Adam Henein: Various Works (1976-1990)

Overview

Adam Henein received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpting from the School of Fine Arts, Cairo, in 1953. After graduation, he spent several months at the Luxor Studio, where he studied ancient Egyptian art. In 1957, he received a two-year scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He also lived and worked in Paris for 25 years, returning to Egypt in 1996.

Since his return, Henein has contributed significantly to the country’s cultural scene as a sculptor and painter. He founded the Aswan International Sculpture Symposium, an annual forum and exhibition for sculptors from around the world who wish to experiment with and produce local granite sculptures. In 2014, he established a museum for his works on the land of Harrania, Giza Governorate, and this museum has become an important site for sculptors to visit.

Through both his paintings and his sculptures, Henein seeks the essence of form, drawing on a rich visual legacy in pharaonic art as well as contemporary aesthetic visions and preoccupations. His sculptures and paintings share a poetic simplicity of visual form. As can be seen in Falling Flowers (1975), he revived old techniques such as painting on papyrus with natural dyes, which he mixes with Arabic gum or traditional gypsum. Other paintings, such as the two untitled works from 1990, contain both diagnostic and abstract geometric shapes that are characterised by a clarity of shape and heat of colour enhanced by a sculptural depth.