Mahmoud Mukhtar .. Pioneer of Sculpture in Egypt

Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak inaugurated the museum of Egypt's first sculptor, Mahmoud Mukhtar in Gezira, Cairo after repairing and developing it and transforming it into a cultural centre to successfully compete with modern international museums.

Mrs. Mubarak said: The museum should be invested after repair by making copies of statues and marketing them internationally; thus, following the example of great museums as the Louvre. Moreover, I gave the signal to start launching the exhibits on the internet as a beginning for Egyptian acquisition to get the world acquainted with them.

The Story: After Mahmoud Mukhtar died in 1934, Mukhtar Friends' Group was established under the title Mukhtar's Art to commemorate him.

This Group was headed by Hoda Sha'rawy, Patron of art and artists; moreover, it included engineer B.A. Face, the big fan of Mukhtar's art, an open-handed fan who was keen on possessing his works, and preserving and exhibiting them. Thus, the Group stumbled to the idea of establishing a museum to keep his heritage and a tomb to embrace his remains. The idea won both the welcoming and cooperation of the artist's family and heirs who unshakenly relinquished his masterpieces that were left in Paris and Cairo to let this objective come out and materialize.

Moreover, a lot of expenditure has been made on some of his fragile works to be transformed into solid materials; as bronze, stone and marble. In 1938, the Egyptian Ministry of Education found it necessary to honour this pioneer by establishing a museum for his works, due to the stability that prevailed after World War II. Most of Mukhtar works were brought back from abroad and put in an annexe to the Modern Art Museum that bears the name of Mahmoud Mukhtar.

It was transformed into a temporary museum that was inaugurated on March 27,1952. The museum comprised 59 statues of stone, bronze and marble. When Dr. Tharwat Okasha assumed the Ministry of Culture (1958-1962), he was keen on establishing an indepenedent museum for our artist in an outstanding spot at Al-Horyya Garden in al-Gezira area, the current site of the museum. The architectural design of the museum was made by engineer Ramsis Wesa Wassef (1911-1974) and its inauguration was on the tenth anniversary of the July revolution in 1962.

The Museum exhibited a collection of Mukhtar's works in Hatchy Horn Museum. The Museum commemorated the golden jubilee of Mukhtar's demise through a number of seminars, in addition to issuing a brochure about the museum, which was supervised by the late Badr-Ed-Din Abu-Ghazy. Through these seminars, there was a revival of the call for establishing Mukhtar's Friends Association.

The Association was made known on April 16, 1985 and there is a cooperation between it and the administration of the museum on all occasions, the latest was in a process of repairing the museum and modernizing it. The Association also participated in compiling a catalogue of Mukhtar's works.

Mukhtar Museum is regarded as an architectural masterpiece characterized by many architectural elements. It begins with the bridge leading the way from the front gate to the inside, passing by the facade that reflects the loftiness of the edifice, and ending with the detailed and arranged spaces and halls, and using all that in a breath-taking exhibition. In addition to the museum building for sculptures, a multi-purpose hall has been designed. Sometimes, this hall hosts exhibitions of plastic arts or cultural seminars. Its interior design was made to help facilitate communication to the different halls in the in the museum.

All the components of the museum have been made use of as in preparing an open air location for sculpture in the garden , so that Mukhtar's art would attract the muse of sculpture to come and give sculptors a hand. Moreover, a youngsters's workshop has been established to be an incentive for them to learn and create.

Mahmoud Mukhtar.. Life and Art

Mukhtar was born on May 10, 1891 at Tenbara village beside Al-Mahala Al-Kobra. He lived in Nasha village with his mother after her divorce from his father and his talent blossomed with his fingers playing with clay on the banks of the canal.

He moved to Cairo in 1902, lived in its old quarters, joined the Fine Arts School in 1908, and learned at the hands of professor, La Blany. He participated with his art in the national movements and demonstrations that called for establishing the constitution in 1910. Thus he was jailed for 15 days. In 1911, Mokhtar travelled to Paris to finish his studies; he learned at the hands of Kutan, then the French sculptor, Antoine Marseille.

During World War I, his salary was cut off so he worked as a porter in factories of ammunition till he met his teachger La Blany, who took him to Grevanne Museum where Mukhtar took over the museum's management after him. Work in Renaissance of Egypt statue started in 1923 and the curtain was raised on May 20, 1928. By that time, it was situated in Cairo railway station square, but later, it was transferred to stand before Cairo University. All the while, he won the badge of honour in appreciation of his ingenuity.

Mukhtar became a member in the consultative committee of the Faculty of Fine Arts by a royal decree. Mukhtar established the Modern Art Museum in Cairo. In addition, he participated in establishing the higher Fine Arts School. In 1929, he travelled to Paris as he participated in Salon of Paris by his marble statue; Bride of the Nile. He then won the golden medal, while the French government expressed its wish to buy it, to be exhibited in Luxemburg Museum. His statues were the first Egyptian artistic works to be exhibited abroad through his first exhibition in Paris in 1930. Thus recording the birth of the Egyptian modern art school in the registers of international artstic criticism. Mukhtar set up two statues for Sa'd Zaghloul (1930-1932), and he hoped to set up a number of statues for Alexander the Great, Ahmed Oraby and Queen Cleopatra.

However, Illness gave him no chance as he passed away on March 27, 1934 at the age of 43 years.

Art and Style

Though short-lived, artist; Mukhtar left behind a huge artisitic heritage of statues in different squares such as these of Renaissance of Egypt, the two statues of Sad Zaghloul, and the two statues of Upper and Lower Egypt. In addition, he left sculptured poems that recite the sorrows and joys of the Egyptian village. Both his feelings and fingers raised up to the everyday incidents, reaching the climax of expression.

So his art came out so elevated that it erected a bridge, on which Egyptian villages and art passed to enter the world of globalization.