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(1919-2003) The painter Tahiya Halim, a Turkish-Egyptian by descent, was born in Cairo on September 9, 1919. She had her elementary education at the Ashraaf School in Abbasia and her secondary education at home under private teachers, in accordance with the practices of conservative families in the mid-thirties of the past century. Along with her secondary education, she had lessons on painting in 1939-40 at the hands of Youssef Trabulsy, a Syrian teacher, then the Greek, Alecco Jerome in 1941-43 and finally the painter Hamed Abd Allah from 1943 to1945 when she and Hamed crowned their cooperation with marriage for 12 years.
Artistic Stages:
Tahiya Halim traveled to join the Julian Academy for three years at her own expenses. This period had a great impact on her art as a result of her contacts with numerous painting professors, and her frequent visits to the museums and studios of Paris. Her paintings were consequently influenced by European views; the most important among these were six paintings in water-colours produced in 1950, besides the paintings captioned "From the Window", "The Latin Quarter "and "A Garden in Paris". During this stage the painter was in full control of colours, compositions and technique. Her style was dominated by the academic or new school and the post-impressionistic school, respecting the third dimension in painting without approaching the portrait form.
This is the intermediate stage in the artistic evolution of Tahiya Halim, following her return from Paris when she immediately proceeded to portray the Egyptian daily and national life. In this context, her talent was inspired by several tremendous events in the Egyptian history; the 1956 tripartite aggression against Egypt , for example, is considered a turning point in the history of this stage. Tahiya Halim focussed on depicting the genuine Egyptian in all aspects; she utilized the Parisian stage to attain the national objective through her creations. During this stage she was inclined to simplifying her lines; she abolished the third dimension, emphasizing realism, proportions and bold colours. The most important paintings of this stage are: "War", "Compositions" and "Human Suffering". Nubian Stage (1962-72): This is the purity stage in Tahiya’s art. It began with a visit to the Nubian area organized in 1962 by the Ministry of Culture for a group of plastic artists. This visit was God-sent for Tahiya’s art where two factors reacted there-on: the ancient Egyptian art and the Coptic art, subsequently eliminating the physical and psychic mutations which characterized her paintings all through the previous stages. The domination of the white colour characteristic to the Nubian houses, the burnt-brown and red-coloured faces, cast on the objects much grace and transparency, demonstrating the religious and authentic dimension of the Nubian community.
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