Lot 60: HUDA LUTFI

HUDA LUTFI B. 1948 DEMOCRACY IS COMING titled acrylic and collage on paper 35 by 45cm.; 13 3/4 by 17 3/4 in. Executed in 2008.

Paris, Institute du Monde Arabe, Umm Kulthum, 2008
Dubai, The Third Line, Zan'it Al-Sittat, 2008

Exhibition Catalogue, Dubai, The Third Line, Zan'it Al-Sittat, 2008, no. 1-20, illustrated in colour
Ed Lake, "Diva Inspiration", in: The National, 23 November 2008, p. 3, illustrated in colour
Muhamed Yusuf, "Reality Bites", in: Gulf Today, 25 December 2008, p. 3, illustrated in colour
Layla Haroon, "Pictures of Tradition", in: Gulf News, 14 November 2008, p. 22, illustrated in colour
Hossein Amirsadeghi, Salwa Mikdadi and Nada Shabout, Eds., New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, London 2009, p. 213, illustrated in colour

The Third Line, Dubai

Huda Lutfi composes her work with the purpose of juxtaposing of the culture of high society found in Egypt, along with images and mottos readily available to the common man. Lutfi originally trained as a cultural historian and with her second chosen career as an artist she has found herself as one of the most popular emerging artists in Egypt. Her background as an academic is in Islamic Cultural History and she has found herself using the notions she studied in her work, choosing to focus on culture, history, identity and gender politics.



In the present work, Lutfi expresses her interest in both the city of Cairo as well as the visibility of women in Egypt's culture and society. By collecting and manipulating disparate images she then reinvents them as her personal visions of Cairo, its histories and its events. In doing so, Lutfi is commenting on the political significance of her country and lifting old feminine icons and giving them a new context with timeless zeal.