Lot 13: MAHER RAIEF (EGYPT 1926-1999) Surrealist Vignette’s I mixed media on pa

MAHER RAIEF (EGYPT 1926-1999) Surrealist Vignette’s I mixed media on paper in four parts framed

Provenance: Property from a distinguished private collection, Alexandria Formerly in the private collection of Farouk Shehata, Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria, and Egyptian cultural attaché in Vienna. The present set of delightful surrealist vignettes are an extremely rare appearance of works by the renowned surrealist painter Maher Raief. Maher Raief was an active member of the Contemporary Art Group with his fellow group members, Hamed Nada and Samir Rafi, the group aimed to Express a distinctly Egyptian identity, from the yoke of colonial influence. In 1952 he takes part in the Venice Biennale where he gains notable recognition. Maher Raief was born in Cairo in 1926 and died in the United States in 1999. He graduated from the Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts in 1950 . In 1954 he got a BA in Philosophy from Cairo University. In 1960 he got a Diploma in Graphics from Dusseldorf and in 1975 he obtained his PH.D.in Graphics , Aesthetics and Art History from Cologne University in Germany. Appointed teacher in Cairo Faculty of Fine Arts in 1951. In 1960 he moved to Alexandria Faculty of Fine Arts and became the head of the Graphics department in 1975. He continued as a Professor of Graphics in the same Faculty until his death. He exhibited his works in Germany , Alexandria Biennale , Lausanne Graphics biennale . He participated in exhibitions in Stockholm , Lausanne , Tokyo , Moscow , Sao Paolo , Venice and Rome. He won the Lausanne Biennale prize in 1964. In the mid forties he was an active member of the Contemporary Art Group which was established by Hussein Youssef Amin and comprised El Gazzar and Hamed Nada among others.