Kamel El Telmissany

The panel is flat, even and ensuring a stable support. There are fine horizontal lines of craquelure, apparently relating to the grain of the wood, however these are not particularly visually distracting. Ultraviolet light reveals some scattered small strokes of retouching, notably in the figure's neck, to the left of her head, and in the figure's left cheek. The overall appearance of the work under normal light is good and it is ready to hang. Presented in a simple carved wood frame.
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Painted circa 1938-42.

Kamel El Telmissany's diverse capacity in the visual arts is like no other member of the Art and Freedom group. One of the principal founders alongside Georges Henein, El Telmissany was an artist, critic, poet, political activist and a film-maker.

El Telmissany’s art career spanned just ten years, so it is extremely rare to find works by the artist . A self-taught artist, El Telmissany was in fact enrolled in veterinary school; the study influenced his artwork heavily.

As can be seen in this painting, El Telmissany relied heavily on the shock-value of his art, and shattering all types of illusions of an idealized vision. His emphasis was on gore and harsh reality. El Telmissany famously said: 'Blackness, blood, ripped shapes and sad screaming lines are the only images prescribed to the artist by a non-homogenous world in which a maimed humanity lives.'

Following the fourth show for the Art and Freedom group, El Telmissany abandoned the Surrealist art movement and pursued a career in filmmaking.  In 1957 El Telmissany wrote and directed the movie El Souq El Sawda’a – The Black Market – which is considered to be the first neo-realist movie in the Middle East.