Ibrahim Shahda

Ibrahim Shahda
Ibrahim Shahda standing next to a self-portrait
Born (1929-10-02)2 October 1929
Al-Azizya, Egypt
Died 28 August 1991(1991-08-28) (aged 61)
Aix-en-Provence, France
Nationality French
Education Pierre Beppi-Martin
Known for painting
Notable work Self-portraits, still-lifes, Provence landscapes
Awards Avignon Festival Prize, Aix-en-Provence Painting Prize

Ibrahim Shahda (October 2, 1929 – August 28, 1991) was a figurative French painter born in Egypt.

Biography

Born in Al-Azizya, Egypt, at age 18 Shahda joined the Cairo Fine Arts Academy in 1947. He worked there under French painter Pierre Beppi-Martin. In 1955, three years after ending his studies, he won a Prize and organized his first exhibition. At the end of the same year, he decided to leave for Paris.

He applied as free student to the École des Beaux-Arts. He quickly moved to the south of France, in Carpentras though, but frequently traveled to Paris.

A first exhibition took place in 1958 at the Arlette Chabaud Gallery in Avignon. He won the Painting Prize from the Avignon Festival with "La femme en noir", today part of the Fondation Calvet collection (Calvet Museum). He also won the Aix-en-Provence Painting Prize the same year. A second exhibition, shared with his friend Paul Surtel, is organized in Carpentras (Chapelle du Collège) in 1960.

In 1962, unhappy with his work, he chose to return to Paris. In 1963 he visited Italy, then Brittany. In 1966, he returned to Provence, but spent several summers in Brittany.

The following decade saw him visit Belgium, Netherlands, Spain and Italy, and show his work in Paris, at the Egypt Cultural Center, in Avignon, at the Ducastel Gallery, in the Carpentras Town-Hall and in Marseilles.

In 1975, Shahda became seriously ill. He kept on painting, but felt threatened : "One must snatch work from passing time.". During a long remission, he worked on portraits - including those of fellow artists such as painter Michel Bonnaud or writer Pierre Autin-Grenier - and self-portraits, oil or pastel drawing.

Two exhibitions take place in Carpentras in 1981 and 1984. His health deteriorated again in 1985, but he kept on working harder than ever: still lifes, self-portraits and, despite illness and exhaustion, landscapes.

He died from cancer during summer 1991 in Aix-en-Provence hospital.

Style

His style is highly personal, but has a clear link with some great painters of the past (Frans Hals, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Goya, Velázquez, Titian and Tintoretto, or van Gogh, Cézanne, Modigliani and Soutine), as well as two of his contemporaries, Zoran Mušič and Francis Bacon, by the strength of his portraits and the refusal of abstract art.

Work

The Fondation Calvet in Avignon owns two paintings by Shahda, "La Femme en noir" from 1958 and a self-portrait from the late 70s.

The Auberive Abbey also hosts some of his work.

Exhibitions

  • 1958 : Galerie Arlette Chabaud, Avignon
  • 1960 : Chapelle du Collège, Carpentras (exhibition with Paul Surtel)
  • 1964 : Musée Lapidaire, Carpentras
  • 1966 : Galerie Ducastel, Avignon
  • 1967 : Musée Lapidaire, Carpentras
  • 1969 : Centre Culturel d'Egypte, Paris
  • 1971 : Galerie Ducastel, Avignon
  • 1971 : Galerie Lucy Krohg, Paris
  • 1972 : Hôtel de Ville, Carpentras
  • 1974 : Galerie Ducastel, Avignon
  • 1974 : National Fair Club, Marseille
  • 1975 : Galerie Ducastel, Avignon
  • 1981 : Musée Duplessis and Chapelle du Collège, Carpentras
  • 1984 : La Charité, Carpentras

Posthumous exhibitions

Publications

  • 1984 : Magazine Rencontres, #124
  • 2005 : Magazine Azart, #17
  • 2009 : Exhibition catalog at Polad-Hardouin Gallery
  • 2009 : Magazine Vernissages, #5

Notes and references

    • Ibrahim Shahda, La Rinascita, Catalog, 2009, Galerie Polad-Hardouin
    • Ibrahim Shahda, Chronique d'une Survie, 2009, Vernissages Magazine #5
    • Ibrahim Shahda, 2005, Azart Magazine #17
    • Conversations with his widow A. Shahda
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