Painter
Samir Rafi
Born in Cairo in 1924, Samir Rafi is one of the most prominent figures of surrealism in Egypt’s 1940s art movement. He studied at the Faculty of Arts in 1948, later earning a diploma from the Higher Institute of Art Education in 1950. Pursuing his passion for art history, he traveled to Paris, where he obtained a Ph.D. from the Sorbonne University in 1954.
Rafi’s career was deeply intertwined with his personal experiences and political realities. In the early 1970s, after being arrested in Algeria for political reasons, he chose not to return to the Arab world, seeking to preserve his artistic and personal freedom. Despite his exile, the themes of his homeland remained a constant presence in his work, shaping a body of paintings and sculptures that expressed the complexities of nostalgia, alienation, and identity.
Samir Rafi’s artistic legacy is marked by its diversity and its deep connection to the Egyptian experience. Rafi’s ability to merge surrealism with elements of folklore and social themes led critics to hail him as the “pioneer of popular surrealism” in Egypt.
