Biography
Born in Cairo's historic Bab el-Sharia neighborhood in 1931, Omar el-Nagdi was one of the most prominent artists working in Egypt after the 1952 Egyptian Revolution. His timely works intersected with a broader search for a new Egyptian national identity in the post-revolution years. As an artist and educator, el-Nagdi was a formative figure in Egypt’s developing modernism; his generative role in Egypt’s cultural life continued well into the 21st century.
Omar el-Nagdi began his art education at the École Égyptienne des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under the mentorship of Egyptian painter Ahmed Sabri (1889–1955). He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1953. After this first degree, el-Nagdi received a second bachelor’s degree in applied arts 1957 from the College of Applied Arts in Cairo. As a supplement to his academic work in Cairo, el-Nagdi studied extensively abroad. In 1959, he left Egypt to study ceramics in the Soviet Union. He then began a course of study at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, Italy, between 1960 and 1964 under the tutorship of Italian modernist Bruno Saetti (1902–1984). While in Italy, he was closely associated with the avant-gardist circle of Italian modernist painter Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), who served as a formative mentor. During his studies abroad, el-Nagdi also studied mosaics at the Fine Arts Academy of Ravenna, Italy, in 1963 and graphic arts at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, in the Netherlands, from 1968 to 1969. This rounded education shaped el-Nagdi into an artist adept at working in several mediums.
Following his studies, el-Nagdi became highly involved with arts education in Egypt. He was an instructor at the College of Applied Arts in Cairo beginning in 1957 and became a full professor at the university in 1967. He additionally served as a visiting professor of arts education at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between 1982 and 1988. After completing his professorship in Saudi Arabia, el-Nagdi returned to Helwan University, where he taught until 1991. Beyond serving as a university professor, el-Nagdi was an active part of Cairo’s arts community. His involvement included a strong commitment to public education. From 1971 to 1974, he served as the director of a television series entitled Art and Our Life (al-Fan wa Hayatna), designed to educate the Egyptian public about Egyptian artistic heritage as well as the work of contemporary artists. Alongside his work on the Art and Our Life television series, el-Nagdi additionally directed over thirty short documentaries on the lives of Egyptian artists, which were broadcast on public television.
El-Nagdi’s early works focused primarily on figural paintings inspired by Egyptian folk traditions. His vibrant paintings depicted stylised scenes of fellahin (Egyptian farmers), rural life, and the familiar neighbourhoods of old Cairo rendered using bright colours and overlapping linear forms. In the 1960s, el-Naghi markedly shifted away from figural depictions and towards abstraction. This shift allowed him to more fully explore the expressive qualities of line and geometry begun in his figural works. During this time, the calligraphic Arabic letter became progressively more prominent in el-Nagdi’s work, placing his work in dialogue with the broader Hurufiyyah movement that developed across the Arab world, Turkey, and South Asia. In the late 1970s and 1980s, el-Nagdi created a series of canvases depicting Arabic letters' rhythmic repetition to form bold graphic patterns. El-Nagdi’s use of repeated letterforms particularly drew on the practice of focused contemplation in Sufi meditation, bringing one closer to the divine through rhythmic repetition.
Rather than adhering to a single working style, el-Nagdi returned to creating figurative works and continued to create abstract and representational compositions throughout his practice. Beyond painting, el-Nagdi worked in several other mediums and techniques, including ceramics, engraving, and mosaics. For example, he created a running series of sculptural works that translated the angular figures from his painted works into three-dimensional forms. While el-Nagdi drew strongly on his artistic training in Europe and the generative model of artists like di Chirico, he was steadfastly committed to imbuing his works with a sense of grounding in Egypt. His works are threaded with visual elements drawn from, among many sources, ancient Pharaonic and Islamic art, Coptic iconography, and Egyptian folk traditions.
El-Nagdi’s work has been widely exhibited both in Egypt and abroad. His first solo exhibition was held at the Egypt Museum of Modern Art in Cairo in 1957 and featured painting, sculpture, mosaic work, ceramics, and stain-glass, effectively showcasing el-Nagdi’s artistic versatility. His works were featured in over forty solo shows held at galleries in Egypt, Italy, Beirut, London, the Netherlands, Japan, and France. His work has also been included in notable group exhibitions, including a showcase of international modern art in Italy and Spain in 1961 and the Contemporary Egyptian Art Exhibition in Paris in 1971 and 1972. Omar el-Nagdi has also represented Egypt at several international biennials, including the Venice Biennale and the Biennale de Paris
