“Visions of Abstraction” Exhibition at the BA
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The Bibliotheca Alexandrina inaugurates “Visions of Abstraction: Nazli Madkour and Menhat-Allah Helmy” exhibition, on Tuesday, 2 May 2023, at 2:00 pm, in the West Exhibition Hall, BA Conference Center.
The exhibition presents two different states of viewing the world, both bold and unique: Menhat-Allah Helmy (1925–2005), one of the pioneers of Egyptian graphic art, and Nazli Madkour (1949), an economist and political scientist who abandoned statistics, politics and business administration, for the world of art.
Menhat-Allah Helmy’s choice to study art in the early forties was a bold one, supported by an enlightened family that encouraged its two daughters (Menhat and Raaya) to study art. She graduated from the Higher Institute of Pedagogic Studies for Art in 1949, and specialized in etchings after her scholarship to England (1952–1955) at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London. She then had another study trip to Morley College from 1973 to 1979, which witnessed the greatest transformation in her creative path at the expressive, technical and formal levels, as the artist deviated from realistic subjects and turned with all her creative energy to research the structure of form, and cross into freer abstract worlds in which geometric shapes shine from rectangles, circles and triangles, and from which the artist distilled her pure aesthetic values.
On the other hand, Nazli Madkour evoked in her works a cytoplasmic state, similar to the first elements in the formation of the universe. She did not prefer the final version of nature, but rather loved the frequent vital forces that things pass through until they are complete and blossoming, as she investigates the becoming and state of things at the time of formation.
The exhibition runs until Saturday, 20 May 2023, daily from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Fridays are off.