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Lot Essay
'El-Telmissany may be an actor but he is an actor so sunk in his role that his blood became saturated and charged his nerves and magnetized his heart and mind... These exhausted and overworked faces; these bodies full of anguish, encircled by an aura of black; these eyes which still flash with sparks of insurrection, with a high degree of impotence; this fly-away hair in the storms of confusion, anxiety and revolt; then these emotions repressed and imprisoned amidst the drawn-out bones and tense fingers; then these colours, which despite their value, keep a keen lustre of warm light in their basic elements this is what meets us, what takes us by surprise in el-Telmissany's paintings. Perhaps the encounter will not please us, but the surprise will shock us so that we feel its repercussion round after round throughout our nerves until it reaches the pit of our entrails.'
(Ramsès Younan on Kamel El-Telmissany in 1942 - quoted in Ghareib, 1986, p. 52).
This work by Kamel El-Telmissany stands out as a rare example in the artist's oeuvre as not only was his production of paintings very limited but he also predominantly depicted contorted female nudes in agony. The present lot epitomizes what El-Telmissany sought to represent in his works, explaining that 'blackness, blood, ripped shapes and sad screaming lines are the only images in which a maimed humanity lives' (El-Telmissany, quoted in Ghareib, 1986, p. 56). Being an iconic work within El-Telmissany's work, it appears that the artist also used that same image to illustrate Albert Cossery's first book, entitled Les Hommes Oubliés de Dieu (1941), comprising of a collection of five short illustrated stories. One of these stories was called La Jeune Fille et le Hachache that was illustrated by the same image as the present painting depicts.
El-Telmissany published many controversial and critical articles, especially in the Art and Freedom periodical, Don Quixote, yet his career as a painter was cut short in 1945 by his preference for the seminal 20th century visual arts discovery, cinema. This innovative medium allowed him to reach out to the masses more easily, as he became increasingly influenced by Marxism. The dramatic light in El-Telmissany's painting of La Jeune Fille et le Hachache, one of his signature features in his painted oeuvre, announces to some extent the artist's talent for filmmaking. In 1946, he directed one of the most important films in the history of Arab cinema, Al-Souq Al-Sowda or The Black Market. Characterized by its unprecedented realism, this revolutionary film gave a thorough report on the lower-class life in the city, denouncing capitalism's impact on it. The lead-role was given to man with a disability, which shocked the Egyptian public, who was used to the 1930s glamorous movies that idealized peasant life and glorified upper-class society. Unsurprisingly, the film was banned from Egypt theatres for almost four years.
(Ramsès Younan on Kamel El-Telmissany in 1942 - quoted in Ghareib, 1986, p. 52).
This work by Kamel El-Telmissany stands out as a rare example in the artist's oeuvre as not only was his production of paintings very limited but he also predominantly depicted contorted female nudes in agony. The present lot epitomizes what El-Telmissany sought to represent in his works, explaining that 'blackness, blood, ripped shapes and sad screaming lines are the only images in which a maimed humanity lives' (El-Telmissany, quoted in Ghareib, 1986, p. 56). Being an iconic work within El-Telmissany's work, it appears that the artist also used that same image to illustrate Albert Cossery's first book, entitled Les Hommes Oubliés de Dieu (1941), comprising of a collection of five short illustrated stories. One of these stories was called La Jeune Fille et le Hachache that was illustrated by the same image as the present painting depicts.
El-Telmissany published many controversial and critical articles, especially in the Art and Freedom periodical, Don Quixote, yet his career as a painter was cut short in 1945 by his preference for the seminal 20th century visual arts discovery, cinema. This innovative medium allowed him to reach out to the masses more easily, as he became increasingly influenced by Marxism. The dramatic light in El-Telmissany's painting of La Jeune Fille et le Hachache, one of his signature features in his painted oeuvre, announces to some extent the artist's talent for filmmaking. In 1946, he directed one of the most important films in the history of Arab cinema, Al-Souq Al-Sowda or The Black Market. Characterized by its unprecedented realism, this revolutionary film gave a thorough report on the lower-class life in the city, denouncing capitalism's impact on it. The lead-role was given to man with a disability, which shocked the Egyptian public, who was used to the 1930s glamorous movies that idealized peasant life and glorified upper-class society. Unsurprisingly, the film was banned from Egypt theatres for almost four years.