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Lot Essay
When Mohammed Naghi travelled to Greece in the summer of 1933, he exhibited some works at the Athens Atelier. On that occasion, writer Gaston Zananiri gave a lecture on the model of cultural associations such as the Athens Atelier and their role of bringing together works by various artists and writers. This stimulated Naghi and Zananiri to create something similar back in Alexandria. They gathered several artists and writers in 1934 and the Alexandria Atelier was officially launched in March 1935 in its newly acquired premises located 10, rue Missala (currently Safia Zaghloul) in Alexandria.
Naghi had a lifelong passion to develop and improve his nation's arts. He graduated from the University of Lyon in France with a law degree but soon abandoned his legal career to study painting in Florence, Italy, instead. Although he widely travelled for various diplomatic missions as an attaché for the Egyptian Legation, from Brazil to Ethiopia, he often returned to his homeland, setting up various studios in Alexandria, Luxor and Memphis.
In 1914, he returned to Egypt from Florence and spent time at his studio in Darb al-Labana close to the Citadel in Cairo, where he developed a passion for Islamic heritage, before heading to Thebes and to Kurna. There, he painted the landmarks of Ancient Egypt infused with a romantic and architectural approach, testing the grounds to integrate cultural heritage with modernity. The impressive composition of The Temple of Karnak is reminiscent of that period as this internationally recognisable archeological building imposes itself within the pictorial space. Its romantic connotations in representing the artist's celebration of Ancient Egypt's grand architecture are fused with a stylistic tendency towards Impressionism. Naghi's touches of colour emanate light through the contrasts between the various pigments, whilst attempting to capture a given moment in time and to then eternalise it through his painting.
Naghi had a lifelong passion to develop and improve his nation's arts. He graduated from the University of Lyon in France with a law degree but soon abandoned his legal career to study painting in Florence, Italy, instead. Although he widely travelled for various diplomatic missions as an attaché for the Egyptian Legation, from Brazil to Ethiopia, he often returned to his homeland, setting up various studios in Alexandria, Luxor and Memphis.
In 1914, he returned to Egypt from Florence and spent time at his studio in Darb al-Labana close to the Citadel in Cairo, where he developed a passion for Islamic heritage, before heading to Thebes and to Kurna. There, he painted the landmarks of Ancient Egypt infused with a romantic and architectural approach, testing the grounds to integrate cultural heritage with modernity. The impressive composition of The Temple of Karnak is reminiscent of that period as this internationally recognisable archeological building imposes itself within the pictorial space. Its romantic connotations in representing the artist's celebration of Ancient Egypt's grand architecture are fused with a stylistic tendency towards Impressionism. Naghi's touches of colour emanate light through the contrasts between the various pigments, whilst attempting to capture a given moment in time and to then eternalise it through his painting.