Inji Efflatoun

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Inji Efflatoun
Inji Efflatoun

Inji Efflatoun (also Eflatoun, Aflatoun; born April 16, 1924 in Cairo ; † April 17, 1989 ibid.) Was an Egyptian painter, political-feminist activist and author. She is considered an important representative of Arab modernism and was one of the most exhibited artists in Egypt.

Life

Inji Efflatoun was born in 1924 as the second daughter of a wealthy and educated family in Cairo. Her mother Salha Efflatoun was a member of the women's committee of the Red Crescent and later a fashion entrepreneur and first Egyptian fashion designer. Her father Hassan C. Efflatoun was a dean at Cairo University . After their parents divorced, the girls grew up with their single, working mother since their youngest childhood.

After attending a Catholic girls' school in Cairo, she switched to a French high school (Lycée), where she also left school. Here she came into contact with Marxism . From 1940 she was one of the first women to study art at Cairo University. Through her teacher Kamel el-Tilmisani , one of the founders of the Art et liberté group , she came into contact with surrealism , which had a strong influence on her from then on. Her “surrealist phase” lasted until around 1952 and from 1942 she participated in the exhibitions of Art et liberté. The group was very diverse - artists and literary professionals as well as other intellectuals, including many women, were involved and who cultivated international relations through collaboration with female artists such as Lee Miller . It stood out from the classic art establishment and dealt with social issues, education, women's rights and the consequences of war . Inji Efflatoun became a student of Margo Veillon in the following years and worked with the painter Hamed Abdallah .

As a political and feminist activist, she had also been a member of the communist organization Iskra since 1942 , helped found a women's group at the university in 1945, and in the same year traveled to the International Women's Congress in Paris as the Egyptian representative . In the late 1940s she published anti-colonial left - wing texts against the oppression of the proletariat and for gender equality. In 1950 she joined the Egyptian Feminist Union (EFU) and was involved in other organizations and other - including militant - activities.

In the early 1950s, her artistic work became more political - she toured rural Egypt and portrayed the fellahin and women from the working class, other pictures had episodes of the English occupation as their theme, such as the so-called Dinshawai incident . During this time she gained increasing recognition in the Egyptian and international art world: after her first solo exhibition in Cairo, she was represented at the 1952 Biennale di Venezia and 1953 at the São Paulo Biennale . She developed a friendship with the well-connected Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros ; their turn to a style close to socialist realism is possibly due to its influence .

Under Gamal Abdel Nasser's presidency , she was arrested in 1959 as part of a wave of anti-communist arrests and imprisoned for four and a half years in a secret camp - where she could continue to paint and did so intensively. After she was released in July 1963, she turned away from Socialist Realism and developed a lighter, more structured style.

From this time on she devoted herself primarily to her artistic activity - she exhibited in Cairo, Paris, Venice, Germany, Poland, Bulgaria and Kuwait. When the UN proclaimed the Decade of Women in 1975, she was one of the curators of the large exhibition “Egyptian Women Painters over Half a Century”.

In 1985 she was awarded the Orden Arts et des Lettre s by the French Ministry of Culture . Before she could complete her last major project, the publication of her memoir, she died unexpectedly in Cairo in April 1989.

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Efflatoun's early surrealist work was still heavily influenced by her teacher Kamel el-Tilmisani and Art et liberté . Later, through her political commitment towards social criticism, she stylistically approached Socialist Realism. The works from the time of their imprisonment show the everyday life of the women in prison, they are "a visual record of the al-Qanatir women's prison". The motifs also moved away from the gloomy, towards clearer colors and more symbolic motifs. Back in freedom, she developed a more colorful, dynamic style, in her later work even simpler and with more white space on the canvas.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1942/1943: Art et Liberté , Cairo, Egypt
  • 1952: First solo exhibition, Adam Gallery, Cairo, Egypt
  • 1952: Biennale di Venezia
  • 1953: São Paulo Biennale , Brazil
  • 1958: Alexandria Biennale, Egypt
  • 1975: (Ten) Egyptian Women Painters over Half a Century, Cairo, Egypt (participation as artist and curator)
  • 1981: Egyptian Academy, Rome, Italy
  • 2014: Inji's World (retrospective), Safar Khan Gallery, Cairo

Works in public collections

Publications (selection)

  • Thamanun milyun imraa ma'ana (80 Million Women With Us), foreword by Dr. Taha Hussein, 1948
  • Nahnu al-nisa al-misriyyat (We the Egyptian Women), foreword by Abdel Rahman El Rafe, 1949

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sabine B. Vogel: Karim Sultan. Artist and Director of the Barjeel Art Foundation Modernism in Arab Countries . In: KUNSTFORUM International: Modern, reloaded. Interviews with curators, art historians, art critics, museum directors . tape 252 , 2018, p. 122 ( online via kunstforum.de ).
  2. ↑ a b Sabine Mara Schmidt: Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, curators. Art and freedom . In: KUNSTFORUM international: Modern, reloaded - interviews with curators . tape 252 , 2018, p. 118 ( online via kunstforum.de ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Inji Efflatoun (1924–1989) - Press Release. In: safarkhan.com. Safar Khan Art Gallery, 2014, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Nadia Radwan: Inji Efflatoun. In: encyclopedia.mathaf.org.qa. Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b c Ghada Hashem Talhami: Aflatoun, Inji . In: Historical dictionary of women in the Middle East and North Africa . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md. 2013, ISBN 978-0-8108-7086-4 , pp. 16 f .
  6. ↑ a b c d e Arthur Goldschmidt: Aflatun, Inji . In: Biographical dictionary of modern Egypt . L. Rienner, Boulder, CO 1999, ISBN 1-58826-985-X , pp. 17 ( digitized via archive.org ).
  7. ↑ a b c Sophie Gayerie: Inji Efflatoun. In: awarewomenartists.com. 2017, accessed February 25, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Inji Efflatoun. In: postwar.hausderkunst.de. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  9. ^ II Bienal do Museu de Arte moderna de São Paulo . São Paulo 1953, p. 128 ( online via bienal.org.br ).
  10. ↑ SafarKhan. Retrieved February 26, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Tobias Wendl: New Museum Buildings in Africa . In: KUNSTFORUM International: Museum Boom - II. Museum global . tape 251 , 2018, p. 100 ( online via kunstforum.de ).
  12. ↑ Inji Efflatoun. In: barjeelartfoundation.org. Barjeel Art Foundation, accessed February 27, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Efflatoun, Inji
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Eflatoun, Inji; Aflatoun, Inji
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian painter, political feminist activist and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo
DATE OF DEATH April 17, 1989
Place of death Cairo