-She studied at High Institute for artistic education in Cairo till 1949; then she got the Diploma of Painting and Graphics from Slade School at London University in 1955, after that she became an instructor of Painting at the Faculty Artistic Education.
-Though she studied Painting and Graphics, Graphics dominated her artistic trend since 1950`s, as she drilled small areas of zinc in forms and scenes from silent nature using acidic Drilling and sometimes (Aquatint) with a romantic realistic style. At the beginning of 50`s I studied painting with pencil precisely from models and British landscapes. Then she painted small areas landscapes with watercolors on transparent chips of brush strikes, plants studies and painting with pencil in (chiaroscuro way) where she removes the light degrees from the dark ones by using an eraser carefully. At that time England produced Paintings of hollow drilling that represents landscapes, beaches, British Islands, Countryside, dry trees, green heights and ancient castles; then she used aquatint to make shadowy areas.
-In mid 50`s Menhatullah Helmy became interested in doing silent nature in drilling on wood cut including traditional elements like gas quantity, harvest, clog and carpet along with folklore writings, plant pot, books on the table cloth, windows and blinds. Then she painted using hollow Drilling topics like swings, clinic, Mosque of Sannan Pasha at Bolak, vendor of lupine, elections, alley of Al Sayed Amer, Celebrating Master Salama Birthday, bride of the Prophet birthday at Bolak from the roof, Bolak in the morning, ship houses, Nile casino, Al Montzah beach, Miami beach, public theater, football playground, fixing boats, fishing, animal market at Imbaba, bricks factory near the Nile, Nile banks at the village, Crocodile village, agriculture production, High Dam, working at the High Dam in a realistic style and folklore prospective; since she paints little children playing with circles and bicycles, lupine and sweet potato cart, cars, and people in their everyday life whether outside and in their rooms, on the roofs, on streets along with vendors, water stall, sweeper, carts pulled by mules, geese, ducks, kites, a family sitting around food table, kerosene car dragged by a donkey, clothes on roof, washtub with a woman sitting in front of it washing clothes, carpets hanging on the fence of the roof, spectacular scenes of the city, minarets painted with pale and precise lines in the background of the works, buildings leaning at each others with perspective angles enabling us to see the inside of the rooms through windows, and people on roofs with their chickens and stock. Since the mid of 60`s of the century she started to express scenes of Egyptian environment; as clusters of boats on the Nile banks which she drilled with a strong expressive style, then traditional districts which she tended to paint as if from prospect the eyes of a bird as roofs of houses appear with laundry on it, domestic birds, women doing their everyday activity. At the background and in front of the lines indicating Moqatam Mountain from a frontal perspective with less details and less density of lines, while vendors are wandering, on the streets and spaces of the paintings, with wooden carts dragged by animals.
-These environmental traditional topics was distinguished by combining between features which the artist appears to draw from realistic field, and other elements drawn from her mind idiomatically; added to them sentences of clear connotations written on walls, goods and others.
-Among London, Imbaba, Bolak scenes that are engraved on zinc boards and printed with lines, and among drawings and precise studies of pencil, water color, and large oil paintings, this artist practiced ,since mid-50`s till end of 60`s, language of formation and crystallized her distinguished character clearly.
-At the end of the 60`s and all through the 70`s she abandoned drawing from reality, and turned it to pure idiomatic mental formations; such as circular skies in which broken lines are going around the center of the circle in the middle, and at the end of the painting there are idiomatic ghosts of buildings of modern city with vertical crossing lines interacting with back circular lines as a strong variable of dialogue as in paintings of throwing fires, planets and space researches that represents a visual painting of circles and bows just like the disturbed skies of Van Gogh.
-In the 80`s when she stayed in England for the years of her study of the formation of pure abstractive rhythms, the artist fused her aesthetic experience with her technical professionalism in drilling on steal with its different types, and she achieved an important rise in the history of contemporary Egyptian graphics. She created more than 40 painting of various colors and some of them reached 12 print colors.
-Her works were distinguished for modernism and depth, and the artist chose the title spaces for them as they were of exceeding geometrical forms of centers that are producing degrees of light, lines, psychological mazes, and small circles that resembles point of gathering of electromagnetic circles.
-Her abstractive works are firm in structure and printing; some of them were printed with more than ten boards to reach heritage in color and in shadowy degrees. Yet, though these outstanding works were systematic and geometrical in an excessive way, this did not cause visual illusion which is the point of strength in the works of this calm and delicate artist. Her pure abstractive works provides the viewer who contemplates them with a mystical contemplative sense. On the other hand, they represent a deep search in reducing the radiating starry plates in Islamic Art from geometrical abstraction to a kind of mystical abstraction that is overwhelmed by light. Since she was punctual, and the kind of professor who gives a lot of time to her students, lately she did not produce much works, as she was keen on continuing her work as a professor, while in 1980`s she produced a lot of works. She gained different types of honoring, prizes and prizes of merits and certificates from international academies and specialized Biennales.
-Artist and Critic Hussein Bikar describes her latest works saying that she simplifies her geometrical designs into smart installations, merging them into important, delicate colors as if they were night spirits penetrating mysterious crystal barriers and radiate dark light or an enlightening darkness; as if they were colors overwhelming her paintings with an enchanting sense which is so revealing though they are smooth. He adds that she has a serene heart, pure soul, and transparent spirit.
Mustafa Al- Razaz |
