in itself a joy. Energy encircles him as he moves, working the brush masterfully with gentleness and power and occasionally breaking into song as he works. Despite his love for traditional Oriental music, Yassa believes that painting is more akin to symphonic music, with its structure and temp. “I was not artistically talented as a child,” he says. “I guess it is all about hard work and persistence. Sometimes I feel like I am still a student, not professional enough, not satisfied with my work — and then it also happens that I feel like a madman addicted to art. People are odd, you know...” Indeed the odd paradox of his own life is that when in 1997 he decided that art would no longer be his source of income, his work improved quantitatively and qualitatively. “Art marketing in Egypt is flourishing compared Canada, where only the big names attract art collectors for the most part. The average artist in Cairo can easily sell his work. In fact the art scene in Egypt is in dire need of galleries everywhere, not just in upper-class neighborhoods. State galleries should be improved and provided with art marketing specialists. A percentage of sales would enrich those galleries' and attract more artists.” For Yassa, painting has always remained simply an adventure: “When I start a new painting, I definitely do not predict the outcome in advance. With the random strokes of brush, the features of a portrait or a still life start to appear. It requires a kind of mix between improvisation and following rules.” Thus light and shadow play a positive role as he uses the white sheet of paper to generate bewildering spots of light. “I give in completely to the experience. I don't shy away from any subject, no matter what, and I even benefit from my mistakes — my lucky mistakes, as I call them,” he beams. Yassa's exhibition runs until 24 April.
