Samir Rafi

Abstract

Samir Rafi (1926–2004) established himself as a prominent figure in the Egyptian art milieu from a young age, participating in exhibitions with the surrealist group Art et Liberté and becoming a leading member of the Contemporary Art Group. After receiving a scholarship to study art history at the Sorbonne University in Paris in 1954, Rafi was entangled with Algerian revolutionaries. After the country’s independence in 1964, he was invited to live, work and exhibit in Algiers. After a period of prosperity, the Coup d’État saw him incarcerated and expelled from the country. He returned to Paris in 1969, ailing and reticent, painting and writing in near solitude until he passed away in 2004.

Biography​​​

Samir Rafi was born on August 15, 1926, to a privileged Egyptian family who granted him early exposure to the art world. Renowned mentors chartered his course: the prominent Egyptian watercolour artist Shafik Rizk (1905–1989), followed by the Italian founding member of the Surrealist group Art et Liberté, Angelo de Riz (dates unknown). Later, he studied under the art educators Saad El Khadem (1913–1987) and Hussein Youssef Amin (1904–1984). Rafi was endorsed early on as he received the Gold Prize at the Salon du Caire for his painting Coquillage in 1942.

Amin discerned Rafi’s nascent ability and organised his first solo exhibition at the Qattan Library in Cairo in 1943. He was introduced to Georges Henein (1914–1973) and Ramses Younan (1913–1966), and they invited him to exhibit with Art et Liberté. Rafi participated in the group’s exhibition of Independent Art in 1944 and again in 1945.

Until 1945, Rafi’s work was stylistically divided between still-life studies and surrealist compositions. Throughout his life, he primarily focused on metaphysical themes, encompassing notions of fertility, the passage of time, and the human condition. In addition, the artist’s work persistently explored the mother-child bond, while animals also played a pivotal role in his imaginary. Notably, the subject of the woman and the wolf would evolve into an all-encompassing obsession during Rafi’s later years.

The founding of the Contemporary Art Group in 1946 is traditionally attributed to Hussein Youssef Amin. However, this has been contested by Rafi, who asserted a substantial role in establishing the Group and contributing to its Manifesto. The group’s formation was a reaction to Art et Liberté, and its members included the painters Hamed Nada (1924–1990), Ibrahim Massouda (1938–1965), Abdel Hadi El Gazzar (1925–1966), Maher Raef (1926–1999), and Kamal Youssef (1923–2019). The artists focused on their people's contemporary social, political, and psychological realities, drawing inspiration from Egyptian popular traditions and folk culture. In the meantime, Rafi graduated at the top of his class in 1948 in the Decorative Arts Department from [al Madrasa al ʿUlya lil Funūn al Jamīla] المدرسة العليا للفنون الجميلة. He was later employed as a drawing professor at Tanta Secondary School and Khalifa El Maamoun School before returning to the Department of Decorative Arts at [al Kuliya al Malakīa lil Funūn al Jamīla] الكلية الملكية للفنون الجميلة, as it was known from 1950 to 1953, as a teaching assistant.

Rafi was awarded a state-funded scholarship to Paris in 1952, the year of the Egyptian Revolution that culminated in King Farouk's overthrow. In 1954, he travelled to Paris, intending to pursue doctoral studies in art history at Sorbonne University. While his time in Paris was motivated by academic endeavours, it also served the objective of raising his international profile. Rafi registered in the Department of Art History under the direction of the French art historian André Chastel (1912–1990). He was set on studying the evolution of Purism in his dissertation Le Purisme et l’Esprit Nouveau, for which he developed a working relationship with both Le Corbusier (1887–1965) and Amédée Ozenfant (1886–1966). In 1958, Rafi enrolled at the Académie André Lhote. During this period, the importance of geometry was apparent in his work, undoubtedly due to Lhote's guidance and teaching style.

Upon his arrival in Paris, Rafi rekindled his ties with Algerian revolutionaries from his previous Cairo network. Information about Rafi in Algeria is sparse and enigmatic. Nevertheless, existing scholarship suggests that after Ahmed Ben Bella (1916–2012) came to power in September 1963, the Algerian government invited Rafi to relocate to Algiers. He officially assumed the role of fine arts adviser in the Department of Cultural Affairs in the Ministry of National Education from 1964 to 1968.  Rafi frequented one of the leading members of Algerian modern art, M’hamed Issiakhem (1928–1985), and worked with the architect Jean de Maisonseul (1912–1999) at the Musée National des Beaux-Arts d’Alger. He also exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions, including several paintings on Algerian carpets. Rafi was briefly incarcerated after the Coup d’État led by Houari Boumédiène (1932–1978). While the precise sequence of events between 1968 and 1969 remains unclear, Rafi demonstrably stayed in the country following his release until July 1969.

Between 1968 and 1969, he penned seven articles entitled “Memoirs of an Egyptian Artist in Paris” for Al Hilal, an influential monthly cultural journal published in Cairo and widely read by artists and intellectuals in Egypt and the broader Arab world. Driven by a desire to meet Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966), Rafi leveraged his network of renowned artists, including Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) and Antoine Pevsner (1884–1962), to facilitate the encounter. These conversations and the eventual dialogues with Giacometti were meticulously documented by Rafi, who published these conversations in Al Hilal. Throughout the 1970s, Rafi had to undergo several surgeries, ultimately rendering him physically incapacitated and confined to his apartment.

Throughout his years in Paris, Rafi diligently amassed a vast collection of works from artists he was associated with. In the 1990s, confronted with financial constraints, he consigned a portion of his collection for auction. Shortly after, the auction house went bankrupt, and Rafi initiated legal proceedings that endured until his death.

Rafi passed away in Paris in 2004, and his belongings and oeuvre were repatriated by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture.

Bibliography

Azar, Aimé. La Peinture Moderne en Égypte. Cairo: Les Editions Nouvelles, 1961.

---. “André Lhote et L’Évolution du Cubisme.” L’Égypte Nouvelle, no. 398, ser. 3rd, 8 Feb. 1952, p. 102.

---. Le Message de Samir Rafi. Cairo: La Patrie, 1953.

---. L’Eveil de la Conscience Picturale en Égypte. Cairo: Imprimerie Française, 1954.

Bardaouil, Sam. Surrealism in Egypt: Modernism and the Art and Liberty Group. London: I.B. Tauris, 2017.

---, and Till Fellrath. Art et Liberté: Rupture, Guerre et Surréalisme en Egypte (1938-1948). Paris: Éditions Skira, 2016.

D’Arschot, Philippe. Peintres et Sculpteurs de l’Égypte Contemporaine. Bruxelles: Editions Des Arts Plastiques, 1951.

---. Samir Rafi et Son Oeuvre. Cairo: El Riad, 1951.

Gharib, Samir. Al-hijrah Al-mustahilah: Samir Rafi’ Min Darb Al-Lubana Ila Baris [The Impossible Migration: Samir Rafi from Darb El Labbana to Paris]. Cairo: al-Hayʼah al-Misrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 1999.

Husni, Inas. Al Fanan Samir Rafi [The Artist Samir Rafi], Dhākirat al-funūn,, vol. 40. Cairo: al-Hayʼah al-Misrīyah al-ʻĀmmah lil-Kitāb, 2021.

Mansour, Sabry. “Al Musawiru Samir Rafi (1926-2004) Wa Ikhtiartu Al Fanan [The Painter Samir Rafi (1926-2004) and Artistic Choices].” Al Hilal [Cairo], no. 7719, May 2005, pp. 178–185.

Okasha, AbdelRazek. Dhikrayat Wa-aʻmal Samir Rafi [Memories and Works of Samir Rafi]. Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2012.

Further Readings

Abaza, Mona. Twentieth-Century Egyptian Art. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2011.

Amin, Husayn Yusuf, et al. “Contemporary Art Group, First Declaration (1946).” Modern Art in the Arab World, edited by Anneka Lenssen et al., translated by Sarah Dorman. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2018, p. 114.

Didier, Valérie, and Hussam Rashwan, eds. El-Gazzar: The Complete Works. Paris: Éditions Norma, 2023.

El Attar, Mokhtar. “Al Haraka Al Tashikiliya Al Haditha Fi Misr” [The Modern Plastic Movement in Egypt]. Al Shomou’a [Cairo], Oct. 2003, pp. 61-64.

---. “Samir Rafi Al Fanan Al ’Ostoura” [Samir Rafi, the Legendary Artist]. Al Shomou’a [Cairo], 10 Dec. 1999, pp. 40-42.

El Razzaz, Mostafa. Modern Art in Egypt: Making the Old New. Alexandria: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2019.

Gharib, Samir. Fi Ta’rikh al-Funun al-Jamilah [In the Historiography of Fine Arts], Cairo: Dar Al-Shuruq, 1998.

Kane, Patrick. “Art Education and the Emergence of Radical Art Movements in Egypt: The Surrealists and the Contemporary Arts Group, 1938–1951.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 44, no. 4, 2010, pp. 95–119, https://doi.org/10.5406/jaesteduc.44.4.0095.

---. “Egyptian Art Institutions and Art Education from 1908 to 1951.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education, vol. 44, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43-68, https://doi.org/10.1353/jae.2010.0008.

---. The Politics of Art in Modern Egypt: Æsthetics, Ideology and Nation-Building. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.

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

Lhote, André. “Avenir de la Peinture Égyptienne.” La Revue du Caire, XXIX, no. 150, Cairo May 1952, pp. 87-88.

Omar Kholeif, ed. Imperfect Chronology: Arab Art from the Modern to the Contemporary, Works from the Barjeel Art Foundation. Munich: Prestel, 2015.

Rafi, Samir. “Le Corbusier et ‘Les Femmes d'Alger.’” Revue d'Histoire et de Civilisation du Maghreb [Algiers], Jan. 1968, pp. 50-56.

Wille, Simone, and Zeynep Kuban, eds. André Lhote and His International Students. Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press, 2021.