|
Abstract
In the late 1970’s the tradition of nude models has been socially banned in official art schools in Egypt. This ban not only compromised some practices of growing artists and art academia, but also represented a genre of censorship that suffocates mainstream thought in the country till today. A similar censorship spread into the cinema industry and took a toll on directors and their creative practices.
Today the majority of the girls attending the Fine Arts School in Cairo, which was once known to host nude models, are veiled a fact that not only shows the evolution of society, but also traces religious conservatism that is dominant in the art circuits in Egypt, a country that was once the source of liberation and liberty of thought.
With a focus on figurative drawing, this essay probes the practices of different Egyptian Artists and their views on what the nude model represents and the different schools of thoughts that contribute to the status quo of today’s Egyptian mainstream thinking.
Methods
The author conducted studio interviews to collect perspective on the taboo issue of nude figurative drawing and painting; the interviewees were artists of three particular generations who had access to different levels of art education. Younger art students were also interviewed to assess several satellite perceptions like “comfort” and “overall thought”.
Printed references were used and cited.
Introduction and Historical Background
The concept of nude models in the arts was first introduced to Egypt by French and British art teachers and professors in the early years of the 1900’s; the first three generations of painters and sculptors hosted nude models in their studios as seen by their art work that still sometimes circulate in the Egyptian art market.
Along the decades, due to an increase in population and a religious turnover that occurred as a result of that, the notion of the nude model in art education is today abolished, and artists and art students have to find alternative methods to train on figurative representation.
Despite all bans, artists and art students who wanted to practice nude figurative drawing had to do it in secret. For decades there existed an underground “movement” that allows students to practice nude painting and photography in private studios.
Today the majority of the girls attending the Fine Arts School in Cairo, which was once known to host nude models, are veiled a fact that not only shows the evolution of society, but also traces religious conservatism that is dominant in the art circuits in Egypt, a country that was once the source of liberation and liberty of thought.
The changing tide forces many young Egyptian artists to practice, at least in part, in the dark.
Present Situation and Current Problematic
Figurative drawing, which is a projective diagnostic technique in which individuals are required to draw the human body, has been banned in Egypt’s art practices; three or four decades ago, even ultra conservative viewers might have refused the idea of possessing a painting with nude figures for either reasons of prude lifestyle, or for the fear of accusation by friends or family members as vulgar. Today, in the twenty-first century, and two decades of rising religious right wing ultraconservatism, it is often common to find that in Cairo the average person is programmed to repel the naked body, accuse it of being evil; a finding that reflects the danger of such religious inflictions on public taste and on lay education.
A normal belief and practice today is to avoid the viewing or the possession of “audacious” images, be them of nudes, semi-nudes or just with extra-exposure; the given reason in conservative education is that such imagery instigates and ignites sexual drives, and lead to violence; with religious education, one should do all possible to suppress sexual drives and instincts.
Former president Anwar Sadat was voted in office after the death of Nasser in September in 1971; according to records, Sadat released the right wing religious leaders from the prisons, officially to assume their roles as Egyptian citizens, a fact that lead to the dangerous rise of Islamized power in universities among students, but no one suspected then that such rising stream would create Sadat’s own assassins less than a decade later.
After having won the 1973 October war (known in Arab literature also as the Ramadan war, and in Western literature as the Yum Kipur war), Sadat linked the victory to the fact that his sons, the Egyptian officers and soldiers became closer to God; among the post-war slogans was the famous media title that described him as “the pious president Mohamed Anwar al Sadat”.
Immediately after, Sadat, with a presidential decree, abolished figurative representation of nude models in the official art schools (the Helwan University and the Alexandria University Faculties of Fine Arts, plus the Art Education Faculty); shortly after he cancelled the deal with the then Italian government that supports the Leonardo Da Vinci Institute, the alternative school that educated many famous Egyptian painters for decades, an institute that was also a cornerstone of nude figure drawing and painting.
By 1977, no nude figures were produced in any academia.
Even though there has been a social ban on figurative drawing since the mid seventies, many students always found alternative means of practicing figurative drawing and take part in an underground practice that is mainly hosted by artists in their private studios.
Although the ban has been relatively recent, a little over three decades, Cairo’s school of fine arts, which turns 100 this year, has introduced the idea of nude model painting and celebrating the human body in the early 1900’s, when the principal political and social slogans aimed at modernity and independence.
Before the Egyptian feminist movement led by Huda Shaarawi and her sidekick Siza Nebrawi among others started in 1923, the School of Fine Arts started off with French and Italian professors who initiated the concept of figurative drawing and created comfort between the self and the body. The first studios existed in Darb el Gamameez, close to downtown Cairo, as early as 1908.
Since those years, the early twenties of the twentieth century and until the mid 1970s, studying on nude figures was a standard part of classical formal art education. Figurative sculptors, such as Mahmoud Mokhtar, used female nude models for his sculpture, best known of which is the Gigantic public piece “Nahdet Masr”, standing for over eighty years today in front of Cairo University in Guiza.
Huda Shaarawi and Siza Nabarawi, as part of what we can call today “social responsibility” sponsored and financed artists education, the best examples of whom are sculptors Abdel Badie Abdel Hai, who was a junior cook at the kitchen of Huda Shaarawi when spotted and encouraged by another sponsored sculptor (who was then married to Siza Nabarawi after his own sponsored four-year education assignment in Italy). (1)
The “normal” formal training in art schools, within which nude figurative training was a paramount pillar, came to an abrupt end in the seventies when religious conservatism kidnapped much of the foundations of art education, only to replace the technical void with alternative dos and don’ts; the objective of this seizure was/is to replace figuration, all figuration, with decorative practices compatible with regressive streams of thought.
Unable to express themselves thoroughly and limitlessly, the creativity of many young artists are limited to prevailing values of their societies.
Interviews, Studio Practices and Problematic
Many contemporary artists working today in Cairo like Adel el Siwi, Mohamed Abla, Essam Maarouf and Khaled Hafez alternate between abstraction and neo-figuration; all were studio-trained (though in the case of El Siwi and Hafez they did not have formal education at the fine art school) with reputable professors/artists like Hamed Nada and Zakareyya el Zeiny whose studio teachings used very often nude figure models.
In the 1990s, Hafez hosted several private classes in his own studio, inviting art students and nude models; students, both male and female and according to Hafez “there was nothing wrong with it, there have never been intentions other than figurative painting. I know several private studios who do similar hosting; it is all underground.” (2)
In the nineties as is the case sometimes today, many of the models were students and Hafez who knows some of them on personal basis stated that “it was and still is a well paid job, and I know a couple of cases where models are art students themselves; of course they don’t remove their clothes unless they are certain that it’s a closed and extremely safe atmosphere, where trust and confidentiality are maintained. Finding models today isn’t difficult despite its social taboo; of course you don’t announce it because in theory it defies current social “norms”, if there is such a thing; working with nude models happens for drawing and painting; no artist from my circle ever felt the slightest remorse, and we, in our training years never felt that we were doing anything illegal.” (3)
In his beautiful gigantic Cairo downtown studio, perhaps one of the most celebrated Egyptian painters today, Adel El Siwi describes the decline and regression inflicted by religious conservatism in the society, a gradual observation that he personally lived during his itinerary as an artist: “What happened in Cairo over the past few decades changed the spirit of Egyptians; one must always cover the body and accuse the self; because once you have defeated the body you have also defeated the devil. “But there lies the paradox because if you eliminate the human body, you eliminate nature; and the secret of knowing nature is only through the human body. When the image is portrayed accurately and not as an icon it’s more provocative and influential, and church used that to lure people in; renaissance with its religious art has given the people an image they can relate to because there is nothing we know better than our own body and it’s reassuring to see it and identify ourselves with it”. (4)
But, instead of accusing art of its audacities and its bold depiction of the naked figure, El Siwi makes it clear that nudity is not a problem of art, it’s the veil: “The veil is not only around the body, it’s around everything. It is a façade.” (5)
Brian Curling, an American artist and an instructor art AUC thinks that that the meaning of the human body has changed over time, especially Middle Eastern religions. In Christianity, for example, the human body is holy, it’s the ideal and you can study its brilliance. Unlike Christianity, it is haram or sinful in Islam to depict a religious figure/protagonist. In Islamic art God is abstract; walking into a mosque or an Islamic museum, you’re most likely to find not only calligraphy, but also the word Allah which is seen as the highest form of Islamic art: “It’s difficult to introduce a community who see a veiled woman as a pious creature to nude art. Egypt has adopted western Ideas of nude art over the years, but it needs to find its own identity when it comes to art said curling. It is all about supply and demand and it is no doubt that artists face restrictions in Egypt”. (6)
Curling simply doesn’t think Egyptians are today ready for this change.
Amr Mounib, an Egyptian photographer based in Washington D.C. Thinks that “Experimentation is the most important thing; my photography of nudes aren’t always really nudes; I do nude photography, but much of my work is about perception: you can perceive the photograph as though it is and in reality it is not. I don’t have always to bluntly and blatantly show you a naked human. I can take a male or a female and put them in water with light clothes on and let it cling to the body. Nudity becomes subtle; it is how you perceive it.” (7)
It’s agreed upon by all artists that the human body is most important in academia, when teaching art through imitation. Yet each artist finds his own meaning in nude. For Curling it’s a way to study the human body both visually and artistically, Mounib sees it as a way of self-expression. Hafez uses them to measure his progress. “Every few years I go back and figure draw. I don’t exhibit it and I don’t sell it.” (8)
Gamal Lamie, professor of painting at the Art Education Faculty at the Helwan University and at the AUC holds to an alternative perspective: “Working with nude models in art is not an aim for itself; it is a mean for enhancing technical skills for a higher aim: developing the concept”. (9)
Sample of Student Interviews and Alternative Perspective
Sally Ahmed, art student at the American University in Cairo: “I feel uncomfortable when I am exposed to the naked body in the classroom; it doesn’t make you a better artist as some people would have you believe”.
Islam Hassan, art student at the Helwan University Fine Arts Faculty: “The level of painting dropped at the school of Fine Arts after nude art has been banned, and what has once been a young nude model is now a 55 year old woman with a galabeya (dress) on”.
Yet some of the younger generations of art students today are even more explicit in discussing issues of nude figure drawing; Sherif Tharwat, a young art student at American University in Cairo (AUC) openly discusses his interest in nude figure drawing and doesn’t shy away from any sexual connotations found in his work; in fact he is open to erotic implications and criticizes the Egyptian refrain from addressing taboo issues stating: “This society is very sexual. We are simply obsessed with sex because we are deprived of it. If you open Melody TV most singers are dressed in skimpy dresses, mini skirts and bikini tops. Even the lyrics suggest and carry sexual connotation. So why is it ok to watch melody TV but condemn nude art?” (10)
Tharwat, fortunate enough to be part of this underground movement describes how he had a chance to an extensive live nude model drawing: “I got a hold of a private instructor and he let me draw in his studio; the session was expensive though, I paid L.E. 250 an hour. Some art students might not have the luxury of attending one of those sessions, so instead it’s common for art students who are friends or lovers to pose for each other, that way it’s secure and a comfortable environment. It is also a one to one ratio”(11)
However, because of this controversy in Egyptian society, Tharwat explains that even upon submitting his work in regular student shows, they’re immediately rejected because organizers comply with collective fear or are reluctant of inevitable potential complaints that may lead to political repercussions.
Censorship and Film Practices
Cinema/Film, another art medium to analyse has changed over the years; black and white films of the Egyptian thirties, forties and fifties reveal an open society in terms of attire, behaviour, relationships and love.
One must put into consideration that according to Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), Egypt’s population in the late 1940’s was 19 million, which is almost one fourth of today’s current population (CAPMAS).
Traditions, as we know them today: a ban on pre-marital relationships and conservative wear, and lack of creativity in role-plays, were almost non-existent at the time. This could be seen in movies such as Sokar Hanem, a romantic comedy where actor Abdel Minem Ibrahim deceives his best friend’s neighbours by putting on a dress, panty hose and a wig and acting the part of Fatafeet al Sokar, a woman who is a millionaire.
Black and white movies are saturated with social freedom; female parts/roles included superbly beautiful, fashionable and elegant women.
In the majority of films, there is a love story and sensuality was not censored. Another example of a film with explicit and strong nudity is Hamam al Malaitli by Salah Abou-seif. It has been the most popular film among Egyptian viewers for years and until the 1990’s, cinemas across the country had it as a standard movie in their theatres. (12)
Film critic Tarek el Shinawi denied any legal ban on nudity: “There was never a law passed to ban nudity in film, however in the 70’s censorship became stricter and in the second half of the 70’s the term clean cinema appeared; no one can trace where this commonly-used term came from”. (13)
In the seventies, feature films that included overt nudity include Ze’ab La Ta’akol Al Lahm (Wolves That Are Not Carnivorous), Guitar AL Hob (Guitar of Love) and Sayedat Al Akmaar Al Sawdaa (Mistress of Black Moons): three cult films for those who study nudity in Arab film, where actors Nahed Shereef, Nahed Yosri and Nadia Arselan appeared fully nude in several scenes. Those three films were shot between Cairo and Beirut in the early seventies and released in Lebanese theaters, and are found today for purchase on DVD from Amazon and e-bay.
Another brilliant film released in the seventies is the political satire Al Karnak, where Soad Hosni’s breasts appeared for a split second in one prison torture scene. The film was directed by Hosni’s husband at the time Ali Badrakhan. This film was released in Egyptian theaters and sustained for months without censorship.
Other films that project sensuality, semi-nudity and subtle eroticism include: Arba’a w Eshreen Sa’a Hob (24 hours of love) and Emara’a Lel Hob (A Woman for Love) where explicit kisses and see-through satin of clothes were the norm by the actors (Soheir Ramzy, the lead actress in both films is religiously veiled and retired today).
Until 1995 it was common to find Egyptian box-office actors in scenes insinuating nudity in their feature films, either in see-through clothes or in semi-nude shots taken from the side or the back.
“A fact that over the years audiences became more religious and films reduced the sex scenes and downplayed nudity; I wonder, because in reality nudity and sex exist in nature, and avoiding such representation is avoiding nature itself. I am against purposely inserting nudity and sex without purpose though; I oppose meaningless nudity, like those scenes in Diaries of a Teenager by Inas El Idghedy; the erotic scenes were meaninglessly fabricated for commercial use; there is absolutelyno artistic logic in them. There are different means to tell the audience that there is a sex scene without showing nudity, a common way of doing this is showing something boiling over the stove or the slamming doors could imply that two people are having sex”. (14)
Conclusive Thoughts: Migration and Shift of Taste
In 1907 the migration of foreigners nearly stopped and the largest contribution to Cairo’s growth was the migration of rural peoples into the city and the excess of births over deaths (Macalester).
With the increase of population and traditions of the rural immigrants, who is today’s average bawab (doorman), everything took a different turn. Conservatism was top on the list and their customs dominated; strapless flowing dresses turned into abbaya’s (black gowns) and a veil.
Today, showing skin is a problem; women don’t have the liberty of wearing a short dress, a swimming suit or even a knee-length skirt without taking a risk of harassment or hassled by men, an observation traced in Egypt as well as all over the Middle East, perhaps with the exception of some parts in Lebanon, and very closed communities in Cairo.
Expressing sexuality has been suppressed for years in Egypt, and “exposing any form of skin will immediately be associated with sex”. (15)
As expressed and observed nearly unanimously in our set of interviews with artists and art students working in Cairo today, is not a surprise that nude art, nudity in the arts and nude modelling all have been a social ban for the past four decades.
The growth of population that has quadrupled over the past six decades, along with religious conservatism forced many institutions to prohibit the practice of figurative drawing and shun nudity. It is not unusual to find the majority of female students at the School of Fine Arts veiled; it is not unusual either to note that male students are not allowed to attend university with a dress code that is less conservative, like in shorts.
The growing conservatism and the prevail of ultra conservative dress codes not only discomforts a non-veiled female students upon entering the university, but also is a subtle advocate to religion and commends religious conservatism.
The human body, with its different implications is looked down upon by society and by art institutions in Egypt, as well as most of the Middle East countries.
Creative practices that need the use of the nude body, whether as a model or as a tool for expression are forced into the underground network of informal art education, where in most circumstances the resultant artworks are exhibited outside Egypt, and the Egyptian public cannot have access to.
References
- Mohamed Tolbah Rezk: Interview with Mustafa Naguib; bina al watan magazine; January 12, 1965.
- Interview by the author with Khaled Hafez in his Cairo studio.
- Same source as 2
- Interview by the author with Adel El Siwi in his Cairo studio.
- Same source as 4
- Interview by the author with Ben Curling at the American University in Cairo.
- Interview with Amr Mouib
- Same source as 2
- Interview by the author with Gamal Lamie at the AUC.
- Interview by the author with Sherif Tharwat in his Cairo studio.
- Same source as 10
- Exchange with said Tarek El Shinawi, Egyptian film critic.
- Same as 12
- Same as 12
Further Reading
Martina corgnati, gates of the Mediterranean catalogue, SKIRA publications, 2008
http://www.sis.gov.eg/VR/population/english/population1.html
http://www.macalester.edu/courses/geog61/rbrown/population.htm
Images
Nadine Hammam
Mahmoud said
Mustafa naguib
Khaled hafez
Seif wanly
Ibrahim el dessouki
In 1907 the migration of foreigners nearly stopped and the largest contribution to Cairo’s growth was the migration of rural peoples into the city and the excess of births over deaths (Macalester).
|
|
