“I 'VE done this for the younger generation who weren't around at the time of Ahmed Sabri. Even 50-year-olds don't remember him,” says Ibrahim Abdel-Rahman, the owner of Picasso Art Gallery, in the upmarket Zamalek district of Cairo. Most people don't realise that Egyptian artist Ahmed Sabri (1889-1955), famous for his portraits, also did other kinds of paintings, using various materials. Every painting is valuable. Because Ibrahim believes in Sabri's art, he worked for more than three years to organise this exhibition. Sabri's son, Nezar, helped him select his late father's works for the exhibition, which contains 48 portraits made in watercolour, gouache, oil on wood, oil on canvas and pastel. "His portraits are not just faces, because my father delved into the soul of the people he drew," Nezar, 65, told The Egyptian Gazette. One of his paintings, an oil on canvas, is of a middleaged woman attending a New Year party. She is reclining on a coach, wearing a blue dress with her head under her arm and her black mask beside her on the couch. "This painting is magnificent," said Nezar. There are three gouache paintings depicting the Egyptian women of Sabri's time. They appear to be clothed in the melaya laf (black rectangular cloth), that women often wear over their other garments. Two paintings show women wearing the burqa, an enveloping outer garment covering the face. One of more attractive paintings is that of a smiling woman, which looks like a photograph. “This painting is of the artist's wife, my mother. It took about 40 sittings for my father to get the painting just right. Imagine how patient they must have been,” he told this newspaper. Besides portraits of people, there are many paintings of landscapes, which again look like photos. The State honoured Sabri by naming after him a street in Zamalek that leads to the Faculty of Fine Arts. He also has 40 of his paintings in the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art. Everyone who's been to the exhibition, which runs until March 5, is very impressed. For the elderly, it's a blast from the past, taking them back to fond memories of over half a century ago. For young people, it's a chance to be proud of their Egyptian artists. “We aren't talented enough to really appreciate Ahmed Sabri's paintings. But they' re precious and we can enjoy admiring them,” says Naguib Sawiris, the famous Egyptian businessman. The exhibition of late artist Ahmed Sabri, being held at Picasso Art Gallery, 30 Hassan Assem of Brazil St., Zamalek, runs daily from 10:30am to 9pm until March 5 except on Sundays. (Tel: 2736-7544)
