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Lot Essay
Celebrated for his sculptural work in bronze, wood, clay, and granite, Adam Henein's dominant style in his visually captivating oeuvre demonstrates a strong sense of movement, energy, and elegance, turning ordinary objects into graceful spectacles of light and shadow. Drawing on the artistic tradition of Pharoanic art and Ancient Egypt following a school trip to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities when he was a boy, Henein's sculptures offer an essence of sensitivity and calm embracing both the highest traditions of antiquity and the modernity embodied by the artists of the 1940s and 1950s.
As a young man, Henein enrolled at Cairo's Academy of Fine Arts. He later received a grant that allowed him to spend two years near Thebes, studying the paintings of Pharaonic tombs where he also got a chance to observe and experience life in Upper Egyptian villages. As a result, Henein's works clearly draw on the artistic tradition of Ancient Egypt, by reducing their forms to the bare essentials and denoting their features through the use of subtle lines and modulations. Capturing the essence of the ancient aesthetic through abstraction, each of his sculptures embrace a sense of monumentality expressing a quasi-divine splendour in their ability to exude a level of Sufi mysticism.
Nesma (Gentle Breeze) offers an enchanting example of the artist's works from his first and most appreciated phase of production. It depicts a young woman whose dress is gently folded back in the wind. Although cast in bronze, the use of simply lines contrasts the compactness of its structure. In its juxtaposition of structure and form, Henein manages to instil a sense of movement that delights and enchants.
As a young man, Henein enrolled at Cairo's Academy of Fine Arts. He later received a grant that allowed him to spend two years near Thebes, studying the paintings of Pharaonic tombs where he also got a chance to observe and experience life in Upper Egyptian villages. As a result, Henein's works clearly draw on the artistic tradition of Ancient Egypt, by reducing their forms to the bare essentials and denoting their features through the use of subtle lines and modulations. Capturing the essence of the ancient aesthetic through abstraction, each of his sculptures embrace a sense of monumentality expressing a quasi-divine splendour in their ability to exude a level of Sufi mysticism.
Nesma (Gentle Breeze) offers an enchanting example of the artist's works from his first and most appreciated phase of production. It depicts a young woman whose dress is gently folded back in the wind. Although cast in bronze, the use of simply lines contrasts the compactness of its structure. In its juxtaposition of structure and form, Henein manages to instil a sense of movement that delights and enchants.