Touching Egypt, paintings by Fattah Hallah Abdel

Touching Egypt, paintings by Fattah Hallah Abdel














“Touching Egypt… it is amazing to touch ancient exciting culture, a mixture of wisdom, mysteries, golden sand and dusty winds in snow-covered Moscow. One has just the feeling of that mysterious attractiveness when meets that woman – fragile, helpless, amazingly beautiful, her profile reminds portraits of Egyptian empresses. Especially, if you can see her among lambent gold of her pictures. But when you start talking to her it is like the mist clears away and features of a very Russian, soft, poetic character come out through a bright, eastern appearance; it is an astonishing combination making this woman even more fascinating. How was such a mixture born? What does it promise? In what creative form such a spirit can be realized? I believe everyone asks these questions who becomes acquainted with Hallah and her works.

She admitted that she had not turned to Egyptian themes in art for many years, but the roots are powerful and sooner or later they reflect in artist’s work, find their form of existence on canvas. Grown up in Russia with traditional values of Russian fine arts at a certain moment Hallah discovered the harmony of ancient Russian icon painting and Egyptian symbolism, their graphical fineness.

It seems that absolutely incongruous notions go together in Hallah’s work: permanency of ancient Egyptian frescos and reality of modern European painting, ancient brightness of gold and azure and modern relevancy of yellow and blue, hot temper of the south and moderation of the north. However, in Hallah’s work beside “ancient” Egyptian artworks there are modern although still a bit fantastic plots. In her hands even portraits have certain magic.”

Fattah Hallah Abdel: personal page