20th Century Art / Middle East
20th Century Art / Middle East
Property from the Estate of the Artist
La Cité Industrielle (The Industrial City)
Lot Closed
March 29, 02:16 PM GMT
Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of the Artist
Salah Yousri
1923 - 1984
La Cité Industrielle (The Industrial City)
signed; signed and dated '76 on the reverse
oil on canvas
65 by 81 cm. 25½ by 31¾ in.
framed: 67.5 by 83 cm. 26½ by 32¾ in.
The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Mrs. Lily Yousry-Jouve.
Born in Cairo in 1923, Salah Yousri graduated from the Fine Arts School of Cairo in 1947, then moved to Paris where he studied in the atelier of renowned cubist artist André Lhote. His influence was pivotal in the development of Yousri’s style. Borrowing Lhote’s colours and designs, Yousri readapted his cubist mannerism to produce a new Egyptian folkloric aesthetic (see previous lot).
The present work, Cité Industrielle, while paying tribute to Yousri’s mentor André Lhote, and his cubist style, marks a distinctive approach to painting infused with elements of Egyptian orientalism. Lhote’s affiliation to the French Cubist movement lies in his attempt to merge emotive and spiritual components into the language of visual arts, and he articulated influential Cubist theories in two treaties, Essay on Landscape (Traité du Paysage) and Essay on Figure Painting (Traité de la Figure) (R.H. Wilenski, Modern French Painters, Harcourt, Brace, 1949). In Cité industrielle, Yousri excel in his ‘transitions’, that is, the reproduction into applied art of the visual phenomena that allow to capture certain shapes (Leighton Fine Art, 2022). In the present painting, Yousri’s urban landscape is merely suggested by the association of geometrical shapes and colours, creating a flagrant impression of shades and perspective.
Leighton Fine Art. 2022. Andre Lhote Paintings 1885 – 1962
Accessible at: www.leightonfineart.co.uk/artist/andre-lhote