Adham Wanly

Abstract

Adham Wanly was a leading figure of Egyptian modern painting. With his elder brother, Seif Wanly (1907–1979), he studied in the studio of the Italian painter Ottorino Bicchi (1878–1949), a follower of the Macchiaioli. The Wanly brothers established their studio in Alexandria in 1935. During the 1950s, they travelled regularly to Europe, where they painted numerous landscapes and attended ballet, opera, and theatre performances. In 1957, with his brother Seif, Adham Wanly was appointed professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria. Adham Wanly was also a talented caricaturist and regularly published his drawings in Egyptian newspapers.

Biography

Ibrahim Adham Wanly was born in 1908 in Alexandria’s Muharram Bey neighbourhood. His father, Ismaïl Bey Mohammed Wanly, was of Turkish origin, and his mother, Ismat Hanem al-Daghistani, was from Caucasia. Adham grew up in an intellectual Francophone environment with his four sisters and elder brother Seif. Private tutors in the family palace of Urfan Pacha educated them. Adham worked as the director of the book warehouse at the Education Authority in Alexandria.

Wanly first studied oil painting with his brother, Seif, in the studio of the Italian painter Arturo Zanieri (1870–1955), who had also been the teacher of Alexandrian painter Mahmoud Saïd (1897–1964). In 1929, the Italian painter Ottorino Bicchi (1878–1949), educated at the Academy in Florence, opened a studio in Alexandria, and the Wanly brothers were among his first students. When Bicchi closed his studio and returned to Italy before the Second World War, the Wanly brothers and their friends, the painter Ahmad Fahmi and the filmmaker Mohammed Bayoumi (1894–1963), opened their studio in Alexandria in 1935.

During the 1950s, Adham and his brother travelled to many European countries, including France, Italy, and Spain, where they sketched and painted numerous landscapes and ballet, opera, and theater performances. In 1957, the Wanly brothers were appointed as professors at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria (Kuliyat al-funun al Jamila al-Iskandariya), founded the same year by the sculptor Ahmad Osman (1907–1970). Two years later, they were appointed by the Ministry of Culture and National Guidance to participate in recording the Nubian architectural heritage in Aswan before the area was due to be flooded by the construction of the High Dam. During that mission, along with many artists and professors of their generation, they produced numerous paintings and sketches of the Nubian villages and ancient temples. Adham Wanly died in Alexandria in 1959 at the age of 51. After his death, the street next to his studio in Alexandria was named after him.

Adham Wanly, like his brother Seif, was a prolific artist. The style of the Italian Macchiaioli marks his early works. The Macchiaioli were a group of Italian painters in the second half of the 19th century known for using colour and light. Their paintings often depicted everyday life scenes. The Italian artist Ottorino Bicchi (1878–1949) introduced the Wanly brothers to outdoor painting and capturing nature's light, colours, and shades. Adham engaged with modern pictorial trends, such as cubism and fauvism. He developed a passion for performance arts with his brother, such as circus, ballet, bull fighting, and theatre. He captured the vibrant and dynamic movements of the performers on stage.

Adham also painted numerous landscapes of Alexandria and views of Cairo and many European cities. With his brother Seif, he regularly participated in the Salons in Alexandria, Cairo, and the Alexandria Biennial. In addition to being a painter, he was also a talented caricaturist. During the 1930s, he regularly published his satirical drawings in Egyptian newspapers and reviews, such as ​​Ruz al-Yusuf. His works can be seen at the Seif and Adham Wanly Museum hosted in the villa of the Mahmoud Saïd Museum in Alexandria, the Museum of Fine Arts in Alexandria, the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art in Cairo, the Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah and private collections.

Bibliography

Iskandar, Rushdī. Adham Wanlī (Adham Wanly). Cairo: General Information Organization, 1984.

Al-Malākh, Kamāl, al-Shār­ūnī, Ṣubḥī. Al-ikhwān Sayf wa Adham Wanlī (The Brothers Seif and Adham Wanly). Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, 1984.

Further Readings

Abaza, Mona, Twentieth-Century Egyptian Art, The Private Collection of Sherwet Shafei, Cairo, The American University in Cairo Press, 2011.

Debsi, Arthur, Adham Wanly, Dalloul Art Foundation: https://dafbeirut.org/en/adham-wanly.

Al Thani, Hassan, Modern Art in Egypt in the Twentieth Century, Doha: HBMHC, 2018.

Azar, Aimé. La peinture moderne en Égypte. Le Caire: Les Éditions Nouvelles, 1961.

Burluraux, Odile, Colnet, Madeleine de, Montazami, Morad, Présences Arabes. Art moderne et décolonisation Paris, 1908-1988, Paris: Musée d’art moderne de Paris: Paris Musées, 2024.

Kanafani, Fatenn Mostafa, Modern Art in Egypt: Identity and Independence, 1850-1936, London; New York, I.B. Tauris, 2020.

Kane, Patrick, The Politics of Art in Modern Egypt: Aesthetics, Ideology and Nation-Building, London; New York, I.B. Tauris, 2013.

Karnouk, Liliane. Modern Egyptian Art (1910-2003). Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2005.

Merzaban, Mandy, Re-Orient: Investigating modernism in the Arab world 1950s-70, Sharjah: Barjeel Art Foundation, 2012.

Montazami, Morad (ed.), Monaco– Alexandrie– Le grand détour Villes-mondes et surréalisme cosmopolite, Paris: Zamân Books, 2021.

Radwan, Nadia, Les modernes d’Égypte. Une renaissance transnationale des beaux-arts et des arts appliqués, Bern: Peter Lang, 2017.

Seggerman, Alex Dika, Modernism on the Nile: art in Egypt between the Islamic and the contemporary, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2019.