The moments of honesty with oneself are steadily declining these days, so in order for a person to preserve their unique personality in this terrible digital world, they must continue swimming against the current on an almost daily basis. Despite all this, there remains within us a light and calm voice, just like the voice of the conscience. We must listen to this voice and allow ourselves to be guided by its light, for it is the voice of the heart, to which the passage of days has granted the ability to distinguish between what is good and what is evil.
And with the same sense of hesitation comes artistic creation that expresses the components of the human soul in all its dimensions. The twentieth century has witnessed tremendous conceptual changes that reflect the philosophy of modernity and its aftermath. If we set aside the methods of art and its successive schools of thought, we conclude a single truth, which is that true art is based on three pillars: innovation, mastery, and communication.
In the words of the American artist and teacher, Robert Henry, “Art is not based on theories; it must have a soul.” In my numerous tours of international museums of art, certain paintings and statues attract me and my heart before my mind. I then feel that the artist has extracted the juice of their emotion, passion, and technical capabilities to embody a unique state of true love that plays with my feelings, thoughts, and memories, and moves me to another level of ecstasy, travelling back and forth between mental and unconscious perception, and it may open to me a door of inspiration that I did not expect… This is how art is!
What we search for everywhere is sincere passion that leads to creativity in the most magnificent perfection; it quickly penetrates the heart of the viewer to reach his depths and intermingle with him.
The paintings in this exhibition vary between multiple subjects and materials that are linked only by true passion, which is really the main engine behind creativity and its central theme. Thus, this group of paintings evokes memories and feelings close to my heart, in which I put the summary of my artistic and life experience, and the portraiture will remain essential but pivotal in every new exhibition. We see the young Nubian “Mustafa” as he carries the personality of his owner and his own world in the presence of a distinct icon, so absorbed in his thoughts and his private world at times and laughing in the midst of the mountains of the village at other times.The model is the same, but the message is completely different. As for my friend Ramy, he chose for the first portrait an excellent Jalabiya Saeedi, and when I finished drawing, we called the painting “Al Afghani.” Then came the next attempt, completely different, as I drew him sipping tea in “El Khamseena” and on his face a smile of satisfaction… The truth is that I do not find a simple explanation to what is inside me that affects my artistic choices, but it is a special state that changes and changes, so I do not start drawing before the intensity of my emotions reaches the utmost peak. Then I pray, asking for the blessing of the Lord and His providence, and the brushes and colours are launched on the surface of the painting. The speed and smoothness amaze me personally.
The spirit of adventure that accompanies artistic creativity is encapsulated by the promise of success, and no one is hidden from the artist’s suffering and fears as he moves up his work until his hand does what his heart desires.
One of the dearest topics to my heart is “silent nature,” which I enjoy composing. Sometimes the painting goes beyond the aesthetics of the figure to open the door to expressive symbolism, such as in “Contemplation in Ancient Civilization,” in which a Greek vessel is bordered with a wonderful statue of a beautiful girl thanks to the creativity of the Italian artist.
Anconio Garela as she looks at a real egg on a classical table, its marble reflecting the levitating subjects carefully chosen and coordinated with delicate balance, as a curtain of white cloth hangs behind the bowl, we see in the background a momentum of the paintbrushes standing as the artist’s weapons as she prepares for a future battle.
The paintings continue to reflect a special vision of our beloved Egypt. In the painting “The Joy of Cotton white gold is mixed with the majestic pyramids of Giza, and the painting “Girls Spinning” expresses the beautiful preoccupation with work. And the painting “Exiting the Basin,” with a background of a village from Upper Egypt and a student memorising the lesson while the girl, the heroine of the painting, tries to get out of a pool filled with water, looking forward to a better future.
Human emotion plays the lead role in this exhibition, a role well-deserved. Human creativity in all its diversity revolves around human emotion and communication of love, happiness, pain, anguish, desire, shame, success, euphoria, laughter, crying, gain, and loss. Without it, there is neither art nor creativity. I look once outside and twice inside to search for my true heart’s desire, and I think I find it in my paintings.
About the Artist
Farid Fadel was born on October 7, 1958 in Assiut into a family that appreciates science and the arts, Fadel was lucky enough to inherit the three talents that his family is famous for. Not only is he an award-winning artist, but he is also a practicing eye doctor and an esteemed, dedicated musician; a true renaissance man. Fadel graduated from the Faculty of Medicine specializing in Ophthalmology. He also studied violin for 10 years at the Cairo Conservatoire. Over the past 5 decades,