Rania Khallaf wonders where the cat has gone In intriguing and eye-catching art exhibition by Samir Fouad, a brilliant representative of the middle generation of artists and a student of the late pioneer artist Hassan Suleiman, opened last week at Picasso Gallery in Zamalek. The exhibition's title is no less quirky: "The Fugitive Moment". Touring the rooms of the gallery, the visitor should not simply follow the sequence of the paintings. One will only become entrapped by the secret magic of yet another huge frame forcing one to turn, come close and inhale. An example of such paintings is "The Flyswatter". Most of the paintings are huge and are dominated by black. One captivating work features a group of school pupils standing behind a huge window and waving to someone unseen, while their innocent, beautiful faces tell a lot more than a simple picture. Another huge painting features a group of young girls, hand in hand and moving in a closed circle. The girls are amazingly identical, "Just to give the feeling of their movement, which is the focus here, regardless of the way the girls dress," Fouad commented. "The Brass Band" is another theme that is recurrent in this exhibition. At first, one's eyes are connected to one brass player, and then, in another painting, two more melt together, and then one step away is an encounter with a group of musicians whose brass instruments intersect harmoniously with one another. However interesting these images are, the first question that jumps into the viewer's head is what the painter means by this "Fugitive Moment". "Since my 2004 exhibition 'Sheherazade Dances', which depicted the Oriental dancer in her different dancing moods, and the following exhibition held in 2006 and entitled 'Tempo of time', I have been trying to trace this line in an attempt to capture time and movement on the surface of the painting. This exhibition is another circle of this endless, persistent theme," Fouad says. "We usually see time as repeated moments; whenever we try to catch them they continually flee away. Hence we learn that time as perceived is just past moments, and what stays is the remaining effect of materialistic or concrete events that happened during those moments. And so is the creative process, which happens with the accumulation of time. The painting is the materialistic impact of the painter's recurrent brush strokes on the painting itself." Born in 1944, Fouad studied electronic engineering before working for several long years on computer hardware maintenance. For years he painted as a sideline. The first important juncture in his artistic career came when he was taught to use watercolours by his elder brother. The second important juncture was when Fouad was introduced to Hassan Suleiman in the late 1970s. "I see [him] as a real intellectual," Fouad says. "Suleiman has challenged the real artist in me. I worked with him in his atelier at weekends for three consecutive years. It was like a full-time academic scholarship. After that I started to show my works frequently alongside big names such as Bikar Mamdouh Ammar, and my tutor Suleiman himself," Fouad says. One cannot help returning over and over again to gaze at the exhibition's masterpiece: "The Flyswatter". It reminds one of the magic realism in the novels of such authors as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The painting depicts a sad-looking woman desperately trying to hit an annoying fly with a flyswatter. The fly manages to flee, while a glass of water falls on the floor and a black cat runs away. In a double movement we see the cat, and then we see the cat trying to escape from the scene. The painter has given his brilliant picture another name: "A Series of Depressing Acts", hinting that it depicts what life is all about. Another equally interesting painting is the "Kill the Cat", which depicts a woman training a monkey to dance in the street. A cat is watching from a high chair and preparing to run away. A knife thrown on the floor gives the impression that the monkey is the one that will be stabbed instead of the cat. The picture tells a counter story to a cruel practice that used to take place in working-class districts in the 1940s and 50s when monkeys were trained to dance for popular entertainment. If the monkey failed to obey instructions correctly the trainer would terrorise the poor creature by killing a cat in front of its eyes. "The painting denotes the state of terrorism practised by the government against its people. By terrorising certain categories, the government encourages other categories automatically to follow their policies," Fouad explains with a dry smile. In 1997 Fouad held his first private watercolour exhibition at the Hanager Gallery. It was the first indication of the flow of artistic production. In 2001 he turned all his time to art. The 20th-century Cubism school had a great impact on Fouad's work. However, he is now more interested in contemporary Chinese art, which, he says, "has digested modern European art and produced its own version." Still life is also a central subject here, but it does not seem to add as much or be so soul-satisfying as "The Brass Band" or "Children on a Swing". The vases of flowers and bowls of fruit are in a more traditional form. An exception is the watercolour "Bottles", which give the impression that one is looking at smiling faces. Fouad says one of the most intriguing visual stimulants is watching sunlight creeping onto a glass bottle. "When the light falls on a glass bottle it either passes through, reflects or refracts, and consequently one either sees beyond the bottle, sees the outer surface, or sees the inner space of the bottle, and the effects vary from one type of glass to another," Fouad says in his recently-published book Watercolours, published both in English and Arabic by some sponsors. The belly dancer is also a recurrent theme in this exhibition. In their black costumes and with plump, short bodies, the belly dancers look depressed and absent minded, and their movements are slow and sad. Fouad sees dancing as "movement in space, an Oriental in rhythm hot with passion, and, like watercolours, swinging between order and improvisation, whisper and explosion." "Although I have painted this subject hundreds of times, I still find unlimited stimulation in it. I believe this is the way Beethoven composed his music. In most of his musical compositions, Beethoven works on one musical statement that is produced in different tones," Fouad says. "Belly dancers will remain one of the most important artistic impacts on my generation. The dancers paintings are meant to discuss the situation of women in Middle Eastern countries. Although belly dancers have freedom and dominance over the audience [male and female alike] for a definite period of time, their sad features denote their imperative return to submission in a paternal community shortly after they have finished their job." The exhibition runs till 1 April.
