Biography
Ahmad Osman was born in the small village of Eneiba near Aswan in Nubia. He studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Cairo (Madrasat al-funun Wa al- zakharef) under the English painter, designer and arts and crafts expert William Arnold Stewart (1882–1953). After graduating in 1927, Osman worked with the Mission of the University of Pennsylvania as the registrar for the archaeological excavations in Palestine. In 1928, he received a scholarship to study in Rome, where he first took classes at the Scuola Libera del Disegno del Nudo before entering the sculpture section of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma After graduating in 1932, he traveled to Florence to specialise in decorative sculpture at the Regio Istituto d'Arte. The following year, he returned to Egypt where he was appointed professor of sculpture at the School of Applied Arts in Giza (Madrasa al-funun al-tatbiqiyya), former School of Decorative Arts). At that time, the school was directed by the artist Mohammed Hassan (1892–1961).
In 1937, Osman was named director of the sculpture section of the School of Fine Arts in Cairo. The same year, he took part in the design of the Egyptian Pavilion at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne in Paris. The pavilion was headed by the Egyptian politician and art collector Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil (1877–1953). In 1938, he exhibited at the 21st Venice Biennial with the artists Mohammed Naghi (1888-1956) and Mahmoud Saïd (1897–1964), where Egypt was represented for the first time. Osman left his position at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo in 1957 to establish and serve as the Faculty of Fine Arts director in Alexandria.
Osman was also involved in protecting Egyptian cultural heritage. In 1954, he participated in relocating the colossal statue of Ramses II from Mit Rahina (Memphis) to Bab al-Hadid square in front of Cairo railway station. He also participated in UNESCO's Nubian campaign in 1959 and developed techniques for cutting and reassembling the stone blocks of the Temple of Abu Simbel.
Ahmad Osman was a talented sculptor who conceived many interventions in public space. While his early works employ characteristics of Italian classicism, towards the end of the 1930s, he started sculpting a series of bronze busts of Egyptian peasant women. These works are distinguished by their realistic portrayal of peasants and quotidian rural activities. They embody the idealisation of rural life, which he often expressed through a smiling Egyptian peasant. Osman also specialised in ornamental sculptures and was commissioned to decorate several public buildings. In 1936, with his colleague, the sculptor Mansour Farag (1910–2000), he created the reliefs for the entrance gate of the Zoological Garden in Giza designed by architect Mustafa Fahmi (1886–1972). In 1947, he crafted the bronze reliefs that adorn the monument's base honouring Ibrahim Pasha in Opera Square, Cairo, designed by the French sculptor Charles Cordier (1829–1905).
Under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Osman was commissioned to sculpt the façade of the Officers Club in Zamalek and the Armed Forces Club in Heliopolis, as well as the monumental stylised bronze eagle above the entrance of the Cairo Tower in 1961. He was also a talented painter and produced a series of nudes with charcoal, as well as several portraits. He developed genres while studying at the Scuola Libera del Disegno del Nudo. In his drawings, Osman reflects his background as a sculptor by applying clear lines and shades on sculptural volumes. His works are in private collections, such as the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art in Cairo, the Agriculture Museum in Cairo, the Museum of Fine Arts in Alexandria, and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.
