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Lot Essay
'El-Telmissany may be an actor but he is an actor so sunk in his role that his blood became saturated and charged his nerves and magnetized his heart and mind... These exhausted and overworked faces; these bodies full of anguish, encircled by an aura of black; these eyes which still flash with sparks of insurrection, with a high degree of impotence; this fly-away hair in the storms of confusion, anxiety and revolt; then these emotions repressed and imprisoned amidst the drawn-out bones and tense fingers; then these colours, which despite their value, keep a keen lustre of warm light in their basic elements this is what meets us, what takes us by surprise in el-Telmissany's paintings. Perhaps the encounter will not please us, but the surprise will shock us so that we feel its repercussion round after round throughout our nerves until it reaches the pit of our entrails.' (Ramsès Younan on Kamel El-Telmissany in 1942 quoted in Ghareib, 1986, p. 52).
Christie’s is offering a rare discovery of the Egyptian artist and filmmaker, Kamel El Telmissany, a member and one of the central founders of the acclaimed al-Fann wa-l-Hurriyya (Art and Freedom), Egyptian Surrealist group that was active between 1938-1948. The present work is considered a masterpiece, and one of the largest works to appear at auction of El Telmissany, and noteworthy given its motherhood depiction, and unique provenance story coming from the private collection of the late Pano Papadopoulos, a friend of the artist, and a known writer within the progressive artistic schools of Egypt. Papadopoulos was a frequent writer within La Semaine Egyptienne, an acclaimed French periodical that appeared in Cairo from 1920-40s and considered one of the best francophone literary magazines inviting leading intellectuals like Fernand Leprette, Élian J. Finbert, Jean Moscatelli, including Papadopoulos, among others.
Announcing the group’s formation in 1938 with a manifesto Long Live Degenerate Art, members such as Anwar and Fouad Kamel, El Telmissany and Henein also identified themselves with international movements, notably the 1938 manifesto drafted by André Breton and Leon Trotsky at the Mexico City home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera that called for an international front in defense of artistic freedom. While a part of this international community and in communication with the global network of Surrealists, the Cairo group was also of its place, incorporating local concerns and Egyptian motifs and symbols into their work.
Art and Freedom members included those such as Anwar and Fouad Kamel, Kamel El Telmissany and Georges Henein, shaping their unique identity within the Egyptian scene and staging five groundbreaking exhibitions in Cairo between 1940 and 1945. Of the group, it is rare to find El Telmissany works like this as following the fourth show of Art and Freedom, he pursued a career in filmmaking. El Telmissany published many controversial and critical articles, especially in the Art and Freedom periodical, Don Quixote. His pursuit in film allowed him to reach out to the masses more easily, as he became increasingly influenced by Marxism. The dramatic contrasts in light and shadow, and gestural strokes in the current work emphasise the theatricality of the composition, as is seen in other works that explore shading in dark colours. In 1946, El Telmissany directed one of the most important films in the history of Arab cinema, Al-Souq Al-Sowda (The Black Market). Characterized by its unprecedented realism, this revolutionary film gave a thorough report on the lower-class life in the city, denouncing capitalism's impact on it. The lead-role was given to man with a disability, which shocked the Egyptian public, who was used to the 1930s glamorous movies that idealized peasant life and glorified upper-class society. Unsurprisingly, the film was banned from Egypt theatres for almost four years.
Art and Freedom works were painted at a time wrought with war and terror brought upon by totalitarian regimes, after World War II raged through Europe, and an intensifying militant nationalism existed within Egypt; it was also during a time artistically when artists debated how currents of Surrealism were to be incorporated within the local Cairo scene. Egyptian Surrealism emerged in the late 1930s in opposition to the rise of fascism and nationalism in Europe, along with British colonial rule and Cairo’s conservative artistic scene. Shocking the public in a ‘degenerate’ way, while most Egyptian Surrealist works portray gruesome figures as a way to shock the public, El Telmissany in the present work offers a glimpse of hope of a mother embracing her child. Surrealist artists and writers during this time used their work to open larger movements at play, namely the de-humanisation of people, and the will to reverse oneself from the shackles of tradition, politics and conscience.
Art and Freedom has gained widespread institutional acclaim within the international art scene given the Egyptian group’s connection with Western and international movements; the group also set forth key successive later movements such as the Contemporary Art Group, notable figure includes Abdel-Hadi El Gazzar, of which Christie’s is hosting the Catalogue Raisonneé book launch of the artist this fall 2023 season in London. The Art and Freedom movement has since appeared in key museum shows, most recently in ‘Surrealism Beyond Borders’ (2022) at the Metropolitan Museum; in addition to the traveling 2016-2018 exhibition ‘Art et Liberté: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt (1938-1948)’ that travelled to Centre Georges Pompidou; Madrid, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia; Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen; Liverpool, Tate Liverpool; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Only a handful of Egyptian Surrealist works are known, many housed in key museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Institut du monde arabe, Paris, The Museum of Modern Art Cairo; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, in addition to being part of key foundation including Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, among others.
Christie’s is offering a rare discovery of the Egyptian artist and filmmaker, Kamel El Telmissany, a member and one of the central founders of the acclaimed al-Fann wa-l-Hurriyya (Art and Freedom), Egyptian Surrealist group that was active between 1938-1948. The present work is considered a masterpiece, and one of the largest works to appear at auction of El Telmissany, and noteworthy given its motherhood depiction, and unique provenance story coming from the private collection of the late Pano Papadopoulos, a friend of the artist, and a known writer within the progressive artistic schools of Egypt. Papadopoulos was a frequent writer within La Semaine Egyptienne, an acclaimed French periodical that appeared in Cairo from 1920-40s and considered one of the best francophone literary magazines inviting leading intellectuals like Fernand Leprette, Élian J. Finbert, Jean Moscatelli, including Papadopoulos, among others.
Announcing the group’s formation in 1938 with a manifesto Long Live Degenerate Art, members such as Anwar and Fouad Kamel, El Telmissany and Henein also identified themselves with international movements, notably the 1938 manifesto drafted by André Breton and Leon Trotsky at the Mexico City home of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera that called for an international front in defense of artistic freedom. While a part of this international community and in communication with the global network of Surrealists, the Cairo group was also of its place, incorporating local concerns and Egyptian motifs and symbols into their work.
Art and Freedom members included those such as Anwar and Fouad Kamel, Kamel El Telmissany and Georges Henein, shaping their unique identity within the Egyptian scene and staging five groundbreaking exhibitions in Cairo between 1940 and 1945. Of the group, it is rare to find El Telmissany works like this as following the fourth show of Art and Freedom, he pursued a career in filmmaking. El Telmissany published many controversial and critical articles, especially in the Art and Freedom periodical, Don Quixote. His pursuit in film allowed him to reach out to the masses more easily, as he became increasingly influenced by Marxism. The dramatic contrasts in light and shadow, and gestural strokes in the current work emphasise the theatricality of the composition, as is seen in other works that explore shading in dark colours. In 1946, El Telmissany directed one of the most important films in the history of Arab cinema, Al-Souq Al-Sowda (The Black Market). Characterized by its unprecedented realism, this revolutionary film gave a thorough report on the lower-class life in the city, denouncing capitalism's impact on it. The lead-role was given to man with a disability, which shocked the Egyptian public, who was used to the 1930s glamorous movies that idealized peasant life and glorified upper-class society. Unsurprisingly, the film was banned from Egypt theatres for almost four years.
Art and Freedom works were painted at a time wrought with war and terror brought upon by totalitarian regimes, after World War II raged through Europe, and an intensifying militant nationalism existed within Egypt; it was also during a time artistically when artists debated how currents of Surrealism were to be incorporated within the local Cairo scene. Egyptian Surrealism emerged in the late 1930s in opposition to the rise of fascism and nationalism in Europe, along with British colonial rule and Cairo’s conservative artistic scene. Shocking the public in a ‘degenerate’ way, while most Egyptian Surrealist works portray gruesome figures as a way to shock the public, El Telmissany in the present work offers a glimpse of hope of a mother embracing her child. Surrealist artists and writers during this time used their work to open larger movements at play, namely the de-humanisation of people, and the will to reverse oneself from the shackles of tradition, politics and conscience.
Art and Freedom has gained widespread institutional acclaim within the international art scene given the Egyptian group’s connection with Western and international movements; the group also set forth key successive later movements such as the Contemporary Art Group, notable figure includes Abdel-Hadi El Gazzar, of which Christie’s is hosting the Catalogue Raisonneé book launch of the artist this fall 2023 season in London. The Art and Freedom movement has since appeared in key museum shows, most recently in ‘Surrealism Beyond Borders’ (2022) at the Metropolitan Museum; in addition to the traveling 2016-2018 exhibition ‘Art et Liberté: Rupture, War and Surrealism in Egypt (1938-1948)’ that travelled to Centre Georges Pompidou; Madrid, Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia; Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen; Liverpool, Tate Liverpool; and Moderna Museet, Stockholm. Only a handful of Egyptian Surrealist works are known, many housed in key museums such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Institut du monde arabe, Paris, The Museum of Modern Art Cairo; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, in addition to being part of key foundation including Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and Dalloul Art Foundation, Beirut, among others.