Personal data

Nickname: Hijazi
Date of birth: 5/13/1936
Place of birth: Alexandria
Date of death: 10/21/2011
Specialization: Caricature
E-mail : --

school grade

He received his education at Al-Ahmadiyya Secondary School in Tanta.

Jobs and professions undertaken by the artist

He worked as a cartoonist for Rose Al-Youssef magazine.
He worked as a cartoonist in Al-Tahrir magazine, which was issued by the July 23 Revolution, 1952, and whose editor-in-chief was Sami Daoud.
He worked as a cartoonist for Sabah Al-Khair magazine, which was edited by Hassan Fouad.
- The Egyptian children's magazine 'Mickey', published by Dar Al Hilal Foundation in late 1960.
- The children's magazine 'Samir', in which he had a famous cartoon series entitled 'Tanbala Al-Syan', script and idea by Mustafa Ramzy, then he developed it to write the script for it and carry it with all the social and political ideas of the sixties.
In 1980, he began working in the famous Majid magazine.

Places where the artist lived

- Tanta.
- Cairo .
-Libya.

Local group exhibitions

- Exhibition (100 Years of Cartoons) at Ramattan Cultural Center, January 2011.
- Exhibition (Immortal Creators 2) at Dhi Gallery in Mohandiseen - September 2019.
- (Ajyal) exhibition at (Hala Arts Gallery) in Nasr City, September 2021.
- (The First Egyptian Cartoon Day) Exhibition in (Nahdet Misr) Hall, Mahmoud Mukhtar Cultural Center, Mahmoud Mukhtar Museum, December 2021.
- An exhibition entitled (Arabic Selections), the fourth exhibition at the Dha Gallery for Arts and Culture in Mohandiseen, June 2022.
- 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.

The technical tasks assigned to him and general contributions

- Illustrated the first book cover entitled (The Book of Days) by Dr. Taha Hussein.

Other data

Hegazy's first drawings were at the end of the fifties on the pages of Rose Al-Youssef, and they show a method with caution, intelligence, and simplicity that reaches the point of spontaneity, and his brush is biased towards the poor of this country. He used to draw weekly articles with Ihsan Abdel Quddus under the title “Cut down half of your food.” A drawing of poor children sleeping on the ground next to a garbage can in front of them the bones of a meatless fish.
Hejazi was the most prolific and most genius of his generation. The virtue of isolation and estrangement within the homeland and oneself.
In his distinctive works, Hegazy spoke about vocabulary that he lived with for many years. He painted the persecuted woman, the divorced woman who cannot find a home, and the families who live in one room. His drawings were a desperate attempt to change the painful reality that people live in in his country. He was and still believes that his art, drawing, and talent should be used. It always expresses those people who have been wronged by life.
He believed that caricature can only exist in an atmosphere of freedom. It is not suitable for a symbol because it can only be direct and clear and does not recognize what is called laughter for the sake of laughter. Laughter must have a goal, especially in this era in which there are many issues.
During the era of Abdel Nasser, the general line was in line with his ideas, and he attacked some of the negatives in his drawing. During the period of President Sadat’s rule, the general line of the entire period differed from his ideas, so he turned to social caricature and began drawing his paintings about economic openness, then he devoted himself to drawing for children... despite stopping drawing caricatures for a full ten years due to his political stance and rejection of President Sadat’s policies, so he traveled - for the first and last time. Out of Egypt - to Libya and stayed there for three years.
-When the editor-in-chief of Sabah Al-Khair magazine, the genius Salah Jaheen, was postponing his own pages and drawings in order to publish Hegazy’s drawings and ideas instead.
He did not agree to start a family and did not have children. He was afraid of anyone getting close to him and loved freedom.

The influences that affected the artist intellectually and artistically

The artist Hegazy was born to a rural father who worked as a driver for the railway authority...and his father used to accompany him on the train to various governorates, and he saw all of Egypt through the train window. When he joined school in Tanta, some of his rich classmates would invite him to their homes. He saw luxury and felt that there was something wrong with this. The world and why is he so poor? He did not complete his studies, so he traveled to Cairo trying to work, but he found difficulties. He was a great man, pulsing with revolution, expressing the hopes of the simple people, feeling their pain and suffering. He memorized the poetry of Bayram al-Tunisi, “the poet of the people and the pioneer of the Egyptian colloquial language.”

comments

- A simple, faithful artist. His drawings are like the best of a painter who struggles socially and politically with his brush, for and for the poor. His feather stings with a merciless whip, with a consciousness that reaches the spontaneity of a man in the street.