The 42nd annual General Exhibition of Egyptian art is underway in Cairo with the title of Art: Memory of the Nation.
The theme is illustrated by the Arabic calligraphy displayed in many paintings and by the use of traditional materials, notably in ceramics, but also by recycled stuff.
Ahmed Refaat Suleiman, the exhibition’s general commissioner, was keen to dismiss the notion that the show was restricted to established artists.
“This year, we sought to confront these fallacies by inviting a number of young artists who had, years ago, distinguished experiences at the Youth Salon in order to exhibit their works in the General Exhibition’s activities,” he said.
The exhibition is housed in the Palace of Arts in the grounds of the Opera House. The six halls contain more than 350 works in the fields of fine art and visual arts, most notably painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, graphics, murals, and installation art.
“The General Exhibition is a mirror that reflects the fine arts’ situation in Egypt, and through which one can learn about what is new there and the developments at the heart of the world’s fine art movement,” Suleiman said.
Inaugurated on August 2 by Ines Abdel-Dayem, the Minister of Culture, and Khaled Sorour, head of the Fine Arts Sector, in the presence of a large number of artists and fine arts fans, the exhibition will continue until August 30.
“An artist has special eyes that make him constantly capture details and freely transform these views into a visual and documentary memory using canvas and colors,” Suleiman said.
“While coordinating the artworks in the halls, we made sure that the works representing different generations were adjacent to each other, in an attempt to create a state of artistic dialogue.”