Artist Abd El-Aal Hassan was born in the Suez Canal city of Port Said in 1944. He passed away in 2021. In his childhood, he drew inspiration from the sea and its colours. He would gaze reflectively at the details of the crop of boats of different sizes anchored at the shore. Abd El-Aal’s grandparent was the first to realise the child’s passion for drawing. Drawing paper and expensive colouring pens were the best gifts the grandparent would give to the child. Abd El-Aal remembered that these items and materials were the most valuable presents he received from his kind grandparent.
Abd El-Aal’s artistic talent was officially recognized when he was a ninth-grader. He received a certificate of appreciation from President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Abd El-Aal had the agonising experience of displacement when England, France and Israel launched their tripartite aggression on Port Said and its neighbouring Suez Canal cities in 1956.After he passed the final exam of the secondary school examination, his family moved to Cairo and he was enrolled in the Faculty of Art’s interior design section. During his study, he demonstrated excellent academic achievement. After his graduation in 1968, he served in the army during the War of Attrition. He finished military service after Egypt won the war against Israel in October 1973. He used the six-year hiatus in his artistic career to design wall illustrations and posters at the military camps.
Keen to continue his artistic experiment, the painter did not think twice before rejecting a job opportunity he was offered at a government department. Instead, he introduced himself to the editorial board of his most favoured weekly Sabah Al-Khir, which was popular for being the magazine for “young hearts and liberal minds”. Sabah Al-Khir was recommended to Abd El-Aal in his childhood by his grandparent. The magazine’s beautiful drawings and illustrations led the grandparent to mistake it for children’s magazine. He demanded the owner of a newsstand in the district to send the magazine to his grandson every week. Shortly after joining Sabah Al-Khir as journalist-painter, Abd El-Aal attracted the attention of its celebrities, such as painter Hassan Fouad and writer Louis Gries. He also had gratitude to the magazine’s celebrated painter Gamal Kamal. They recommended him to illustrate the magazine cover with portraits and models. Thanks to his rich and fascinating colours and wonderful brush strokes, the magazine became appealing to bigger number of readers. Abd El-Aal came to prominence in the mid Seventieth. He became a celebrity of Egyptian contemporary art in the 80th and the 90th. It was in 2013 when Abd El-Aal laid down his brush after he lost his eyesight.
In an acknowledgement of his talent, he was invited to go to Qatar and then Abu -Dhabi to found Maged, a magazine named after a hero boy created by Abd El-Aal. Maged gained a tremendous popularity among Arab children. Sabah Al-Khir was also voted the best child magazine in the Arab world. Abd El-Aal was famous as the painter with a golden brush. He received an avalanche of letters and phone calls congratulating him on his Maged.
Abd El-Aal was acknowledged by the Egyptian woman for illustrating her in native environments in Siwa, the Delta, Alexandria and Upper Egypt. He toured markets, villages, streets, alleys and seashores in cities and villages far and wide across Egypt to depict the Egyptian woman’s raw beauty, the attractiveness of her facial features and eyes. He also depicted the Egyptian woman in her agonizing moments. Abd El-Aal, is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the Egyptian contemporary art. He was voted the master of colouring and the composer of beautiful musical rhythm in painting. He brilliantly dealt with different mediums, substances and techniques.
Abd El-Aal ‘s 50-year artistic career was studded with a big number of exhibitions. His portraits are acquired by local and foreign cultural institutions. His painted murals are on display at the Museum of Denshway and the Museum of Palestine. The halls of the Council of Representatives feature Abd El-Aal ‘s life-size paintings of Egypt’s two late leaders Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. He designed a big number of book covers published by major publication houses. He also illustrated children’s magazines in Egypt and in the Arab world with beautiful and appealing drawings.
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