Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Alexandria
Formerly in the private collection of Dr Mostafa Abdel Moity, the former director of Accademia d' Egitto in Rome
Acquired directly from the artist by the above in the late 1980s

"Any work of art that does not have surrealist elements is no work of art. In other words, no matter what colour or direction spontaneous expression takes, a work of art can't be devoid of the artist's subjectivity if it is true art." -Hamed Nada cited in Whaatani Newspaper, 1 November 1959.

Hamed Nada was an integral member of the Contemporary Art Group founded by Hussein Youssef Amin (1904-1984) in 1944. The movement explored issues of social realism and surrealism. Like his mentor Youssef Amin , Nada was fascinated by the mural quality of children's drawings, which particularly impressed him while teaching art at primary school in the 1950s as proved by lack of perspective and the figure's stylisation in these works. From the mid-1950s onwards Nada to look at the work of Ragheb Ayad, from the first generation of Egyptian pioneer artists, who had reinterpreted pharaonic art in his portrayals of ordinary Egyptians. Also for inspiration Nada looked to Nubian folk art and African primitive art.

Since the 1970s, Hamed Nada's oeuvre gradually shifted from tragic themes of the struggles of working-class subjects to more joyful and energetic scenes. The colours became more vibrant and the works displayed far more movement and rhythm than before. Both of these works provide you with a unique glimpse into the inner-workings of Nada's lucid imagination and realisation of liberalised Egyptian men and women. A nouveau twist on ancient Egyptian art, Nada incorporates depictions of animals in his works reminiscent of hieroglyphics on ancient tombs, temples and cartouches. His use of animals further commemorates pharaonic mythology, where they existed both in reality and the celestial world.