Drama and energy characterise painter , as they did the work of 19th-century British artist J M W Turner, writes Mohamed Mursi What do Egyptian painter Emad Rizq and 19th-century British artist J M W Turner have in common? Aside from the fact that Rizq is a big Turner fan, the two seem to have followed a similar course in their careers. Rizq was born in the countryside amid the landscape scenery he was later to immortalise in his paintings. Turner (1775-1851), a pioneer landscape artist and a forerunner of impressionism, also went to live in the country following the incapacitation of his mother. Rizq's talent was evident by the time he was 10, and the same was true for Turner, who went to school in a town on the Kent coast in England. Turner did brilliant paintings as a child, and his father, a barber, displayed these in the front window of his shop. At 14, Turner enrolled at the Royal Academy Schools in London, and he was later to exhibit his paintings there. Rizq is an impressionistic artist in mood and style, and he brings much the same passion and energy to his paintings as that which earlier made Turner famous. The difference is that while Rizq focuses on the drama of the streets, markets and coffeehouses, Turner worked on storms and themes of an apocalyptic nature. Something in Rizq's work is hard to pin onto any particular school: a rebellious strain perhaps, or a wild experimentation with perspective and light. He is a master of passion, and he uses light and colour to bring drama to his compositions. Perhaps it is his country upbringing, and the wide vistas to which he was accustomed as a child, which explain the emotions that inform his paintings. He started his career at an early age, and this may account for his easy command of emotion, something which comes naturally to the young. British landscape artist Richard Wilson and Dutch artist Willem van de Velde were among the painters that influenced Turner, and perhaps by extension they also influence Rizq's work. There is the same explosion of energy that is often associated with Turner, and it is this energy that makes Rizq's work so distinctive. Of course, Rizq is not the first artist to have depicted crowds in markets or groups of people in coffeehouses. But he brings an unusual liveliness to the scenes, capturing the spirit of his subjects in ways that go beyond direct realism. There is something in his work that reminds one of the paintings Van Gogh did of Parisian cafés, and Rizq has never hidden his admiration for Van Gogh, though he has also commented on fellow Dutchman Rembrandt's command of mood and composition. The character of the places he paints is something that Rizq seeks to illuminate, and he captures this character in all its chaotic festivity and riotous dizziness.
