User:Maggieterral/Gazbia Sirry

Gazbia Sirry (Arabic: جاذبية سري) (11 October 1925 – 10 November 2021) was an Egyptian painter.

Born in Cairo, Gazbia Sirry studied fine arts at the Higher Institute of Art Education for Women Teachers in 1950 (currently known as the Faculty of Art Education at Helwan University), where her dissertation traced Egypt's political history. She later became a professor there, and also at the American University in Cairo. She has had more than 50 personal exhibitions, official purchases by international museums, international prizes, scholarships and university chairs. The paintings of Sirry capture the relationship between social reform, feminist consciousness and advocacy of women. Given their eclecticism and heterogeneity of modern Egypt, Sirry's paintings were widely celebrated. Divided into three phases, her works blend art and politics as they narrate the story of societies struggling between victory and defeat, pride and humiliation, social justice and inequality.

Her early work was dominated by images of women in unmistakable poses of power, performing roles in public and private spheres, and celebrating female unity. In the late nineteen fifties, Sirry made stylistic and thematic changes to reflect the grim mood created by discontent with the crackdown on dissent and curtailment of political freedom across the country. It also became increasingly abstract: by the 1960s this shift was apparent. While on fellowship at the Huntington Hartford Foundation in Pacific Palisades, California, 1965, she was introduced to the American style of abstract expressionism; in interviews Sirry credited this time in her life with “profound impact upon her art practice." Her shift towards abstraction has also been linked some scholars to political unrest and especially the Six-Day War of1967. The full abstraction was replaced in the early 1970s by the reappearance of human forms, but the dark paintings represent the fears of Sirry about the fortunes of women's emancipation. The dominant bright colors and pyramidal shapes of her paintings show the national pride and enthusiasm following the Ramadan/Yom Kippur War of 1973 in the later part of the 1970s.

Early Life
She was born to an aristocratic Turkish family in 1925 and was raised by both her mother and her grandmother. She lost her father, Hassan Sirry Nammy, when she was four years old and her mother, Esmat El-Daly, was the one to take control of her education. Her uncles on her father's side were the ones who contributed to her introduction to art by taking her to the theater and giving her the opportunity to become familiar with the expansive library.

Education
Gazbia Sirry was raised by two women. Her mother was left a widow after Sirrys’ father's death which left Sirry's mother and grandmother to raise Sirry on their own. With that, Sirry's maternal figures took charge of her education and played a huge role in the empowering female artwork that she would create later in life. Sirry’s influence came from watching the struggle her caretakers endured during Sirry’s upbringing in Cairo. Although Sirry’s mother and grandmother had no attachment directly to a man, her uncles (on the side of her father) were an impetus for her relationship with art, theater, art culture, and art history.

Her first known educational accolade was motivated by her mother, who suggested Sirry attend the Higher Institute for Young Women in Cairo. After 5 years, in 1948, Sirry gained a diploma in Fine Arts which only watered her love for art making. Her next journey was to Paris, France where she would learn from Marcel Gromaire. He was a famous painter and teacher whom she learned a lot from in her initial graduate year. By 1952, she was furthering her studies at the Egyptian Academy in Rome and tunneled her efforts into Art Education. Finally, she attended Slade College in London, England from 1954 - 1955, where she studied painting and lithography.

Feeling a pull back to her home, Sirry returned to Cairo where she taught for twenty odd years. Gazbia Sirry's education was a catapult into her professional career. These educational markers in her life gave her insight into not only the art world, but the political and social issues she would later comment on in her art.

Career (Maggie)
- Sirry enrolled in the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts Pour Jeunes Filles (Cairo) from which she graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1948. In 1949, she got a diploma in Art Education.

- In 1951, Sirry completed higher studies in visual art in Paris where she trained at the studio of Marcel Gromaire, following which she went to Rome in 1952 then London where she earned a postgraduate degree from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1955.

-Back in Cairo, Sirry worked as an art teacher at secondary technical schools. She also taught art at the Private Institute in Manial, Cairo, and the French Institute in Qasr al-Aini, Cairo. In later years, she became a professor of painting at Cairo’s College of Fine Arts, at Helwan University’s Faculty of Art Education where she remained till 1981, and was instructor at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1981 and 1982.

- In 2014, Shems Friedlander, professor of practice in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and director of The Photographic Gallery, described Sirry as,"'‘a senior Egyptian artist who is recognised on an international level. Her value to both the University and Egypt is both as an artist and a historian of Egypt’s culture for over 60 years. She has both joined and led the trends in Egyptian art for several decades.'"

Artistic Impact
Sirry and her art have majorly contributed to discourse pertaining to nationalism, cultural emancipation, gender politics, and individual freedoms within a sovereign state. She belongs to a generation of artists of artists that came to prominence in the years before Nasser’s Revolution.

International recognition[edit]

 * Prize of Rome,1952


 * Honorary Prize, Venezia Biennale,1956
 * Honorary Prize for Creative Painting, Cairo,1957
 * Second Prize  (lithography) Alexandria Biennale, 1959
 * First Prize (painting) Alexandria Biennale, 1963
 * First Prize, Salon du Caire, 1960
 * Fourth great Prize of International Contemporary Art, Monaco, 1968
 * State Prize and Order of Sciences and Arts of First Degree, 1970
 * Prize of Cairo Opera for Quadruple Tapestry Design, 1990
 * State Merit Prize, 2000

State Collection[edit]

 * Egypt Modern Art Museum, Cairo
 * Alexandria Modern Art Museum
 * Marine Museum in Alexandria
 * The Egyptian National Bank in Cairo
 * Al-Ahram newspaper, Cairo
 * The Ministry of Foreigners and Egyptian embassies abroad
 * The Egyptian Art Academy in Rome
 * Arts and Sciences Museum in Evansville, Indiana, USA
 * Vincent Price Art Collection in Los Angeles, USA
 * Faculties of fine arts and art education in Cairo, Alexandria and Menia
 * Josef Museum of Unaligned Countries in Belgrade, Yugoslavia
 * Living Art Museum in Tunis
 * The Grand Conference Hall at Cairo Opera House and Cairo
 * The National Museum of Women Arts in Washington
 * Arab World Institute in Paris
 * Museum of Art and Sciences in Evansville, Indiana, USA
 * Unaligned Countries Museum in Yugoslavia
 * The American University in Cairo
 * Cairo Opera House
 * Great Cairo Library
 * Mubarak Public Library in Giza
 * The Supreme Council of Culture, Cairo
 * Press Syndicate, Cairo
 * Novotel Hotel in Cairo Airport
 * Sheraton Hotel in Giza
 * Sheraton Atoun Hotel in Nuba

Bibliography[edit]

 * London University, U.K 1954/55.Atallah, Nadine. "Have there really been no great women artists ? Writing a feminist art history of modern Egypt", in Under the skin : feminist art and art histories from the Middle East and North Africa today, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020 (Proceedings of the British Academy), p. 11‑25.
 * Atallah, Nadine. "Gazbia Sirry", Dalloul Art Foundation, https://dafbeirut.org/en/gazbia-sirry
 * Atallah, Nadine. "Women, Art and the Nation. History of the Exhibitions of Two Egyptian Women Artists, from the 1950s to the Present day: Inj Efflatoun and Gazbia Sirry", AWARE (Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions), https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/femmes-lart-nation-histoire-expositions-de-deux-artistes-egyptiennes-annees-1950-a-nos-jours-inji-efflatoun-gazbia-sirry/
 * Azar, Aimé. Femmes peintres d'Egypte. Le Caire: Imprimerie Française, 1953.
 * El-Din, Mursi Saad. Gazbia Sirry: Lust for Color. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.
 * El Razzaz, Mostafa, Sonia Farid, and Ashraf Reda. Inji, Tahia, Gazbia: a life's journey. Cairo: Gallery Picasso, 2014.
 * Karnouk, Liliane. "Contemporary Egyptian Art", Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995.
 * Okeke-Agulu, Chika."Politics by Other Means: Two Egyptian Artists, Gazbia Sirry and Ghada Amer."Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism - Volume 6, Number 2, pp. 117-149.Indiana University Press. 2006.
 * Seggerman, Alex Dika. Modernism on the Nile: Art in Egypt between the Islamic and the Contemporary. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2019.
 * Seggerman, Alex Dika. "Gazbia Sirry." Mathaf Encyclopedia, http://encyclopedia.mathaf.org.qa/en/bios/Pages/Gazbia-Sirry.aspx
 * Winegar, Jessica. Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2006.
 * Mostafa-Kanafani, Fatenn. “Gazbia Sirry.” Art Talks, 17 Mar. 2022, https://arttalks.com/artist/gazbia-sirry/.


 * Mostafa-Kanafani, Fatenn. “Gazbia Sirry-When Modern Arab Form Meets Politics.” Post, 30 June 2021, https://post.moma.org/gazbia-sirry-when-modern-arab-form-meets-politics/ . https://post.moma.org/gazbia-sirry-when-modern-arab-form-meets-politics/
 * Gazbia Sirry, http://www.zamalekartgallery.com/artists/gazbia_sirry/gazbia_sirry.htm . http://www.zamalekartgallery.com/artists/gazbia_sirry/gazbia_sirry.htm


 * “Gazbia Sirry.” AWARE Women Artists / Femmes Artistes, https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/gazbia-sirry/ . https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/gazbia-sirry/

(I just changed the order for when we move all of this over to the real page)

Career (Maggie)
- Sirry enrolled in the Institut Supérieur des Beaux-Arts Pour Jeunes Filles (Cairo) from which she graduated with a Diploma in Fine Arts in 1948. In 1949, she got a diploma in Art Education.

- In 1951, Sirry completed higher studies in visual art in Paris where she trained at the studio of Marcel Gromaire, following which she went to Rome in 1952 then London where she earned a postgraduate degree from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1955.

-Back in Cairo, Sirry worked as an art teacher at secondary technical schools. She also taught art at the Private Institute in Manial, Cairo, and the French Institute in Qasr al-Aini, Cairo. In later years, she became a professor of painting at Cairo’s College of Fine Arts, at Helwan University’s Faculty of Art Education where she remained till 1981, and was instructor at the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1981 and 1982.

- In 2014, Shems Friedlander, professor of practice in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication and director of The Photographic Gallery, described Sirry as,"'‘a senior Egyptian artist who is recognised on an international level. Her value to both the University and Egypt is both as an artist and a historian of Egypt’s culture for over 60 years. She has both joined and led the trends in Egyptian art for several decades.'"

Education
Gazbia Sirry was raised by two women. Her mother was left a widow after Sirrys’ father's death which left Sirry's mother and grandmother to raise Sirry on their own. With that, Sirry's maternal figures took charge of her education and played a huge role in the empowering female artwork that she would create later in life. Sirry’s influence came from watching the struggle her caretakers endured during Sirry’s upbringing in Cairo. Although Sirry’s mother and grandmother had no attachment directly to a man, her uncles (on the side of her father) were an impetus for her relationship with art, theater, art culture, and art history.

Her first known educational accolade was motivated by her mother, who suggested Sirry attend the Higher Institute for Young Women in Cairo. After 5 years, in 1948, Sirry gained a diploma in Fine Arts which only watered her love for art making. Her next journey was to Paris, France where she would learn from Marcel Gromaire. He was a famous painter and teacher whom she learned a lot from in her initial graduate year. By 1952, she was furthering her studies at the Egyptian Academy in Rome and tunneled her efforts into Art Education. Finally, she attended Slade College in London, England from 1954 - 1955, where she studied painting and lithography.

Feeling a pull back to her home, Sirry returned to Cairo where she taught for twenty odd years. Gazbia Sirry's education was a catapult into her professional career. These educational markers in her life gave her insight into not only the art world, but the political and social issues she would later comment on in her art.

Early Life/Artistic Impact (Malik)
- Born to an aristocratic Turkish family in 1925

- Raised by both her mother and her grandmother

- Lost her father, Hassan Sirry Nammy, when she was four years old

- Her mother, Esmat El-Daly, was the one to take control of her education

- Her uncles on her father's side contributed to her introduction to art by taking her to the theater and familiarizing her with their library.

- Sirry and her art have majorly contributed to discourse pertaining to nationalism, cultural emancipation, gender politics, and individual freedoms within a sovereign state

- Sirry belongs to a generation of artists of artists that came to prominence in the years before Nasser’s Revolution

- She was a member of the GMA, or the Group of Modern Artists, that was founded in 1948.

Bibliography[edit]

 * London University, U.K 1954/55.Atallah, Nadine. "Have there really been no great women artists ? Writing a feminist art history of modern Egypt", in Under the skin : feminist art and art histories from the Middle East and North Africa today, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2020 (Proceedings of the British Academy), p. 11‑25.
 * Atallah, Nadine. "Gazbia Sirry", Dalloul Art Foundation, https://dafbeirut.org/en/gazbia-sirry
 * Atallah, Nadine. "Women, Art and the Nation. History of the Exhibitions of Two Egyptian Women Artists, from the 1950s to the Present day: Inj Efflatoun and Gazbia Sirry", AWARE (Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions), https://awarewomenartists.com/en/magazine/femmes-lart-nation-histoire-expositions-de-deux-artistes-egyptiennes-annees-1950-a-nos-jours-inji-efflatoun-gazbia-sirry/
 * Azar, Aimé. Femmes peintres d'Egypte. Le Caire: Imprimerie Française, 1953.
 * El-Din, Mursi Saad. Gazbia Sirry: Lust for Color. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1998.
 * El Razzaz, Mostafa, Sonia Farid, and Ashraf Reda. Inji, Tahia, Gazbia: a life's journey. Cairo: Gallery Picasso, 2014.
 * Karnouk, Liliane. "Contemporary Egyptian Art", Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995.
 * Okeke-Agulu, Chika."Politics by Other Means: Two Egyptian Artists, Gazbia Sirry and Ghada Amer."Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism - Volume 6, Number 2, pp. 117-149.Indiana University Press. 2006.
 * Seggerman, Alex Dika. Modernism on the Nile: Art in Egypt between the Islamic and the Contemporary. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2019.
 * Seggerman, Alex Dika. "Gazbia Sirry." Mathaf Encyclopedia, http://encyclopedia.mathaf.org.qa/en/bios/Pages/Gazbia-Sirry.aspx
 * Winegar, Jessica. Creative Reckonings: The Politics of Art and Culture in Contemporary Egypt. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2006.
 * Mostafa-Kanafani, Fatenn. “Gazbia Sirry.” Art Talks, 17 Mar. 2022, https://arttalks.com/artist/gazbia-sirry/.


 * Mostafa-Kanafani, Fatenn. “Gazbia Sirry-When Modern Arab Form Meets Politics.” Post, 30 June 2021, https://post.moma.org/gazbia-sirry-when-modern-arab-form-meets-politics/ . https://post.moma.org/gazbia-sirry-when-modern-arab-form-meets-politics/
 * Gazbia Sirry, http://www.zamalekartgallery.com/artists/gazbia_sirry/gazbia_sirry.htm . http://www.zamalekartgallery.com/artists/gazbia_sirry/gazbia_sirry.htm


 * “Gazbia Sirry.” AWARE Women Artists / Femmes Artistes, https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/gazbia-sirry/ . https://awarewomenartists.com/en/artiste/gazbia-sirry/