Omar El-Nagdi (Egypt, 1931-2019)Baghdad Sous Les Bomardement oil on canvassigned "Omar El Nagdi" and dated "5.2.1991" (lower right), executed in 1991280 x 190cm (110 1/4 x 74 13/16in).注脚A WIDELY EXHIBITED MONUMENTAL COMPOSITION BY OMAR EL-NAGDI PAINTED AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE FIRST GULF WARProvenance:Property from the private collection of H.E Ambassador Francine HenrichExhibited:Omar El-Nagdi, The Gulf War, Al Ahram Building, Cairo, 11th February 1991Omar El-Nagdi, Retrospective, Institut Du Monde Arab, 1995This monumental, highly significant work captures the fear and anguish of the Iraqi people under-siege during the first Gulf War. Towering and strikingly monochromatic, the work was painted at the height of the conflict and brazenly exhibited at the Al-Ahram headquarters in Cairo during the war itself, further featuring in the artists major retrospective at the Institut Du Monde Arabe in 1995. The present work is one of the finest examples of the artist reacting almost concurrently to the world around him, a seminal piece of artistic activism, in the vein of some of the greatest recorded works in history like Picasso's Guernica and Goya's "Disasters of War" In his treatment of conflict, Nagdi clearly recalls Goya, whose set of 82 etchings were inspired by the scarring effect of the Franco-Spanish Peninsular War of 1807. Whilst divergent in form and composition, what Nagdi absorbs from Goya is the jarred, fragmented aesthetic that reflects the tumult of wartime discord. Goya was said to capture scenes in "agonized haste", and accordingly, the idea of the turbulence of conflict depicted with a ghoulish, monster like aesthetic is heavily incorporated in Nagdi's work. The air campaign of the Gulf War, also known as the 1991 bombing of Iraq, was an extensive aerial bombing campaign from 17 January 1991 to 23 February 1991. The 43-day air bombardment had a severe impact on Iraq's economic future and the civilian population. The Coalition of the Gulf War flew over 100,000 sorties, dropping 88,500 tons of bombs, widely destroying military and civilian infrastructure. The West was not going to tolerate President Saddam Hussein and his regime and the attacks the on infrastructure would accelerate the effect of the sanctions. Military planners hoped the bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society, and thereby compel Saddam Hussein to withdraw Iraqi forces from Kuwait without a ground war. They also hoped to incite Iraqi citizens to rise against the Iraqi dictator. Planners say that their intent was to destroy and damage valuable facilities that Baghdad could not repair without foreign assistance. Because of these goals, damage to civilian structures and interests, invariably described by briefers during the war as "collateral" and "unintended," was sometimes neither.Omar El Ngadi was born in Cairo in 1931 and studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Helwan University. Nagdi continued his training in Russia and Italy, eventually graduating from the Academy of Venice in 1967. A prodigious pioneer in Egyptian art history, In the 1960s, Nagdi exhibited in Europe alongside the Western masters Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dal. His works were soon after acquired by leading institutions around the world. An active member of Cairo's art community and of the Liberal Artists' group headed by Taha Hussein, Nagdi was an extraordinary painter and who equally excels as a film director and music composer. A multi-disciplinary artist, Nagdi worked with sculpture, oil, watercolour and mosaics. Inspired by the diverse cultures that he encountered in rural Egypt, he fused in his works the Pharaonic and Islamic iconography with Cairo's urban culture idioms and Western aesthetics. His works visually enigmatic and captivating and inspired by folk art and traditions are reflections on everyday life in Egypt.His paintings are sufficient proof of his exceptional gifts for symbolic design and the splendid use of colour. Through his expressive textures, colours and symbolic elements, his works offer a communication that is deeply felt.