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Adam Henein ( ar, آدم حنين; 31 March 1929 – 22 May 2020) was an Egyptian sculptor.
Early life
Samuel Henein was born into a family, originally from
Asyut, of gold metalworkers in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
in 1929. He was trained as a sculptor at the Academy of Fine Art in Cairo, from which he received his degree in 1953. His family were
Coptic Christians.
Career
Henein became known as a sculptor in the 1950s; he received the Luxor prize in 1954–56, and his work was shown in Cairo,
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, and
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
by the end of that decade. When he moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
in 1971, Henein began to explore painting. In both his paintings and his sculptures, he gained recognition for the use of ancient Egyptian themes and traditional materials.
From 1989 to 1998 Henein headed the design team involved in the restoration of the
Great Sphinx of Giza
The Great Sphinx of Giza is a limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature with the head of a human, and the body of a lion. Facing directly from west to east, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, E ...
, drawing on his experience as a sculptor to determine how the monument was originally carved. In 1998 he was decorated for his service by the Egyptian government.
After having lived for almost a quarter of a century in Paris, Henein returned to live in the country of his birth. For over a decade, he produced a number of unique granite sculptures. It was in Aswan, a city that since Antiquity has been famous for its granite quarries, that Henein established the International Sculpture Symposium, of which he was the director from 1996. He was awarded the State Award for the Arts in 1998 and the Mubarak Prize in 2004. He represented Egypt in the
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
.
He was the founder and director of the annual international sculpture symposium in
Aswan, and this position, for which he was known internationally. Henein has had one-person exhibitions in Alexandria, Amsterdam, Cairo, London, Nantes, Munich, Paris and Rome. He participated in group exhibitions in Cairo, Calais, Casablanca, Dakar, Ljubliana, Naples, Sorrento and Spoleto. His commissioned works are in public buildings in Egypt, Italy and Saudi Arabia. Henein resided in Cairo, Egypt. His work was also showcased at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Henein received Egypt’s State Medal, the State Merit Award, and the Mubarak Award in art. He also established the International Granite Sculpture Symposium in Aswan. El-Shorouk Publishing House and Skira Publishing Group published a complete book about his life and works.
Personal
He converted to Isalm in 1961 when he met his wife, Afaf el Dib; he changed his name to Adam.
Henein died on 22 May 2020, he was 91 years old.
Adam Henein Museum
The Adam Henein Museum, which opened Saturday 18 January 2014 in Cairo's Al-Harraniya district, is a priceless gift from the artist himself to the country.
It features the artist's "life of creativity" and includes the largest, and ever-growing, collection of Henein’s sculptures as well as some of his paintings.
Throughout the years his body of work is the way in which the artist interweaves universal themes—motherhood, birds, boats and prayer among them—with references to Egyptian icons such as pyramids, obelisks, Pharaonic kings and hieroglyphs.
See also
*
List of Egyptians
The following is a list of some of the notable Egyptians inside and outside of Egypt:
Actors Male actors
* Abdel Moneim Madbouly
* Adel Emam
* Ahmed Zaki
* Ahmed El Sakka
* Ahmed Ezz
* Ahmed Helmy
* Ahmed Mekky
* Ahmed Ramzy
* Ali Mansur
* ...
*
Ramses Wissa Wassef
Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911–1974) was an Egyptians, Egyptian Copts, Coptic architect and professor of art and architecture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo and founder of the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre.
Biography
Ramses Wissa Wassef was b ...
References
*Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Arab Worl
*© Bibliotheca Alexandrina
*rose issa projects
External links
Adam Henein museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henein, Adam
Artists from Cairo
1929 births
2020 deaths
20th-century Egyptian sculptors