Al-Masargallery in Zamalek presents "Contemporary Visions", an annual group exhibition marking the gallery's sixth anniversary and featuring a galaxy of late and contemporary artists. It showcases painting and sculpture, by pioneer and contemporary artists including among many others legendary artist Tahiya Halim (1919-2003). An iconic figure in the Egyptian modern art movement and one of the expressionistic style pioneers, Halim was a member in the contemporary art group, founded by artist Hussein Youssef Amin as mentioned in the last week's issue. She didn't confine herself to painting the still life or flowers but gained her reputation as 'the Nuba Lover' since she paid her first visit to Nuba in 1961with a group of artists accompanied by the then culture minister Tharwat Okasha. Since then, Nubia became a recurrent theme in most of her paintings. She was infatuated by the Nubian culture; the refined taste of the Nubians, their discipline, kind nature and their preservation of all the ancient cultural heritage and civilizations passed by Egypt. Her naïve style and infatuation by heritage are brilliantly reflected on her paintings and her unique palette of colours is unmistakable.She was always inspired by the Pharaonic, Coptic and Islamic art and held 45 exhibitions inside Egypt and abroad. A Turkish-Egyptian by descent, the painter was born in Cairo on 9 September 1919. She had her elementary education at the Ashraaf School in Abbasia and her secondary education at home under private teachers, in accordance with the practices of conservative families in the mid-thirties of the past century. Along with her secondary education, she had lessons in painting in 1939-40 at the hands of Lebanese painter Youssef Trabulsy , then the Greek, Alecco Jerome in 1941-43 and finally the painter Hamed Abdallah from 1943 to1945 when she and Abdallah crowned their cooperation with marriage for 12 years. The exhibition is running through 25 September.
