Picasso Gallery: ‘Gamal Abd El Nasser – The Dream'

After Mubarak's pictures were taken down off the streets, you'd think that the glorification of political leaders had come to an end. Apparently, Picasso Gallery in Zamalek disagree and have launched a group exhibition of artwork commemorating former president Gamal Abd El Nasser, which was inaugurated by his daughter Hoda. The exhibition is titled ‘Abd El Nasser - The Dream' and remembers Abd El Nasser as a leader through various artwork. According to Picasso Gallery's press release, the ‘dream' refers to Abd El Nasser's championing of social justice, freedom, dignity, equality and solidarity with the poor.

The art gallery displays different paintings by various artists from different time periods. The styles range from pop art to abstract pieces. The most striking piece without a doubt is Mohamed Sabry's painting of Abd El Nasser addressing the UN in 1961. Abd El Nasser is portrayed as larger than everyone, with the other world leaders gazing on at him admiringly while listening to his speech. Though the painting is quite impressive, it has some major faults (such as incorrectly spellt country names) and the overall feeling is that the painter was either a big fan of the leader or he was simply assigned to glorify him in a painting.

The same can be said of Hamed Owais' painting, where Abd El Nasser is once again the bigger man surrounded by an audience in awe. This time, the audience consists of Egyptians and the painting seems to imply that Abd El Nasser is in fact the greatest thing that has ever happened in Egyptian history. Mostafa Hussein goes one step further and depicts Abd El Nasser asEgypt. In this painting, Nasser's torso is shaped likeEgyptwithEgypt's well-known artefacts drawn inside, and above the torso is of course Abd El Nasser's face. Helmy El Touny's pop art piece is more creative; as he has made great use of Abd El Nasser's facial features such as his distinctive nose and chin.

Though the art on display is aesthetically pleasing, there is a certain undertone to this exhibition that might not sit well with everyone. The exhibition insinuates that the January 25th revolution is a direct result of Abd El Nasser's revolution. The booklet handed out in the gallery explicitly states: ‘And now six decades later the young people, together with the masses, of Egypt have revolted, raising the slogans of justice and freedom and resurrecting those unfulfilled principles, thus proving that the dreams of nations never die until transformed into reality.' Abd El Nasser fans will be thoroughly pleased.

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Staff Writer for Cairo 360 

Original article on:Cairo360