Mamdouh Ammar (1928 – 2012)
New Artist Representation by ArtTalks
ArtTalks is proud to announce that the gallery now represents the estate of the late artist Mamdouh Ammar.
Born in 1928, Mamdouh Ammar graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1952 – the year of the 23 July Revolution and during a time when the Contemporary Art Group were in the process of creating a spectacular Egyptian Folk Realism movement. A two-year apprenticeship in the studio of Turkish watercolor master Hedayet between 1945-1947; a close student-teacher relationship with Beppi Martin and Hussein Bicar; and further studies in the studio of André Lhote in Paris then at the Arts Academy in Rome enabled Ammar to build a multi-faceted narrative in which expressionism, symbolism and surrealism blend.
With a career extending over a period of six decades, Ammar investigated three main themes: magic, war and women. In his search for the essence of humanity, he narrated the story of a society immersed in popular myths, Sufism and folk practices and depicted the height of rejection of war as a solution to any conflict. By the end of his life, Ammar seems to have found the answer to a better life in the generative power that emerges out of the company of one’s own self, in silence.
At first socially minded, later isolated in peace, the prolific artist never ceased to pay tribute to women and convey the importance of freedom.
Mamdouh Ammar’s work is in numerous private and public collections, including the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art (Cairo), Port Said Museum and the Denshawai Museum (Menoufia).