For the fourth week running, Al-Ahram Weekly coversAl-Masar gallery's "Contemporary Visions" annual group exhibition. This week the focus is on the art ofAl-Ahram Weekly's world-renowned cartoonist and painter Georges Bahgory. Bahgory studied Art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek, Cairo in 1955 and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris in 1970. His 30- year stay in Paris shaped his talent in drawing, engraving, painting, sculpture, marionette art, novel writing, cinema and criticism. He went on to receive his PhD in “Egyptian Drawings in Picasso Artworks” from the Sorbonne University. Upon a special invitation from the Society of Art Lovers in Paris, his works were selected to represent the Egyptian Pavilion at the Louvre Museum in 1999. His wood and bronze engravings are on display in many galleries in France and Canada. He also carved two granite portraits during the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium. His lithographic accomplishments drew the attention of art lovers in France. Bahgory was also a prominent cartoonist of the two weekly magazines of Sabah Al Kheir and Rose El Youssef. Bahgory is mainly seen as a cartoonist. He focuses on music as well as iconic Middle Eastern figures in his art works such as Umm Kolthoum; “I am not painting Umm Kolthoum, but her voice for me represents an important phase in modern Egyptian history. Voices can enchant us before our eyes catch on with passion and love”. His work can also be seen as a narrative of daily happenings. He published Trilogy of Icons, a novel which was highly acclaimed by prominent literary critics such as Salah Fadl and Edward Al-Kharat. He co-starred in a French film. Some of his works are part of the acquisitions of the Museum of Modern Art in Amman and the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art in Cairo. The exhibition continues until 25 September.
