Lot 17: SAAD EL KHADEM (EGYPT, 1913-1987) The Surrealist Ritual oil on canvas,

SAAD EL KHADEM (EGYPT, 1913-1987) The Surrealist Ritual oil on canvas, framed signed and dated 1957 (lower right), executed in 1957 37.5 x 45cm (14 3/4 x 17 11/16in).

Provenance: Property from a private collection, Cairo Formerly in the collection of Mahmoud Othman Saad El Khadem is remembered in his own right as one of Egypt’s most creative modern artists and as one half of an aristocratic artistic power couple with his wife Effat Naghi, one of the most prominent female artists in twentieth century Egypt. The couple were a prodigious tour de force and a museum still stands today in their joint honour. A prolific historian, and social anthropologist, El Khadem had a profound interest in folklore, traditional rituals, practices and esoteric religious beliefs. The present painting, a striking, surreal depiction of a mystical dancing ceremony, depicts pseudo-female figures congregated around a zoomorphic, winged, totemic figure. Born in 1913 in Cairo, Khaadem came from an aristocratic family. After finishing his studies in Egypt he was sent on a mission to England in 1936 with Hamed Said (the very well known philosopher of art) and the painter Rateb Siddik. After the advent of the Second World War in 1939, the three of them returned back to Egypt where El Khaadem finished his studies in Egyptian anthropology. After he married Effat Naghi in 1954 they began an artistic collaboration which would last for the rest of their lives.