Muhammad Kamel Abbas Ghandar

Personal data

Nickname: Kamel Ghandar
Date of birth: 30/1/1923
Place of birth: Port Said
Date of death: 26/1/2012
Specialization: photography
E-mail : --

school grade

Free studies.
- He learned in the Egyptian Heritage and Nature School, and he has a school and a method by which he is known.

membership

- Founding member of the Syndicate of Fine Artists - Photography.

Jobs and occupations undertaken by the artist

- Director of the French Hall (Cultura) in Garden City from 1957: 1961.

The places where the artist lived

- Cairo .
- Port Said.

Special exhibitions

- Exhibition at the French Club Hall - Port Said 1953.
- An exhibition at the French Friendship Club Gallery, Cairo, 1953.
- Exhibition at the French Club Hall - Port Tawfik 1953.
- An exhibition at the Eastern Exchbach Hotel, Port Said, 1955.
- An exhibition at the Goethe Institute Gallery, Cairo, 1974.
- An exhibition in the Port Said Governorate building hall, 1975.
- An exhibition at the Goethe Institute Gallery, Cairo, 1984.
- An exhibition in Saba Gallery, Zamalek, 1999.

Local group exhibitions

Cairo Salon (33) in 1957, (34) in 1958.
Cairo Salon (37) in 1961.
Cairo Salon (45) in 1969.
- The General Exhibition of Fine Arts, session (3), 1971.
The General Exhibition of Fine Arts, Session No. 8, 1976.
The General Exhibition of Fine Arts, Session No. 10, 1978.
- One Piece Exhibition 1978.
- Spring Exhibition in Cairo 1978.
Alexandria Spring Exhibition 1978.
- Spring Exhibition 1979.
Cairo Salon (51) in 1980.
The General Exhibition of Fine Arts, Session No. 11, 1981.
The National Society Salon 1981.
Cairo Salon (52) in 1982, (53) in 1983.
- The Fourth National Society Salon 1984.
The Fifth National Society Salon 1985.
Cairo Salon (54) in 1987.
The General Exhibition of Fine Arts, Session No. 19, 1989.
- Exhibition (Coptic Scenes), Picasso Gallery, 1997.
- Exhibition (Views from Nubia), Picasso Gallery, 1997.
- Pasteljia exhibition, Picasso Gallery, 1997.
The National Exhibition of Fine Arts, 25th session, 1997.
- An exhibition in Khan Al-Maghrabi Gallery, in participation with two artists, 1997.
- Exhibition (Scenes from the Nile), Picasso Gallery, Zamalek, 1998.
- Exhibition (The Flat) at Orient Express Hall, Mohandessin, 1998.
- "Lamsa Noor" exhibition, Khan Al-Maghrabi Gallery, 1999.
- Exhibition (The View) in Al Marsam Hall, Nasr City, 1999.
- Exhibition (Watercolors) at Khan Al-Maghrabi Hall, 2001.
- The First Fine Creativity Festival (the general exhibition, the thirtieth session, and the first plastic art market), 2007.
- An exhibition entitled (In the Frame), Khan Al-Maghrabi Gallery, Zamalek, 2007.
- An exhibition at Cordoba Gallery, Mohandessin, December 2008.
- Exhibition (Art for Every Family) in Shadecor Hall, Heliopolis, March 2010.
- Group exhibition (Impressionism... A Modern Egyptian Vision) at Mohsen Shaalan Hall, Museum of Modern Egyptian Art, December 2015.
Mobdeoun Khalidon exhibition at Dhi Gallery, Mohandessin, January 2021.
- Exhibition (Variations 1) at Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center - House of the Nation Museum, March 2021.
- An exhibition entitled (Creative Immortals) at (Dhaa) Gallery of Culture and Arts in Zamalek and Mohandessin, September 2022.
- An exhibition entitled (Generations of Art) at the Cordoba Gallery in Mohandessin - May 2023.
- An exhibition entitled (Arabic Selections 2023) at the (Dhi) Gallery for Arts and Culture in Mohandessin and Zamalek, July 2023.

International group exhibitions / overseas fairs

- The Third Alexandria Biennale for the Mediterranean Countries 1959, 1961.
- Exhibition (Egyptian Contemporary Art) with a group of Egyptian artists held by Khan Al-Maghrabi Hall in London, August 1997.

Technical visits

A visit to Nubia in 1963.
- A visit to the Nubian and Nubian displacement area (Kom Ombo), but ten years after his first trip.

Literature and cultural activities

Since the fifties, he has printed copies of one hundred and sixty paintings and sketches of his works, which have spread in Egypt and around the world.

Private collectibles

- He has two hundred and forty-two paintings from his works until 2003, held in private collections in Egypt and the United States of America - France - England - Italy - Holland - Germany - Sweden - Denmark - Finland - Switzerland - Greece - South Africa - Japan - Panama Ireland - Canada - United Arab Emirates - Dubai.

Official collectibles

- Museum of Modern Egyptian Art in Cairo.
- Victory Museum in Port Said.
Museum of the Faculty of Art Education in Zamalek.
- Al-Ahram Foundation building in Cairo.

Important works of art in the artist's life

- Allocate a financial prize (forever) for outstanding students in an annual competition between male and female students called (Kamel Ghandar Award for Watercolors) to be an incentive for students and encourage them to practice this art so that it spreads and does not disappear.
Recorded a collection of paintings about the 1956 war and October 1973 in Port Said.
- It is his work that resulted from his trip to Nubia in 1963 before it sank in the waters of the High Dam, during which he drew a large group of pastel paintings, watercolor paintings, and one hundred and sixty sketches of the life of the Nubians and the countries that were on the surface of the earth and are now under Lake Nasser.
- About his watercolor paintings and the paintings of some Egyptian watercolor artists - The artist's (Rida Abdel Salam) thesis was for a doctorate in July 1987 at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo.
- The master's thesis was by the artist, Amani Mahdi Hamed, about his paintings and the paintings of some of his fellow Egyptian artists, at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, 1999.

Other data

- One of the pioneers of watercolor photography in Egypt.
- He taught himself by himself, learned in the school of nature, and dived in his Egyptian environment.
He devoted his life to art and devoted himself to artistic work since 1960.
- He has a style and a school with which he is known, and his paintings address all humanity - and its subjects (the customs of the Egyptian people, the toiling classes, the popular neighborhoods, the homeless, landscapes, subjects from the far north, his city Port Said from the sea, the port, boats and fishermen - movement in the port and subjects from the far south Nubia, where the dramatic and calm nature).
A pioneer in the art of printing reproductions. Since the fifties, he has made reproductions of one hundred and sixty paintings and sketches of his works spread all over the world.
- Aramco International Magazine published 5 reproductions of his paintings to depict a story by the great writer Naguib Mahfouz about the magazine's honor for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989.
- He drew and produced 524 paintings and thousands of sketches until 2006.

The influences that were reflected on the artist intellectually and artistically

- My birth and upbringing in the city of Port Said, which is surrounded by water on every side, and my vision of it every day affected my soul, my love for water, and my love for watercolors, and this became my first favorite material in all stages of my artistic production.
Western music also has a great influence on my thought and art. For example, when I painted the painting (Boat in Maria), the ancient Nubia, work No. 408, and it is one of my most important watercolor works.