Khaled Sorour, the head of the Plastic Arts Sector at the Ministry of Culture inaugurated Ayman Taher's latest exhibition of 40 paintings, “Harmony”, in tandem with Al-Ahram's 2017 Cultural Salon last week: a good time to discuss Taher's paintings being a reflection and continuation of his father Salah Taher's school of art and how he introduces elements of his own to assert his individuality. It's as if he wants to say that he has learned techniques beyond his father's, such as the use of a different palette: fiery red, orange, blue, fuchsia, yellow and emerald green. In the process Taher's passion, optimism, belief in beauty and love of nature – the coral reefs and marine life, especially – all come through. Taher's paintings are an amalgam of the surreal, the abstract and the expressionist. They are also a reflection of his rich, deeply-rooted musical and literary culture, his passion for sports, boxing and body building in particular, and his interest in honesty and confrontation. The artist's childhood was after all filled with the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Frederic Chopin, Nikolai Korsakov and other classical legends. To this day, even when it doesn't show on the canvas, Taher can't work without music in the background. He doesn't seem able to forget his love of boxing and that's why many of his paintings seem to focus on man's physical strength combined with, and in the face of, new-age technology. Regular visitors of Taher's exhibitions, such as “Insight” and “Pathways”, will notice a slight difference in “Harmony”, however. “My works in ‘Harmony' are inspired by music. I wanted to express visual music, not aural music, hence the name of the exhibition. As a former Red Sea diver, I create works that also reflect anatomy and physical strength.” Thanks to his father, Taher learnt to draw at the age of two, before he could talk. “The great writer Abbas Al-Akkad told my father to give me the name Ayman. At the age of 12 I participated with my father in an exhibition which was inaugurated by Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz. My first solo exhibition was inaugurated by Tawfik Al-Hakim at the Foreign Diplomats Centre in Zamalek in 1970. In my younger years I was a regular attendee of Al-Ahram's Cultural Salon through which I developed a strong bond with Hussein Fawzi. It was through him that I grew to love oceanography, in which he held a PhD. I was like a son to him, since he had had no son, and he introduced me to European music, of which I am still fond.” Throughout the following years Taher held over 20 solo exhibitions of photography and painting in Cairo, Paris, London and the US. He also gave many Egyptian and European magazines photographic paintings, produced a film for British television and collaborated with marine biologists on deep sea documentaries. He also wrote Sinai: Guide to the Peninsula and the Red Sea, Sinai: The Place and History, among other books. Soha Abdel-Dayem, Taher's wife, made a huge impact on the artist's life, supporting him and creating the suitable environment for his work. He dedicated his last exhibition, held at the Door Hall at the Museum of Modern Art to his grandchildren Selim, Nadia and Lana. “I dedicate this exhibition to you and I hope that you will continue the art journey started by leading artist Salah Taher,” he wrote. Taher's works reveal the connection between father and son and the philosophic, humanitarian and artistic dimensions of a son's esteem for his father, one of the inspiring members of Al-Ahram's Cultural Salon held on the establishment's sixth floor during the times of the late editor in-chief Mohamed Hassanein Heikal. “My father was the arts counsellor for Al-Ahram. He drew portraits of leading figures in the establishment because its cultural salon was a magnet for Egypt's top figures, to whom my father introduced me. I saw in them the authenticity and integrity of the Egyptian man. My father left me an inheritance of 40,000 books in the fields of arts, philosophy, psychology and literature. At a certain point in my life I wanted to be different from my father. I wanted to take another road and have my own journey. Today I am happy to be a continuation of Salah Taher. It was in my 20s that I wanted to celebrate my individuality and rebellion. At that time I used iron, aluminium and other materials in my works. I specialised in diving and underwater photography and I found great pleasure when a visitor at my galleries commented that ‘Salah Taher can't swim'. Fifteen years before my father died I changed. I wanted to be an extension of his school.” In “Harmony”, Taher's passion for the sea is evident. “I lived for 20 years in the Red Sea's Ras Um Al-Sid, the second biggest after Ras Mohamed, and it was one of my favourite diving spots. I was also fascinated with sociologist Gamal Hamdan and his interest in the ‘time and place' of everything. I love the sea and its creatures and coral reefs. I love the desert and birds, and this easily shows in ‘Harmony', together with my interest in human anatomy which reflects the greatness of the work of God.” Taher's journey to success was not as smooth as it might've been, however. His path was bumpy yet he managed to overcome the obstacles and create a wide base of followers. “Everyday I repeat Friedrich Nietzsche's words, ‘What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. When I was 13 years old, my neighbour beat me. I went to my father, crying. He said, ‘Don't you ever cry again', and he took me to a boxing coach. This was a turning point in my life long before I studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts. The artist's true worth is in his creativity and invention. Sometimes academic curricula can kill the artist's wild side and individuality. I like simplicity in my works. And I believe in the words of the German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe that ‘Less is more'. On the other hand some of my father's works feel too academic, although it must also be said that his portraits were unmatched.”
