Zahran Salama
Painter Poet and Master of Portraiture
Al-Bagawat 1996
Zahran frequently left his Cairo studio (Musafir Khana) and travelled throughout the country to paint Egyptian scenes en plein air - this practice informing an important dimension to his Realism style. In the above 1996 landscape, Zahran paints an ancient Christian cemetery that’s located just north of Kharga Oasis - Al Bagawat.
Regarding commerce, Kharga Oasis served as an important trade intersection that connected Nubia with Egypt. Regarding faith, Kharga Oasis, was the exile home of Nestorius, who was banished to the remote oasis after being labeled a hertic during the 431 Council of Ephesus.
Al-Gid (The Grandfather) 1999
Zahran uses warm, earthy mixes of color to create the image of his father, Motamid. Motamid was a farmer and spent decades working the Delta soil on his farm in Monifia, Egypt. He primarily planted corn, cotton, and clover.
Zahran uses two plots of green to set a background from which the body of Motamid emerges, underneath a masterful continuum of shaded cloth. The Golden Shah - with many folds - is draped around the farmer’s shoulders.
* Al-Gid is currently in private collection in Detroit, Michigan.
Ibn Al-Balad (The Gentleman) 1985
Zahran exhibits talent for portraiture in his 1985 oil masterpiece, Ibn Al-Balad. The subject of the painting is Kamal - a doorman - standing center in a narrow street in the El-Darb El-Ahmar neighborhood of Cairo. Zahran’s portrait of Kamal creates a fascinating intersection between his own artistic career and the history of a remarkable building:
Zahran’s studio, Musafir Khana was built throughout the 1770’s and commissioned by Mahmood Muharram Al-Fayoomi from profits trading goods - most likely coffee - between Cairo and the Hijaz. When Mahmood died in 1793, Mohammad Ali was quick to turn the palace into a home for his extended royal family. Consequently, the future Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, was born in Musafir Khana and spent years of his childhood running around the Ottoman era palace. In the 1960’s, the Ministry of Culture - run by Tharwat Okasha - transformed the aged palace into a studio for Egypt’s finest artists. For nearly three decades, Musafir Khana was a highly productive workshop, where generational talent painted, sculpted, exhanged ideas, fought, mentored and - for one artist - even lived.
Zahran started working in Musafir Khana in the late 70s after trading studio spaces with ‘Izz al-Din Najib - ‘Izz al-Din Najib took Zahran’s studio in Wikala Al-Ghuri and, in exchange, Zahran got his studio in Musafir Khana. Zahran painted Ibn Al-Balad during his time in Musafir Khana (1985), but paints the image of his preferred doorman Kamal, the doorman for Wikala Al-Ghuri, not Badr, Musafir Khana’s doorman, who often extorted the resident artists for monthly fees.
*Ibn Al-Balad (The Gentleman) is currently on display in the Michigan State Capitol Building in Lansing, Michigan.
The Intersection 1998
A mysterious streak of light navigates the jigsaw union of buildings in a tight Cairo neighborhood, not far from Zahran’s studio, Musafir Khana. The Intersection was one of the last paintings Zahran created before the historic studio burned to the ground, uprooting Zahran and the other artists from their artistic home of three decades.
An unreadable blue sign marks an iconic street while a shot of light is swallowed by a dramatic shadow. The historic road splits, creating two paths forward.
*The Intersection is currently in private collection in Detroit, Michigan
A‘baad Al-Shams (The Sunflowers) 2002
The Musafir Khana fire in 1998, uprooted Zahran from his Cairo studio of nearly 20 years and led him to relocate his primary studio at his coastal home in Ras Sudr. From 1988 to 1993, Zahran worked as the art director for a military magazine in Saudi Arabia and used earnings as director to purchase his Ras Sudr property. The Red Sea home became a frequent escape from the noise and chaos of Cairo’s busy streets, but offered permanent refuge for Zahran following the jarring 1998 fire. Zahran designed his home in Ras Sudr, which included a humble garden where he found inspiration for the above Sunflowers: A tangle of light and shadow creates dozens of shades of green which animate and give form to the three Sunflowers - each in their respective stages.
Green أخضر
Zahran was born in 1939 on a farm in Monifia, Egypt
Blue أزرق
At 19 Zahran leaves the farm and is enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo
Cairo would serve as Zahran’s home base for the next 30 years until the 1998 fire in Musafir Khana destroyed his studio and prompted a migration to his property in Ras Sadr
Black أسود
Zahran spent 1988-1993 working in Saudi Arabia. Recent Scholarship indicates he was actively painting during this period, but less is know about the 'Saudi Years' comparatively to Green and Blue.
A letter of appreciation and thanks from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Zahran's 5 years of labor as Director of the magazine Al-DifaA
Yellow أصفر
Zahran spent his final years (1998-2012) in Ras Sadr on the Red Sea, frequently painting seascapes and garden scenes
Masters of Musafir Khana
Many gifted artists worked out of Musafir Khana until the 1998 fire uprooted a generation of artists. Some of the names in this talented cohort include: Mohammad Abla, Hosni Al-Banani, Hamed Nada, Ezz El-Din Naguib, Adly Rezqallah, Ismail Diab and Zahran Salama.
Zahran (middle left) with colleagues in the Musafir Khana courtyard
Zahran (center) with fellow artists Fathi Afifi (left) and Adly Rizqallah (right). All three artists had studios in Musafir Khana before the 1998 Fire
Farid Fadel's live drawing of his friend and fellow artist Zahran Salama at the Manial Studio. The colored pencil portrait was finished in two sittings on a single day in 2005