01 Painting, Middle East Artists, with Footnotes, #16

Maher Raif, 1926 - 1999, Egyptian

UNTITLED (THE FISHERWOMAN AND THE NET), c. 1948

Oil on canvas

60 by 85cm.; 23½ by 33½in.

Private collection

Maher Raif 1926 - 1999 was born in the Shubra quarter of (north) Cairo. Raif was the son of a visual artist and the grandson of an Al-Azhar scholar. A participant in all Contemporary Art Group events, Raif graduated from Cairo’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1950 and received a degree in philosophy at Cairo University in 1954. Raif studied in the Luxor Atelier. Depicting folkloric themes, he sometimes worked in pastels, choosing richly saturated colors and his figures were characterized by roundness, outsized hands and shrouded faces. In 1960 Raif was appointed dean of the Alexandria School of Fine Arts. In 1964, he was awarded the Lausanne Biennale prize. Raif earned a diploma in graphics from Dusseldorf University in 1970, developing innovative intaglio and cameo printmaking techniques. He also obtained a doctorate in graphics, aesthetics and art history from Cologne University in Germany in 1975. When he returned to Egypt, Raif embraced the Sufi religious tradition. He consequently abandoned figurative art in favor of calligraphy and geometric forms and led a fierce campaign against live model drawing in art schools. Raif exhibited extensively, in Egypt, Germany, Stockholm, Tokyo, Moscow, Sao Paolo, Venice and Rome. In 1986 he moved to the United States to live with his daughter in New Jersey. More on Maher Raif

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