(Alkhade’a) The Misleader

Hamed Abdalla was a pioneer of Egyptian and Arab modernism; a self taught artist from a modest peasant family of upper Egypt, he rose to prominence early in his career. Abdalla's work centred on his development of what he called "the Creative word", which included written words expressed in paint where he blended abstraction and human forms.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1941, before going on to show widely throughout Egypt in the 1940s including a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art Cairo (1949), when art critics considered his work as a new school for Egyptian Art. At the same time Abdalla opened his Atelier in Cairo to teach new generation of artists such as Tahia Halim, Gazbia Sirri, Inji Efflatoun and Georges El Bahgory, among others. His first trip to Paris saw him exhibit at the Gallery Bernheim-Jeune (1950), followed by a group show at Palais du Louvre, and a show at Egyptian Institute, London (1951). From the mid 1950s he was exhibiting throughout Europe, the US and Asia, including a group show at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (1956). He left Egypt for Denmark (1956) and France (1966), but was commited to the pan-Arab movement, and exhibited widely in the Middle East and North Africa. His works are on show in various international collections and museums such as Egyptian Modern Art Museum Cairo, Tate Modern London, Metropolitan Museum of New York, Museum of Modern Art, Tunis, Barjeel Art Foundation, Mathaf, Doha and Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.