Rateb Seddik, “Sans Titre”, 1940. Oil on Wood, 120 x 220 cm, Musee Rateb Seddik Le Caire, Egypt
Founded in December of 1938, the Art et Liberté group in Egypt provided a young generation of intellectuals, artists and activists with a platform for promoting political and cultural reform, with the members playing an active role in the network of the Surrealist movement. At the start of the second World War, the Art et Liberté became part of the international movement defying fascism, nationalism, colonialism, including the British colonial domination of Egypt.
In line with Surrealism’s rejection of the alignment of art with political propaganda, the Art et Liberté rebelled against the merging of art and national sentiment. With their December 1938 manifesto entitled “Vive L’Art Dégéneré (Long Live Degenerate Art)”, the group declared their opposition to the reactionary attacks on art in Hitler’s Germany, epitomized by Munich’s 1937 Entartete Kunst exhibition which ridiculed modern art, and attacks elsewhere, notably in Vienna and Rome.
Rateb Seddik completed his formal artistic education at Chelsea College of Art in London, where he was a student of the English surrealist painter Robert Medley, and later continued his studies in Cairo. Seddik became a member of the Art et Liberté and participated in the group’s fourth exhibition, entitled “For Independent Art”, that was held on May 12, 1944, at the Lyceé Francais School in Cairo. Despite obstacles that occurred, the show was able to exhibit 150 works of art, including painting, sculpture and photography.
Rateb Seddik’s 1940 “Sans Titre (Untitled)” combines his passions for opera and ancient Egyptian art. The oil-on-wood painting depicts a group of diversely featured human beings who are all equally united by a white cloth symbolizing death or suffering. While the scene resembles a Turkish bathhouse, it also references Stravinsky’s opera of the tragedy of Oedipus Rex. This surrealist masterpiece is a prime example of an artwork that is at once locally rooted and universally informed.
J’ai très bien connu Rateb Seddik qui est venu avec un groupe d’artistes égyptiens que j’avais conviés au Salon d’Art Sacré à Paris en 1982. Nous fûmes reçus par l’artiste peintre française Micheline Masse, dans sa maison de Bagnolet, ce fût un grand moment de partage et d’échanges
culturels et artistiques. Je possède des photos et le discours tenu par Rateb au Centre Culturel égyptien de Paris. C’est un grand vide laissé par ces deux artistes depuis leur mort. Josette VION (ex- épouse Hassanein)
Thank you very much for your comment. I am envious at your good fortune to have met such talented artists. I see, that even after forty years, the moment continues to enrich your life. I offer you all my best wishes- Chas