Lot 25: HUSSEIN YOUSSEF AMIN (EGYPT, 1904-1984) Portrait oil on cardboard e

HUSSEIN YOUSSEF AMIN (EGYPT, 1904-1984) Portrait oil on cardboard executed circa late 1940s 42 x 33cm (16 9/16 x 13in).

Provenance Property from a private collection, Cairo Hussein Youssef Amin was a renowned Egyptian artist famed for his foundation of the Contemporary Art Group which counted amongst its members some of the most accomplished Arab artists of the modern era. Hailing from a privileged background, Amin’s father was a senior Turkish government official. During his early years he travelled to Italy, France, Spain and Brazil, graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Upon returning from his travels Amin sought to reconnect with and express his Egyptian identity. Building on the philosophy of the celebrated Art and Liberty group, Amin sought to establish a socially aware art movement which could express the concerns and experiences of the beleaguered Egyptian people. Amin succeeded in creating a vernacular Egyptian surrealistexpressionist movement, In 1944, whe he formally founded the Contemporary Art Group, with artists Hamed Nada, Ibrahim Mas’ouda, Abdel-Hadi El-Gazzar, Maher Ra’ef, and Samir Rafei.