Hassan Muhammad Hassan Al-Fiqi

Personal data

Known name: Hassan Muhammad Hassan
Date of birth: 6/16/1906
Place of birth: Cairo
Date of death: 5/30/1990
Specialization: Photography
E-mail : --

school grade

During his childhood, he attended primary school, Sharaf Al-Iskandarani School in Shubra, then the School of Arts and Decorations in Al-Hamzawy, graduating in 1926.
Then studies in his various missions.

Membership

Member of the Fine Artists Syndicate.

Jobs and professions undertaken by the artist

He returned from scholarships to teach at the College of Applied Arts in 1931 and rose through the ranks of the college until he reached the rank of professor and head of the Department of History and Philosophy of Art for postgraduate studies and photography subjects at the College of Applied Arts.

Places where the artist lived

At the beginning of his life and in his childhood, he was in the Shubra neighborhood, then he spent his missions in 1926 to Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Palestine. When he returned in 1931, he got married and continued in the Shubra neighborhood until 1959, when he moved to Al-Haram, Mariouteya Street, in his new studio, and lived there until his death in 1990.

Special exhibitions

An exhibition sponsored by Senate President Hussein Heikal Pasha, 1936.
Exhibition at the Egyptian and European Association Hall, 1949, under the patronage of Sadiq Fahmy Bey, President of the Association.
An exhibition at the Zamalek Officers Club, 1954, opened by Salah Salem, a member of the Revolutionary Command Council.
An exhibition at the Gezira Center in 1959, opened by Ahmed Youssef, Director General of the Fine Arts Department.
An exhibition in the Socialist Union Hall, 1961, opened by Minister Hikmat Abu Zeid
An exhibition at the Arts Complex in Zamalek, 1982, inaugurated by Mokhtar Hani, Minister of State for People’s Assembly and Shura Affairs.
- An exhibition in the Candle Hall on the occasion of ten years since his death, inaugurated by the Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, in March 2000.
- Exhibition at Mahmoud Mukhtar Museum 2009.
- Exhibition in the Ubuntu Hall in Zamalek, January 2020.

Local group exhibitions

- Exhibition (Memory of Gamal Abdel Nasser) in the building of the Central Committee of the Socialist Union (later the National Party) September 1972.
- Al-Fayrouz Exhibition in Al-Ahram Hall.
- A documentary exhibition presented for the first time at the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art in March 2010.
- Exhibition (October through Artistic Eyes) in (Mohsen Shaalan) Hall at the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art - Opera Square, October 2015.
- Exhibition (Land of Gold Forum 2) at the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center in the Nation House Museum, March 2019 (guest of honor).
- Exhibition (Contemporary Heritage 2) at the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center, House of the Nation Museum, May 2019 (honorees).
- An exhibition entitled (Mally Fat Teams) at the Saad Zaghloul Cultural Center - House of the Nation Museum - December 2019.
- An exhibition entitled (Immortal Creators) at the (Dha) Gallery for Culture and Arts in Zamalek and Mohandessin, September 2022.
- An exhibition entitled (Arabic Selections 2023) at the Dha Gallery for Arts and Culture in Mohandiseen and Zamalek, July 2023.

Technical visits

- Art museums in Italy and Germany during the study mission.

Scholarships and grants

Following his graduation in 1926, he was assigned to be a member of the American Scientific Archaeological Mission in Palestine as a photographer. At the beginning of 1929, he was sent by the Ministry of Public Education to Czechoslovakia, then to Germany and Italy, to study the artistic methods of decorating and photographing glass vessels. His goal, as he always said, was not to study the art of glass decoration. Rather, it was His first goal was oil painting, drawing, and painting. Therefore, he would visit the Academy of Arts in Italy in the evenings to study drawing, painting, anatomy, design of paintings, and classical aesthetic standards. He studied there under the famous Professor de Minfani. He returned from the mission, specializing in painting oil paintings and the rules of anatomy and construction in classical art.

Literature and cultural activities

He gave his long experience to be lessons for younger generations and to increase his knowledge of general philosophical or aesthetic trends. Then his passion for literary and scientific studies and writings gave him the opportunity to write a group of books - 1 - The doctrines of contemporary art and the plastic vision of the twentieth century (2) The aesthetic principles of modern art, which expresses the impact of aesthetic philosophy. Ancient in modern art (3) Historical foundations of contemporary plastic art (two parts) The first part represents an explanation and analysis of the philosophy of some important aspects of this art in general, and the second part represents the aesthetic philosophy of the arts of sculpture and photography (5) Art in the Rides of Socialism, which represents the impact of socialist conditions in the arts Ancient and modern.

Local awards

- A letter of thanks from former President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
A letter of thanks from former President Anwar Sadat.

Special collectibles

- Painting ‘Thought is the Essence of Existence’ by Dr. Lotus Abdel Karim.

Official collectibles

- Five paintings in the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art: 1- Egypt breaks the shackles and seeks the ideal 2- The Conflict 3- Akhenaten 4- Al-Hawi 5- Artists of the Revolution
- Two paintings for the Cultural Development Fund: 1- Christ is crucified twice in Palestine 2- The author of the drama
- A painting of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the key to Egypt
- A painting of President Sadat Al-Salam
- Two paintings from the Fairouz exhibition: 1- The Nile 2- Sectors of Life

Other data

People who left their marks on his personality: (1) Hajj Ahmed Othman, his professor at the School of Arts and Decorations in the Al-Hamzawi district of Al-Azhar, where he learned from him the rules of Arabic arts and the movement of interlocking lines in Islamic decorations, which gave him the ability to master coloring. 2- Jean Pontilla, who was a Roman artist, from whom he learned the art of drawing and engraving. And the pencil in living studies of human bodies with artistic anatomy with deep knowledge 3- Mesoudi Stefani, his professor at the Venice Academy, who toured Italian museums and explained to him the artistic conditions and the subtle differences between the Italian art professors, in addition to his explanations about the use of colors in paintings of living nature.

The influences that affected the artist intellectually and artistically

The artist’s upbringing in an environment surrounded by farms and beautiful scenery from all sides in the Shubra neighborhood had a great impact on his artistic life and in the emergence of the beginnings of artistic preparation. The beginnings of this preparation appeared because from his youth he had been drawing with chalk on the ground and with pencil on the walls and everywhere. Corresponding papers.
- When he studied at the Institute of Arts and Decorations, he found a fertile field that helped to develop his talents and preparations, especially with regard to living studies of human bodies. In addition to that, he always had in his pocket what was called a sketchbook, and he would draw while in the street or in any place he encountered such scenes or scenes. Those faces are of people walking along the roads.
- When he was at the Institute of Arts and Decorations, he was very fond of live studies. A Roman professor named Monsieur Jean Pontilla was teaching him. This man was able to teach him and was deeply acquainted with artistic anatomy. In fact, he was so impressed by him and his method of teaching that after he returned from the mission, he taught a subject. He studied living nature, and he followed the example of this professor. He was so impressed by this subject that he did not content himself with studying with charcoal or pencil, as was the case at that time, but rather he used to draw directly with a brush, with the special skill and extreme boldness that this method required.
- He is also a child who was standing in the circle of Al -Hawah in the Al -Muhammadi Square in Al -Tramdash to witness the handicrafts and emotions in the anticipation of the miracle from this container. the artist .
Also in Al-Muhammadi Square in Demerdash, he learned to buy old books from his weekly market from Al-Muhammadi sellers, so that he would fall into his hand with the book Little Literature and Great Literature by Ibn Al-Muqaffa, and this would be the beginning of his attachment to literature and his involvement in the field of culture in its comprehensiveness and reading its branches in four languages that he mastered completely, namely English, French, German, and Italian. Then He increased his knowledge of the trends of philosophy, whether general or aesthetic philosophy, then his passion for literary and scientific studies and writings, which allowed him to be present in the literary community in all its directions, and all of this benefited him in the field of art, as most of his paintings express deep intellectual aspects that try to present his point of view.
His Italian teacher, Di Stefano, also advised him to read the history of art in order to understand what was going on around him and be able to evaluate and appreciate it, and his hunger for reading increased since then, which made him develop his style and talents to broader horizons. As he used to say, culture to the artist is like the wings of a bird. The longer and greater it is, the more able he is to advance. To worlds that are difficult for others.
- Since he came from religious origins, he often tended to express Sufi ideas, from which we pick up in this field the painting of the creation of the universe, Moses and Pharaoh.
- He was passionate about his love for Egypt and filled with the dream of liberating it from colonialism, so his paintings over the years were a fiery expression of all of that.
His trip to Palestine was also with the American mission, where he spent many years, producing paintings about the Palestinian issue, as he benefited from his mission in Palestine and coexisted with its people in 1926.
- Hassan Muhammad Hassan was an educated artist who believed in the usefulness of artistic culture. He had famous lecture tours in multiple languages, as well as his seminars, radio broadcasts, writings, and drawings in Egyptian newspapers and magazines in the thirties and forties. He had a prominent role in teaching art for more than half a century, and dozens of artists graduated from his hands. Among the most prominent of them is his student, Omar Al-Najdi, who used to say to his teacher, Hassan Muhammad Hassan: (I am behind you in art). An artist committed to the motives of patriotism, his opposition was dominated by these tendencies in expressing the issues of Arabism, especially the issue of Palestine.
What is new in his works is what relates to his intellectual artistic style, which mixes philosophical ideas with modern methods and doctrines, formulating them in a unique symbolic form. His artistic school is diverse, starting with classicism and representing many periods of transformation and transition between all other artistic schools until it ended with contemporary art in his personal style, which combines Egyptian authenticity since the Pharaonic era with European contemporaryism by which Western civilization was known.