Inji Aflatoun

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Inji Aflatoun
Born(1924-04-16)16 April 1924
Cairo, Egypt
Died17 April 1989(1989-04-17) (aged 65)
Cairo, Egypt
NationalityEgyptian
Known forPainting
MovementArt and Freedom Group

Inji Aflatoun (

Arabic: إنجي أفلاطون; 16 April 1924 – 17 April 1989[1]) was an Egyptian painter and activist in the women's movement. She was a "leading spokeswoman for the Marxist-progressive-nationalist-feminist movement in the late 1940s and 1950s",[2] as well as a "pioneer of modern Egyptian art"[3] and "one of the important Egyptian visual artists".[4]

The activist

Aflatoun was born in Cairo in 1924 into a traditional Muslim family she described as "semi-feudal and bourgeois",[5] her father was an entomologist[6] and a landowner,[7] and her mother was a French-trained dress-designer who served in the Egyptian Red Crescent Society women's committee.[8] She discovered Marxism at the Lycée Français du Caire .[7] It was her private art tutor,[6] Kamel el-Telmissany, who introduced her to the life and the struggles of the Egyptian peasants.[9] Al-Timisani was one of the founders of the 'Art and Freedom Group,' a surrealist movement that would have an impact on Aflatoun's development as an artist.[10] In 1942, she joined Iskra, a Communist youth party.[8] After graduating from the Fuad I University in Cairo, she was, with Latifa al-Zayyat, a founding member in 1945 of the Rabitat Fatayat at jami'a wa al ma' ahid (League of university and Institutes' Young Women).[7] The same year she represented the League at the first conference of Women's International Democratic Federation in Paris.[7] She wrote Thamanun milyun imraa ma'ana (Eighty Million Women with Us) in 1948 and Nahnu al-nisa al-misriyyat (We Egyptian Women)[11] in 1949. These popular[5] political pamphlets linked class and gender oppression, connecting both to imperialist oppression.[7] In 1949, she became a founding member of the First Congress of the First Peace Council of Egypt.[5] She joined Harakat ansar al salam (Movement of the Friends of Peace) in 1950.[8] She was arrested and secretly[6] imprisoned during Nasser's roundup of communists in 1959.[12] After her release in 1963, Egypt's Communist party having been dissolved,[6] she devoted most of her time to painting.[8] She later declared: "Nasser, although he put me in prison, was a good patriot."[6]

Painting

During school, Aflatoun liked to paint and her parents encouraged her.[6] Her private art tutor, Kamel el-Telmissany, a leader in an Egyptian Surrealist collective called the Art and Freedom Group,[13] introduced her to surrealist and cubist aesthetics.[6] Her paintings of that period are influenced by surrealism.

Van Gogh[3] or Bonnard.[16] Her art of later years is characterised by an increasing use of large white spaces around her forms.[6] A collection of her works is displayed at the Amir Taz Palace in Cairo.[4][13] Another collection of her works is showcased at the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah.[17]

Legacy

A Google Doodle on 16 April 2019 commemorated Aflatoun's 95th birth anniversary.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Radwan, Nadia. "Inji Efflatoun". Mathaf Encyclopedia. Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
  2. ISBN 978-0-521-47211-1
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-02-865771-4
    .
  4. ^ a b "Permanent art exhibition of activist Inji Aflatoun opens at Amir Taz Palace". Ahram Online. 16 August 2011.
  5. ^
    JSTOR 3193323
    .
  6. ^
    ISSN 1040-0656
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-18491-5
    .
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-1-55587-229-8
    .
  9. ISBN 978-977-424-467-4
    .
  10. ^ "Egyptian Surrealism". Broomberg & Chanarin. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  11. ISBN 978-0-253-34441-0
    .
  12. ISBN 978-977-424-413-1
    .
  13. ^ a b Stuhe-Romerein, Helen (24 August 2011). "Egypt's Museums: Amir Taz Palace relates story of artist and activist Inji Aflatoun". Almasry Alyoum. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  14. ^ Ryan, Niger (11 June 2003). "Obituary:Margo Veillon (1907–2003)". Al-Ahram Weekly. Archived from the original on 4 April 2011.
  15. ^
    ISBN 978-1-915656-00-1
    .
  16. ^ Images. Dav-al-hilal. 1969.
  17. ^ "Inji Efflatoun". Barjeel Art Foundation. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  18. ^ "Inji Aflatoun's 95th Birthday". Google. 16 April 2019.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inji Aflatoun.
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