A collection of paintings by spontaneous artist Hassan Al-Sharq is currently on show atDuroub gallery in Garden City. Entitled "Folklore", the exhibition showcases about 40 folklore-inspired paintings where the artist recalls tales relayed to him by his grandmother about famous figures in the ancient Egyptian heritage such as Abu Zeid Al-Hilali, Antar wa Abla, Scheherazade as well as inherited folk traditions such Al-Moulid, stick dancing as well as old and recent stories of his village making a brilliant use of his country motifs such as rababa (traditional Upper Egyptian violin-like instrument), nay (Egyptian flute), palm trees, fish, cats and pigeons. Born in the Upper Egyptian governorate of Minya, Al-Sharq has learnt a little about basic art techniques but later on he enrolled to the private section of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Minya University. As a young boy, he began using palm tree leaves mixing them with his own colours adding spices from the local herbalist as pigment, saffron to produce yellow and licorice for brown. His art saga started with painting on the walls of his village houses where his home villagers used to encourage him to decorate and beautify the walls of their houses. In 1984, German art critic Ursula Shernig discovered his talent and arranged for him two exhibitions in Cairo and Europe, it was a big success and became internationally acclaimed and sold a lot of his artworks. He has been nominated to visit the United States on 7 July 2014, to attend a conference on the traditional handicrafts and skills in Santa Fe City in New Mexico and will participate with his works in the exhibition organised on the sidelines of the conference. He held tens of solo exhibitions and participated in several collective shows whether in Egypt, Europe and the US. Seventeen PhDs and master degrees focusing on his naïve art were obtained by Egyptian and foreign researchers. The exhibition is running through 6 July.
