Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Gazbia Sirry (Egypt, 1925-2021) The Coffeehouse image 1
Gazbia Sirry (Egypt, 1925-2021) The Coffeehouse image 2
Gazbia Sirry (Egypt, 1925-2021) The Coffeehouse image 3
Property from the collection of a distinguished Egyptian scholar
Lot 1*

Gazbia Sirry
(Egypt, 1925-2021)
The Coffeehouse

13 November 2024, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £3,840 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Gazbia Sirry (Egypt, 1925-2021)

The Coffeehouse
gouache on paper, framed
signed "Gazbia" and dated "94" (lower right), executed in 1994
29 x 39cm (11 7/16 x 15 3/8in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Cairo
Formerly in the collection of a distinguished Egyptian scholar and author
Thence by descent to the present owner


"Notwithstanding the historical significance of her art—and the international recognition that has come with a record of seventy-five-plus one-woman shows across continents— Sirry is surprisingly under-studied, and her art is described predominantly in technical terms centered on "color." The quintessence of life and political statements, however, seems to have been ignored, if not entirely missed. Educated in Egypt and Europe, Sirry built one of the most influential careers in twentieth-century modern Arab art.

Divided into three overlapping phases, her paintings blur art and politics as they narrate the story of societies vacillating between triumph and defeat, dignity and humiliation, social justice and inequality. Sirry arguably birthed a new identity that makes no distinction between seeing and militancy. As she fluidly moved between styles, this "childless" grande dame became the national godmother to an entire nation"

- Fatenn Mostafa Kanafani

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Omar El-Nagdi(Egypt, 1931-2019)Acqua Della Vita (The Water of Life)

Louay Kayyali(Syria, 1934-1978)The Young Lovers (Al Ashiqan Al Saghiran)

Naim Ismail(Syria, 1930-1979)Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive, son of Awake)

Saliba Douaihy(Lebanon, 1915-1994)Mar Gerges Church, Ehden

Jewad Selim(Iraq, 1919-1961)Still life with Statuette

Mamdouh Kashlan(Syria, 1929-2022)Before The Light Fades (Kabl An Yazoul Al Djaw)

Mahmoud Sabri(Iraq, 1927-2012)H20 + AG + AiR (From the Quantum Realism Series)

Sliman Mansour(Palestine, born 1947)Woman From Bethlehem

Etel Adnan(Lebanon, 1925-2021)Belles Creatures

Saloua Raouda Choucair(Lebanon, 1916-2017)Untitled (from the Repetitive Dual series)

Chaouki Choukini(Lebanon, born 1946)Equation Existentielle

Dia Al-Azzawi(Iraq, born 1939)Al Shamr