Vinous Fouad takes an overview of an amazing and inspirational year on the Egyptian art scene Ever since 25 January, artists have been offering fresh insight into the deeper meanings of the revolution, its intimate reverberations, and the many subtle and not so subtle ways in which our lives changed nearly a year ago. Appropriating the revolution, artists salvaged from the banal and elevated it to an iconic status, personalising and interpreting it in a thousand ways. Take for example the work of Mohamed El-Nasser, recently exhibited in the Picasso Gallery. Here you sense how the nuances of individual reaction become a receptacle for the pent-up emotions of the entire nation. At the 22nd Youth Salon, the artists not only offered their reaction to the revolution in the form of photography, painting, and sculpture, but often added text to the work, inside and outside the canvases. Even the names of the paintings invoked the delight and the abrasiveness of unexpected occurances. This is particularly evident in such works as "Blades of Suffering" by Ahmad El-Hoseini; "Submissive and Fugitive" by Bassem Sayyed Youssef; "Remains of a Prisoner's Foot" by Mansour Mohamed Mansour and "Rise and Fall" by Marwa Abdel-Fattah, to mention just a few. Veteran painter Esmat Dawstashi's show "Before and After the Revolution", on at the Mahmoud Said Museum Complex in Alexandria, combined his commentary on the revolution with his take on public response. The first Cartoon Salon for Alexandria Artists turned out to be one of the most popular art events of 2011, an explosion of wit just as astounding as the revolution that inspired it. If anything, this was the year of the cartoonists, who put a smile on our faces while poignantly analysing the turbulence in Egypt and the region. Cartoonists, many previously unknown, exhibited their work in makeshift shows in Tahrir Square, in the Cairo Atelier and in the Opera House. The paramount form of artistic expression, judged by both quality and quantity, is photography. One can only guess at the number of photographic exhibitions held this year, but the one that stood out was "Images from the Square", in which works by 14 photographers were shown at the Gezira Art Centre in Zamalek. Also memorable was the "Variant Visions by the Cairo Camera Club" exhibition, featuring the work of 48 photographers from Egypt and other countries and hosted by the Mahmoud Mokhtar Cultural Centre. The International Sharm Al-Sheikh Symposium, an event of considerable sophistication, featured 85 pieces by artists from 11 Arab and Latin American artists, a sign o the intense global interest in what many call the Arab Spring. Egyptian artist Sayyed El-Qammash, who took part in the symposium, says that the theme of Arab revolutions was paramount in the event. Qammash was particularly impressed by the work of Moroccan artist Mohamed Al-Boukeli, whose composition of the three flags of Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia brought him accolades from across the Arab world. Esmat Dawstashi entered a three-piece mural depicting the changes that have taken place in the Arab world through highly personalised references to Earth, sea, and sky. Palestinian artist Khaled Nassar blended abstract art with expressionism to emphasise the emotional stress of revolutionary times. Lebanese artist Ahlam Abbas experimented with playing cards to illustrate the generational gap in the Arab world. Often, the king cards symbolised Arab leaders. Nada Attini, Abir Ayyash, Adriana El-Haj, and Abir Arbid, all brought eloquence and humanism to the topic of change. Saudi artist Rima Al-Dini proved once more that romanticism is never obsolete; Palestinian artist Kenana Al-Rabiei brought a new tempo to the canvas; Yemeni artist Hamid Al-Akwaa gave us an insight into a yet unfolding situation; while Saudi artist Thorayya Abu Ghaleb used equestrian vocabulary to symbolise Arab rebirth. Mostafa Bekir, a native of the coastal city of al-Arish, gave us blue expanses of canvas evoking the serenity of desert skies. Mahmoud Ibrahim's depiction of birds symbolised the search for tranquillity. Ibrahim, you may recall, has made several documentaries about Egyptian artists Hamed Nada, Mahmoud Said, Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar, and Abdel-Badie Abdel-Hay. Another Egyptian artist, Mostafa Batt, used folk symbols to signify continuity in the midst of social upheaval. The portraits by Algerian artist Soad Asmani, which she uses as a building block of her compositions, were emotionally charged and yet fraught with hope and resilience. Saudi Artist Rima Al-Rayyes used symbolic representations of earth and sun to symbolise the triumph of hope over stagnation. The desert scenes of Mohamed Al-Ablan, also from Saudi Arabia, blended the poetic with the spiritual in an endless dialect of man and nature. Asmaa Fatoul's style, deliberately mimicking caveman art, was soothing, smart, and delightfully inspirational, while Jordanian artist Samah Yasin's analytical take on Arab society was intricate and yet pleasantly accessible. The symposium, which was curated by Mortada Anis, Wahid El-Belqasi and Alaa Sobh, paid tribute to several artists -- including Egyptian actors Mahmoud Hemeida and Nour El-Sherif -- for their political roles. Also honoured were Egyptian painters Sayyed El-Qammash, Esmat Dawstashi, Mostafa Batt, Mostafa Bekir, Hamoud Ibrahim and Iman Negm; Saudi artists Mohamed Al-Ablan and Mona Al-Qasabi; Syrian artist Soheil Bodoufr; and Moroccan artists Mohamed Al-Boukeli and Mostafa Ghagati. Three seminars on art, creativity, and the revolution were held on the sidelines of the symposium, featuring Sayyed El-Qammash, Esmat Dawstashi and Wahid El-Belqasi as speakers.
