Painted in 1963, the year Egyptian artist Inji Efflatoun (إنجي أفلاطون) was released from four years of political imprisonment, this work is like a quiet insistence on personhood. Efflatoun’s modernist simplifications (bold outlines, flattened color fields, and a nearly symmetrical composition) do not erase individuality, but concentrates it. It’s a close, emotional portrait of a young woman (perhaps a fellow prisoner or a mother in distress) facing us head-on, her shoulders cropped so the focus stays on her eyes and the wrap around her head. A loosely wound headscarf of cream, lilac, and rust-red frames her face in thick, visible strokes, like fabric painted as weather. Her skin is built from warm tans and yellow-green planes, with deeper brown shading at the temples and along the nose. Wide empathetic brown eyes, outlined in black, look straight out with a steady, unsmiling appeal. Dark, arched brows anchor her expression of concern. Small blue-green, marks appear at the center of her forehead and in short vertical strokes on her chin. Two dark braids of hair slip forward at either side of her neck. Behind her, a smoky blue background presses in, making the face and scarf feel illuminated, intimate, and unavoidably present. The sitter’s gaze refuses the sentimental softness often demanded of women’s portraits. The scarf functions as both shelter and stage with its swirling reds and whites echo the pulse of the brush, while the cool blue backdrop suggests pressure, distance, or containment. The facial markings likely signal belonging and self-definition common in Egypt and across parts of the Middle East/North Africa and are reminders that identity can be carried on the skin even when circumstance tries to control the body. In the context of Efflatoun’s lifelong feminism and commitment to representing ordinary women’s lives, the portrait can be felt as solidarity rather than spectacle for a dignified presence asking us to hold attention, not consume it.

“Portrait” by إنجي أفلاطون / Inji Efflatoun (Egyptian) - Oil on board / 1963 - Inji Efflatoun Museum (Cairo, Egypt) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #InjiEfflatoun #إنجيأفلاطون #Efflatoun #InjiEfflatounMuseum #EgyptianArtist #EgyptianArt #art #artText #BlueskyArt #WomenPaintingWomen

Oil on canvas
50×60cm
#painting #illustration #design #sketch #art #digitalart #contemporaryart #egyptiancontemporaryart #modernart #finearts #arabart #abudhabiart #londonart #arte #egyptianartist #abstractart #photography #visualarts #artoftheday #bluesky

Inji Efflatoun was an award-winning Egyptian painter as well as a political and feminist activist. In 1959, when the Nasserite regime (under Gamal Abdel Nasser) began massive detention campaigns targeting communists, intellectuals and artists were particularly affected. Efflatoun was among those arrested and became one of the first 26 women in Egypt to be political prisoners. During her incarceration from June 1959 to July 1963, Efflatoun painted fervently … when allowed, depending on alternating periods of permissions or bans as declared by successive directors of the institution. Efflatoun completed at least 50 paintings in prison including a series of portraits of fellow inmates with similar framing, often cut above the chest, and an almost always frontal and hieratic representation of faces. Only the intensity of their gaze animates them, with varied expressions from the greatest distress to the iciest stare. Her very linear drawing, as well as the treatment of skin tones through the geometric juxtaposition of flat tints, shape the faces with their contrasting shades. These personal, individual representations of fellow prisoners stand out from her group scenes, in which the figures are often faceless—perhaps alluding to the dehumanization of inmates by the prison system. This portrait presents a close-up of a middle-age woman whose gaze is directly at us. Her expression is serious, almost somber, conveying a sense of resolve and weariness. Her skin tone is rendered in muted, earthy tones of beige and light brown, with subtle shading to suggest depth and form. Her eyes are a striking, dark green, which contrasts with the overall muted palette and draws our attention. Dark eyebrows sit above her eyes and her lips are closed in a neutral line to further emphasize her serious expression. The woman's hair is dark brown and braided, partially visible beneath a grey patterned headscarf. She is wearing a coarse loose-fitting green shirt with vertical stripes.

“Portrait of a Prisoner” by Inji Efflatoun (Egyptian) - Oil on canvas / 1959 - Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha, Qatar) #WomenInArt #art #WomanArtist #artText #WomensArt #InjiEfflatoun #Efflatoun #EgyptianArt #FemaleArtist #MATHAF #WomenArtists #PortraitofaWoman #EgyptianArtist #ArabMuseumofModernArt

Didn't have getting banned from a hand-embroidery group when showing my indigenous Egyptian heritage work on my bingo card but here we are

#Coptic #EgyptianArtist

Oil on canvas.
100×70c
#painting #illustration #design #sketch #art #digitalart #contemporaryart #egyptiancontemporaryart #modernart #finearts #arabart #abudhabiart #londonart #arte #egyptianartist #abstractart #photography #visualarts #artoftheday #bluesky

Today is inventory day for the upcoming Los Angeles show!

#notwhatot #inventory #smallbuisness #artist #theotherartfair #la #california #egyptianartist #canadianartist #artwork #prints #wallart #homedecor

Preparing an interview for a podcast about technology and art, today.

I'm excited to share more with you soon!

#art #technology #podcast #notwhatnot #canadianartist #egyptianartist

A woman with long curl-woven blond locks plus exaggerated facial features like bright red lips, wide grin, large oval eyes, and raised thin eyebrows engages viewers in 1/4 portrait while wearing a bare shoulder low-cut fancy dress with thin colorful straps. She stands outdoors under palm trees in front of an Arabian cityscape. Saïd’s depictions of women, often drawn from his social circles, reveal stark contrasts, especially in the portrayal of their hair. Notably, aristocratic women appear perfectly coiffed with an airbrushed quality, while models from more modest backgrounds are rendered with unkempt hair, emphasis placed on their coils and curls. The most emblematic of these instances is this famous painting as the golden locks are THE subject of the painting. The significance of hair as a historical marker of status and identity is key to understanding how Saïd's representations contribute to the power dynamics at stake. An emblematic figure of the Arab Renaissance (Nahda) and its pioneers, Mahmoud Saïd abandoned his law studies in Egypt to go to Paris where he joined the Julian Academy in 1920. Following the independence of Egypt in 2022, he sought, alongside other Egyptian artists such as Mahmoud Mokhtar or Georges Hanna Sabbagh, to create an Egyptian art both authentic and modern, anchored in a process of intellectual emancipation. In 1937, during the International Exhibition of Arts and Techniques Applied to Modern Life, this painting was exhibited in the Egyptian pavilion, which wanted to show continuity between its pharaonic past and its industrial present. Though Saïd painted primarily for his own edification, the pubic grew to appreciate his work in his later years. Artists belonging to the Egyptian Surrealist movement adopted Said as an honorary member and included his work in a few exhibits, selecting his famous painting, La Femme aux boucles d'or "The Woman with Golden Locks" for the cover of their first exhibition catalogue in 1940.

The woman with golden Locks (La femme aux boucles d'or) by Mahmoud Saïd (Egyptian) - Oil on canvas / 1933 - Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (France) #womeninart #portrait #painting #art #egyptianartist #MahmoudSaïd #artwork #oilpainting #MahmoudSaid #ModernArtMuseum #modernart #fineart #womanportrait