Love Affair by Guirguis Lotfy

 

If Salah Jahin played a pivotal role in the development of Egyptian colloquial poetry with an innate nationalistic flair, Alexandria-based visual artist Guirguis Lotfy is probably the only painter in Egypt whose oeuvre constitutes what he and each one of us can identify as our Egypt. In fact, Lotfy is probably the only Egyptian painter who has a work depicting each and every single Egyptian feast, celebration, ritual and tradition – be it Pharaonic, Islamic or Coptic. Describing his artistic process as literally looking out his window and painting what he sees, Lotfy has shown an indefatigable commitment to his country by bringing forth its homogenous character.