Blended Learning

Art Education in Modern Egypt

By Alexandra Seggerman

Issue 8

Although grounded in French method and theory, the École des beaux-arts was essentially Egyptian in philosophy. Over its history, it has nurtured many generations of talented artists who have succeeded in blending international training with Egyptian tradition and heritage.

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"Il faisait à peine jour, que Mouktar était devant la porte de l'Ecole de Darb-El-Gamamiz. Que de fois, passant devant cette porte, il ne s'était même pas arrêté. Mais aujourd'hui c'etait bien different. Elle représentait pour lui la Porte du Paradis. "

"It was scarcely light when Mokhtar arrived at the door of the Ecole in Darb el-Gamamiz. How often he had passed this door without even stopping. But today, it was very different. Today, it represented the Gate of Paradise."

-Badr el-Din Abu Ghazi and Gabriel Boctor, Mouktar ou le Réveil de L’Egypte. (Cairo: H. Urwand et fils, 1949)


The Ecole des beaux-arts was established in Cairo in 1908 to educate young Egyptian artists in the French curriculum of painting, sculpture, design and architecture. Crossing the school’s threshold represented access to a whole new world of knowledge. Abu Ghazi’s claim that this intermediate, liminal space also represented a path to ‘paradise’ infers both the significance of the school’s origins and its legacies. The school originated in nationalist educational reform, and represented Egypt’s modern history. Over the following century, arts education remained central to the development of modern Egyptian art, and the school’s legacy informed the artists who did (or did not) attend. The knowledge behind those doors thus offered the students more than just technical training; crossing the threshold could also lead to fame, fortune, and a place in the (art) history books. So, how exactly did an unassuming school door came to represent a ‘Gate to Paradise.’


Youssef Kamal, the Patron Prince

Today’s Faculty of Fine Arts is the product of a long history of institutional reforms that date back to the nineteenth century. The modern nation of Egypt coalesced when Ottoman viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha seized the Cairo Citadel in 1805 and founded a dynasty that lasted until 1952. For centuries Egypt had been a provincial region of the Ottoman Empire, but under Muhammad Ali, it became a nation state. Alongside military advances, this new leader overhauled the region’s fundamental institutions—military, infrastructure, health and education. The institutions established by Muhammad Ali formed the bedrock for modern Egyptian culture and society. In the nineteenth century, state-sponsored schools began educating youth locally and also sent elite young men abroad to receive advanced training in medicine, law and military strategy. During the reign of Khedive Ismail these modernization processes culminated in a cultural renaissance, al-nahda. The leaders of this philosophical reawakening called for education to include not only medicine and law, but also philosophy and art. These calls for reform paved the path for the establishment of institutions of higher learning in the early twentieth century.


The leaders of this philosophical reawakening called for education to include not only medicine and law, but also philosophy and art.


Though state modernization projects provided the basis for arts education, a single patron, Prince Youssef Kamal, was responsible for the establishment of the Ecole des beaux-arts. Born in 1882, Kamal came from an extraordinarily rich, landowning branch of the royal family. He not only provided the financing for the school, he was also instrumental in establishing scholarships for artists to study abroad and he continued to support the modern art movement in Egypt throughout his life.

Amid much fanfare, the Ecole des beaux-arts opened in the neighbourhood of Darb el-Gamamiz in 1908. Tuition was free and students of any nationality could attend, as long as they were below the age of twenty-six. Areas of study included sculpture, painting, architecture, design and calligraphy. All areas of study except calligraphy were directed by European teachers. The primary model for education was French. Though Egypt was under British occupation at the time, French cultural influence dominated and the school Kamal established would attempt to synthesize elite Francophile taste in art with nascent Egyptian nationalist sentiment. The structure of the curriculum closely mirrored the French system, except for the addition of calligraphy. In the inaugural pamphlet, however, the emphasis was on the Egyptian character of the school and on the importance of staying true to the Egyptian and Arab identity.


The Artists

In 1911, the school had around 125 students, but the professors recognized four as exceptional: Mahmoud Mokhtar, Ragheb Ayad, Youssef Kamel, and Mohamed Hassan. Their dedication and talent earned them the opportunity to study abroad. Mokhtar travelled to Paris in the 1910s, and Ayad, Kamel and Hassan studied in Rome in the 1920s. These artists’ paintings and sculptures expressed nationalist Egyptian identity—depicting peasants and ancient Egyptian motifs—while using European techniques. Mokhtar’s iconic statue Nahdet Masr is a perfect example. It is sculpted in the ancient material of pink granite, simultaneously evoking Egypt’s past and European art's ‘return to order’ through classicist revivalism following World War I. This blending thus gave tangible form to the education these men received at home and abroad. Ultimately, these pioneers themselves became educators, passing on their knowledge to a new generation of Egyptian artists. After installing Nahdet Masr, Mokhtar fiercely advocated for expanding art education in Egypt and endeavoured to lift the Ecole des beaux-arts from a secondary school to a college-level institution, as it is today. Kamel and Ayad both taught at the Ecole des beaux-arts and also held positions at the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art. These artists and their careers showcase the central role of education in the Egyptian modern art movement.

In the coastal city of Alexandria during the early twentieth century, arts institutions were more informal than in Cairo. Instead of state-run schools, artists like Mahmoud Saїd and the brothers Seif and Adham Wanly learned to paint at local studios. Italian-Alexandrian artists like Arturo Zanieri, Ottorino Bicchi and Amelia da Forno Casonato taught elite youth the fundamentals of oil painting. Unlike the formal, state-run Ecole des beaux-arts in Cairo, these informal spaces were subtler in encouraging students to incorporate Egyptian-ness in their artwork. While Saїd painted large, powerfully nationalist paintings like al-Madina (1937), many of his works simply represent the Alexandrian elite in their Western-style finery. Likewise, the Wanly brothers adopted an angular painting style to mirror the cosmopolitan tastes of Alexandria. Though these three artists clearly reflect their Egyptian origins, the lack of state-sponsored institutional education in Alexandria led to a more nuanced incorporation of nationalist symbols in their work.


Art Education Today

Since its founding in 1908, the Ecole des beaux-arts progressed through a series of manifestations. It evolved from being an imported European entity into a truly Egyptian one and its name changed several times in line with its changing identity. In 1937, the school acquired its first Egyptian director, renowned painter Mohamed Naghi. As the politics of Egypt changed, so did the school. From 1950 to 1953, it was briefly called the Royal College of Fine Arts, before becoming the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1953 and being annexed to Helwan University in 1975, where it remains today.

Prince Youssef Kamal established the Ecole des beaux-arts to train local artists in European methods, but insisted that they remain true to their identity while doing so. The first generation of artists reflected the aims of the school and blended Egyptian concepts with French forms, speaking to local communities as well as to those in Paris, Rome and London. By speaking both languages, Egyptian modern artists have always been able to circulate in multiple locations, showcasing their Egyptian identity as well as their international training through their art. This quality remains true today for the students who graduate every year from the Faculty of Fine Arts.


This article was first published in print in RAWI's ISSUE 8, 2016.

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Modern Art

COURTESY OF THE DESERT RESEARCH INSTITUTE, CAIRO Prince Youssef Kamal (1882–1967), founder of the Ecole des beaux-arts, head of the Société des amis de l’art and sponsor of many Egyptian art students’ scholarships to Europe. Photo taken ca. 1955.

FROM ISKANDER, EL-MALLAKH AND El-SHAROUNY, 80 SANA MEN AL-FANN (CAIRO: GENERAL EGYPTIAN BOOK ORGANISATION, 1991) The first diploma granted to the graduates of the Ecole des beaux-arts.

COURTESY OF EMAD ABU GHAZI The 1911 exhibition for the Ecole des beaux-arts’ first graduating class, held at the Automobile Club on 27 Madabegh (currently Sherif) Street. Graduates exhibiting included Youssef Kamel, Ragheb Ayad, Anton Haggar, Mohamed Hassan and Mahmoud Mokhtar, who sold eight copies of his caricatural statue Ibn al-Balad (The Village Boy) for two sovereign coins each. Here, a bust made by Mokhtar of his colleague Mohamed Hassan is visible on the far left.

MUSEUM OF MODERN ART EGYPT A painting by Egyptian Artist Ahmed Sabry

Alexandra Seggerman

Alexandra Seggerman

Alexandra Seggerman is a postdoctoral fellow at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She received her PhD from Yale University in 2014 and teaches courses on art from the Middle East and the Islamic world. She is currently working on her book, Reawakening Modernism: Art in Egypt 1879–1967, which traces the development of the modern art movement in Egypt.

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Tahrir Square

A walk through the history of a square that made history.

Two hundred years ago, anyone strolling around Tahrir (Liberation) Square would probably have become quite bored and really rather annoyed with all the mud and mosquitoes. Prince Qawsoon’s pen, as it was called at the time (“zereebet Qawsson” after a Mameluke prince), was quite unremarkable. After all, it was merely a space of dried-up earth, left after the Nile had receded to the east, only used for growing corn and raising horses. What was to become prime real estate a few decades later was not of the slightest interest to Mohamed Ali Pasha in the early 1800s. He did not pay attention to it apart from building his daughter Nazli a palace (kasr) on the Nile there. Kasr al-Nil was indeed a beauty, although its lady was one bizarre character. But that’s another story.

The muddy earth was soon drained and levelled by Ibrahim Pasha, but still remained largely unused. Said Pasha later bought Kasr al-Nil from Nazli and demolished it to build a barracks and a smaller palace. Much like the rest of this part of Cairo, it wasn’t until Khedive Ismail visited the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867 that things started to become more interesting and the era of Cairo’s Belle Époque architecture began, just a little north of Tahrir Square, at the Ezbekkeyya. An opera house, surrounded by large squares, wide boulevards, and buildings and palaces of art nouveau, neo-Islamic, neoclassical, and neo-baroque style glittered at the nucleus of Ismail’s ‘Paris on the Nile’. As for the land of Prince Qawsoon, further south, there was little development apart from another palace built around 1871. Ismailia Palace, as it would be known, was built roughly on the spot where the monolithic Mogama’ complex is right now, on the southern side of the square. Slowly, the area that would become one of the world’s most famous squares began to take shape.


The 1870s – Midan al-Kobri

The story of this square really began with a bridge. In 1872, a ten-metre-wide steel bridge was constructed to connect al-Gezira (the island of Zamalek), to the expanding Ismailia quarter. On the eastern side of the square, an Islamic-style palace belonging to Ahmed Khairy Pasha (Minister of Education during Khedive Ismail’s reign) stood across from Ismailia Palace, while a little Nile-side mosque, which had been built to bury a Sheikh Mohamed al-‘Abit, was enveloped by the Ismailia palace gardens when they were expanded to the river bank.

In 1881, the bridge received a gift that would make it one of the city’s most significant landmarks. Four lions, made by French sculptor Henri Jacquemart, were brought from Alexandria and placed in pairs at each end of the bridge. Four slimmer versions were supposed to guard Mohamed Ali Pasha’s statue in the Mediterranean port city, but no such luck. Yet, only a year after these lions had been put in place, the occupying British army took over the barracks of Kasr al-Nil and created a great deal of tension that would taint the square for decades to come.


The 1880s – Midan Kasr al-Nil

Cairo’s memory lives largely in the names of its streets and squares. Although by 1856 Nazli’s original Kasr al-Nil Palace had been destroyed and replaced with a barracks, the name survived and still does to this day. A new name was bestowed on the square in not long after the bridge’s construction: it became Kasr al-Nil Square.


The 1890s – Midan al-Ismailia

The new city of Ismail, designed by the Haussman-influenced Pierre Grand Bek and executed by Ali Pasha Mubarak (Egyptian minister of public works), started taking shape by the late nineteenth century, and the square was renamed again – this time to Ismailia Square. Some of Egypt’s most prominent personalities went to live nearby, most notably feminist Hoda Shaarawi, who built a lovely Andalusian-style villa.

Not far east, the Neo-Islamic Palace of Ahmed Pasha Khairy was purchased by Greek cigarette magnate Nestor Gianaclis, and turned (mostly) into a cigarette factory. Slovenian architect Antonio Lasiac had also built a beautiful palace for Princess Nematallah (sister of Khedive Abbass Hilmi II), while further north, by the Nile, was the neo-Gothic villa of minister Ya’akoub Bey Cattaoui (later to be purchased by the famed literary salon doyenne, Qut al-Qulub al-Demirdasheya)


The 1930s – Midan al-Khedive Ismail

Before the close of the nineteenth century, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II broke ground for a new museum at the square under the directorship of Egyptologist Auguste Mariette. The museum, built by French architect Marcel Dourgnon, was inaugurated in 1902. Although the name Ismailia Square remained in use for a longer time, in 1933 King Fuad changed the square’s name to Khedive Ismail Square, after his father. By then, Nestor Gianaclis had left his palace. The Egyptian University (later to become Cairo University) settled there for a short period, and ultimately the American University in Cairo (AUC) took over the building in 1920 and maintains offices there to this day, thus making the AUC building the oldest structure remaining on the square.

Towards the end of King Fuad’s reign, a roundabout with a garden was built at the centre of the square. Later, during Farouk’s reign, a pedestal was placed at its centre, with the intention of placing a statue of Khedive Ismail upon it. This statue was commissioned, but it was never put in place. The fate of Khedive Ismail’s statue has always been a mystery. Historian Max Karkegi recalls seeing photographs of the unfinished statue, in the atelier of sculptor Mahmoud al-Wakil (brother of Zeinab al-Wakil, prime minister Nahhas’s wife). The photos, shown to him by the sculptor’s widow, were of the disassembled parts of a large bronze statue of Khedive Ismail on a horse. This indicates that it was perhaps meant to look like Ibrahim Pacha’s statue at Opera Square and Mohamed Ali’s statue in Alexandria. Al-Wakil’s widow also mentioned that the atelier was in Cairo (as opposed to Paris, where many of Cairo’s statues were made), and added that the project financially ruined her husband.

Work on the statue ceased after the 1952 coup d’état, and al-Wakil, who had almost fnished his large bronze oeuvre, was never paid. Another statue of Khedive Ismail wielding a sword, said to be stored at some government warehouse (though its location remains a mystery), is also believed to be the one intended for the pedestal.

It is said that decades after the pedestal was installed, after the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser, a plan was hatched to erect a statue of the late president upon it, but again the plan never materialized. The pedestal was eventually removed in 1987 for the construction of the metro line and it has vanished ever since.


The 1950s – Midan al-Horreya/Tahrir

Mass protests became a feature of the square as it grew in significance over the decades. One of the most notable demonstrations was in 1951 against British occupation. The British army barracks of Kasr al-Nil were demolished eventually and the square was renamed Horreya (Liberty) in 1952, then renamed al-Tahrir (Liberation) in 1953. By then, Ismailia Palace was long gone and the enormous Mogama’ was built in its place, designed by architect Kamal Ismail. The mosque of Sheikh Mohamed al-‘Abit, within the garden of Ismailia palace, was demolished in 1954 and replaced with the Omar Makram mosque, built by Italian architect Mario Rossi in the same location. Princess Nematallah’s palace became the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hoda Shaarawi’s villa was destroyed and became a parking lot at the entrance to Champollion Street, and the neo-Gothic villa of Qut al-Qulub al-Demirdasheya was demolished to make way for a ramp connecting Garden City to Kasr al-Nil bridge.


The 1980s – Today – Midan Anwar al-Sadat?

President Anwar al-Sadat’s assassination in 1981 sent shockwaves across Egypt. To honour the late president, Cairo’s biggest and most significant square was named after him. Yet, thirty years later, the name remains unused and is completely unfamiliar to Egyptians.


Today

The events brought about by the 25th of January revolution catapulted Tahrir Square to international fame. The square was on live feeds of news channels across the globe for weeks. Regardless of how events unfolded after the toppling of the Mubarak regime, the square has now become one of the most famous in the world. Maybe this time the name will stick.

By Yasmine El Dorghamy

Evolution and Revolution

Modern Art