THERE was something strange about the fat woman sitting on the floor and washing her clothes. Her orange attire and the wide container in which she put the water and the cloth seemed as if they had just got out of one of the homes of Egypt and into the frame. Other paintings in Omar el-Nagdi's latest exhibition bespoke similarly interesting stories from Egypt. There were paintings of Arabian horses, street sellers and too many women. The common thing among them all was that they looked like all Egyptian mothers, sisters, and family members. "I adore the Egyptian environment with all its details," el-Nagdi said. "Our heritage is rich regardless of whether it belongs to the Pharaohs, the Coptic or Islamic eras," he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview. El-Nagdi's exhibition opened on January 10. It features 55 paintings that, as one of the visitors put it, "capture the real spirit of Egyptian life". El-Nagdi, in his late seventies, is a sculptor, film director, musician and philosopher. He was born in Cairo and studied fine arts at Helwan University, south of the Egyptian capital. He participated in several exhibitions and biennials in Egypt, Europe and the former Soviet Union, where he was awarded a one-year scholarship to study ceramics in 1959. He obtained a diploma from the Venice-based Ruskin Artistic Appreciation Institute. "Despite this, nothing equals my presence in Egypt," he said. The sentiment inside the exhibition hall was one of extreme admiration. There was a painting of a seller of liquorice drink. The way the man held his cups and poured the drink into them seemed to send taste and smell out of the frame. Beside the seller, a boy looked at the brownish liquid being poured in the cup. El-Nagdi made his mark in establishing the Egyptian identity in modern Egyptian art and has been given numerous awards, including the first prizes in Alexandria Biennial in 1966, 1968 and 1974. This Egyptian identity reflected clearly on the way visitors of the exhibition received the works. They were dazzled by the details he presented in the paintings. They were details from Egypt and a reflection of Egypt at heart. "I consider myself an artist of a moment," el-Nagdi said. "Certain moments generate ideas for paintings. They always turn me on," he added. El-Nagdi's exhibition runs until January 31. It is held at Al- Mashrabia Art Gallery: 80 Mohieldin Abulezz Street, Dokki, Giza.
