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Lot Essay
El-Gazzar was one of the leading proponents of surrealism in the Contemporary Art Group, one of the most famous groups founded by the Third Generation of Egyptian artists after the Second World War. For them, contemporary art should invoke deep-rooted values and folk heritage, demonstrated through the relationship between iconography, style and message in their paintings.
In this complete sketch by Gazzar, Untitled (from the Shells series) we are faced by a monumental body of a naked woman, however upon closer inspection we notice a multilayered scene, between the shore and land, where each woman finds themselves within an apocalyptic scene in contemplation. The central figure is seated with her crossed legs, looking away in thought, and her sensuous curves is depicted much like a shell herself. Behind her, a much smaller figure, is turned away, and very far in the back of the composition, a full body of the naked woman is standing. This is a very surrealistic composition, where perspective is obscured, both in the monumental proportions of the shells and the women’s bodies. Two shells are seen in the composition, one in the background, that is fully open while the other rests in the foreground. Through Gazzar’s distribution of the figures, objects and their relationship to color and size, his manipulations of perspective and the importance he gives to meticulous details in a swarming painting, all contribute to the multi-dimensionality of the painting's flat surface. The work is sketched in fine lines, almost appearing as if etched onto the paper.
El-Gazzar's first metaphysical stage was between 1938 and 1946, when he produced his Shells series, based on the anthropological theme of man before civilization and his relationship with the wilderness. These works attracted the attention of international critics and thinkers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, an early admirer. In Gazzar’s oeuvre, there is always a hint of destruction through apocalyptic scenes, where notions of discomfort and ease combine. In the Egyptian culture, shells are used by fortune tellers, finding these natural objects to be indicative of one’s fate. El-Gazzar believed that luck, destiny, fate, karma and free will, were only the outcome of one man's own creative thinking, whether good or bad, whilst the universe is mostly there to help realizing these thoughts. However, most human beings do not use their free will nor do they create their own thoughts; instead, they wait like El-Gazzar's women and let the sea, the outer world or the randomness of nature decide for them.
In this complete sketch by Gazzar, Untitled (from the Shells series) we are faced by a monumental body of a naked woman, however upon closer inspection we notice a multilayered scene, between the shore and land, where each woman finds themselves within an apocalyptic scene in contemplation. The central figure is seated with her crossed legs, looking away in thought, and her sensuous curves is depicted much like a shell herself. Behind her, a much smaller figure, is turned away, and very far in the back of the composition, a full body of the naked woman is standing. This is a very surrealistic composition, where perspective is obscured, both in the monumental proportions of the shells and the women’s bodies. Two shells are seen in the composition, one in the background, that is fully open while the other rests in the foreground. Through Gazzar’s distribution of the figures, objects and their relationship to color and size, his manipulations of perspective and the importance he gives to meticulous details in a swarming painting, all contribute to the multi-dimensionality of the painting's flat surface. The work is sketched in fine lines, almost appearing as if etched onto the paper.
El-Gazzar's first metaphysical stage was between 1938 and 1946, when he produced his Shells series, based on the anthropological theme of man before civilization and his relationship with the wilderness. These works attracted the attention of international critics and thinkers, including Jean-Paul Sartre, an early admirer. In Gazzar’s oeuvre, there is always a hint of destruction through apocalyptic scenes, where notions of discomfort and ease combine. In the Egyptian culture, shells are used by fortune tellers, finding these natural objects to be indicative of one’s fate. El-Gazzar believed that luck, destiny, fate, karma and free will, were only the outcome of one man's own creative thinking, whether good or bad, whilst the universe is mostly there to help realizing these thoughts. However, most human beings do not use their free will nor do they create their own thoughts; instead, they wait like El-Gazzar's women and let the sea, the outer world or the randomness of nature decide for them.