“Genitilla al-Wilada” and “Mother Minaret”
Known informally as the “Sufi Frida Kahlo”, Maïmouna Guerresi is an Italian artist who is most known for her blending of different mediums, primarily sculpture video, installation pieces and photography.
Originally born in Italy, Mr. Guerresi converted to Islam after an inspirational trip to Senegal in the early 1990s, joining the Murid community there. Continue reading
Youssef Abdelke posing with painting of goat’s head
The filmmaker wife of acclaimed Syrian artist Youssef Abdelke, Ms. Hala Alabdalla, has made a mass appeal for his release from jail in launching a Facebook campaign and email petition. According to Ms. Alabdalla, her husband was “keen to stay in Damascus… despite the difficulties of daily life and dangers of… violence”. Continue reading
“Roter Engel” (Red Angel) by Karl Mediz, 1902
The famed Belvedere Museum in Vienna, Austria is hosting an exhibition entitled “Decadence: Aspects of Austrian Symbolism”. Noted as being the first large-scale exhibition of its kind, “Decadence” explores the artistic movement of symbolism which took hold of the Austrian art scene in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Continue reading
In light of recent events in Egypt, it is perhaps of interest to shine light on an important member of Egypt’s modern artistic history. Mahmoud Mokhtar was a sculptor extraordinaire who was born in 1891 in the Nile Delta.
“Au Bord du Nil” (On the Banks of the Nile)
It was at a young age that he began making statues out of the clay that was easily available to him in this particular region. He and his mother eventually immigrated to Cairo, and he began to attend the Cairo School of Fine arts in 1908, the year the institution opened. Continue reading
le crayon khôl 