Salah Taher the Philosopher of Colours

Salah Taher known to be the prince of portraiture and one of the most prominent Egyptian plastic artists, died in February, 2007, at the age of 96, leaving behind a huge artistic production. In spite of his ailing health in his last days, he managed to skillfully paint an abstract painting in both red and black, and as his son Ayman explained, he was so glad with this painting that was pulsing with brightness and energy as if he painted it in the prime of his youth.

Salah Taher produced more than thousand paintings, varying between natural (classic) photography and plastic arts that mainly depends on geometrical elements. All along his life, he held more than 80 local and international art fairs and participated in about 67 collective fairs. Salah Taher gained wide fame among Arab intellects and he was granted the highest awards in Egypt, including the State Merit Award in 1974, Sciences and Arts Medal and the Mubarak Award in 2002. In addition, he received the State Incentive Award in 1959 and the Alexandria Biennale Award in 1961.

Salah ad-Din Taher was born in Egypt on May 12, 1911 and studied the art of photography under a galaxy of Egyptian and foreign artists. He graduated at Faculty of Fine Arts in 1934, and one year later, he held his first exhibition in al-Minya where he was working as a teacher.

Through the 1950s and 1960s, he held various high-profile positions: among others, a supervisor of Luxor Atelier in 1952, head of the Modern Art Museum in 1954, head of artistic museums in 1958 and director of the Opera House in 1962. He also worked as a part-time professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cinema Institute and Faculty of Arts in Cairo. In addition, Salah Taher headed the Society of Advocates of Fine Arts in Cairo since 1984. He was appointed as a member in the National Specialized Councils and the rapporteur of the Arts Department. Furthermore, he was appointed in the Supreme Council for Culture and the rapporteur of both the Arts Department in the Council and the Council Committee for Fine Arts.

 Taher started his career within an academic framework, yet, for more than 30 years, he kept on trying to get out of the world of academic realism that he regarded as a big prison where he felt nothing but misery and depression. He was always keen on carving his name in the realm of art through innovation, creation and uniqueness until he reached his destination. i.e. abstract expressionism.

On the other hand, this outstanding artist is well-known for his matchless mastery of portraiture about which he commented "The real reason behind my infatuation by portraiture is that I go beneath and beyond the face". All along his life, Salah Taher was greatly influenced by his parents and his brother to whom he always felt grateful, as well as the artist Ahmed Sabri, a first-generation pioneer who was among his earliest teachers.

In his last few years, Taher held many art exhibitions, together with his son, the artist Ayman Salah Taher, as if he aimed at asserting that, like father like son.

Salah Taher's genius does not only lie in his lines, paintings and colours, but also in his distinguished cultural and intellectual entity. He believed in the significance of weaving colours, words and rhythms together in one unique formation. Salah Taher's personal theory was that the sources of art are the same inside the human soul, and out of this original source, every many chooses one branch to carry his unique slogan in life. Thus, words became poems, colours became paintings and rhythms became tunes.

Salah Taher was raised in a civilized milieu full of culture and enlightenment at the early beginnings of the last century that witnessed the establishment of Cairo University, the eruption of the 1919-Revolution, the issuance of the 1923-Constitution and the appearance of a galaxy of Egypt's top figures such as Sa'ad Zaghloul, Lotfy al-Sayyed, Om Kalthoum, Mohammed Abd el-Wahhab and Riyad al-Sonbaty. Among those prominent names, Salah Taher was born and it was quite easy for him to befriend and interact with the 20th Century's distinguished figures, especially Abbas Mahmoud al-A'qad.

On the other hand, Salah Taher was also affected by the western culture with all its arts, poets and music. In his mid thirties, the Egyptian culture was in its golden age and in an atmosphere of creation and innovation, Salah Taher participated in making this revival and standing as one of the prominent names in the realm of art and culture.

During the era of President Anwar as-Sadat, Salah Taher was nominated as Minster of Culture, among many other high posts, that he refused all as he believed that art is higher than posts. Salah Taher was a lover of life; he was a unique cultured artist with a pure heart of a child. He was a good reader of poetry ad an avid listener to classical music.

In the public sphere, Salah Taher is beyond reproach. He fits into the "pioneer" mould through which earlier men of accomplishment are routinely celebrated.

Salah Taher was the first artist who witnessed the establishment of a society under the name of "Friends of Salah Taher", by Engineer Yasser Seif in 1998, in order to be a gathering of all those interested to dive into the endless sea of Salah Taher's art