Message #150028

[Bianca]

"Being authentically Egyptian can help one break into the international scene," the artist confides.

Part folksy, part spiritual, Moawad often conjures up the simplicity that used to be the essence of local life. One of the pieces now exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art is of a chair, a bed and a straw mat. He calls it, Ala Qad Halna (Within Our Means). It is a drawing done in black felt-tip pen, but with its amazing multi-tonality, it may as well have been drawn in charcoal. This attention to detail is what sets Moawad side from his generation. Another thing that gives him an edge is that he knew what he wanted right from the start. As a teenager, he studied at the Abbasiya High School for Decorative Arts. He actually drew that museum piece while still an undergraduate student.

Intensely creative, Moawad mixes art with spirituality. His use of colour brings elegance to his presentations of the common Islamic themes of the triangle, square and star formations. And yet his work converses with daily life through the frequent references to folklore. The black background he often employs adds mystery and depth even to the simplest of his linear formations.

That he can draw so much upon Islamic art is no doubt related to where and how he grew up. He has spent most of his life in the old parts of Cairo, the areas of Ghuriya, Gammaliya, Khayamiya, and Bab Al-She'riya. As a child, he had the chance to admire the complex ornamentations of mediaeval Islamic art as he walked past the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, the Rifaai Mosque, the Blue Mosque, the Muayyad Mosque, the Sultan Al-Ghuri Mosque and Madrasa, and the sabil and kottab of Umm Abbas on Saliba Street. His photographic memory retained those details, and a life of focus on Islamic themes, part of which he spent as a restorer, added maturity to his outlook.

Moawad's father was an Azharite scholar. Among his friends were the great Quran chanters of the time, men such as Mansour Al-Damanhuri, Ali Mahmoud Taha and Abdel-Fattah Al-Shaashaai. He still remembers listening to their recitals as a child and aspiring for the rhythm and mastery of their art.

Warm and affable, Moawad is intensely emotional. He tells me that once, after coming home to his neighbourhood from a long stay abroad, he was unable to fight back the tears.

Looking at Moawad's work, I am reminded of the great artists of the past. I am reminded of Mahmoud Mokhtar (1891-1934), the great sculptor; Mahmoud Said (1897-1956), best known for his inimitable portrays of Alexandrian women; Mohamed Nagui (1881-1956), a pioneer of painting; and Ragheb Ayyad (1892-1983), the man who brought expressionism into Egyptian art.

The critic Kamal Al-Guweili says of Moawad, "His work is like orchestral music: many instruments, many colours and a natural command that keep the whole thing together." The late critic Hassan Abdel-Rassul once said, "He is the artist of the earthen jar and the rababa [two- string violin]." I totally agree.