Egyptian painter, feminist and political dissident Inji Efllatoun left behind her aristocratic background to put her art at the service of social activism. From a young age, she developed an interest for Marxist theories which inspired her to stand with the working classes of Egypt. In that spirit, she conceptualized her practice as a means towards social liberation and joined the leftist Surrealist Art and Liberty Group as well as Iskra, a Marxist youth association. Within these coalitions, she espoused anti-imperialist and anti-nationalist causes, militated for women’s rights, and took a stand against systems of classes. Her political convictions are mirrored in her compositions, depicting the predicaments of Egyptians under social inequalities.
Angered by her own sheltered and privileged education, and by the hidden layers of injustice she uncovered as she emancipated herself, Efflatoun found in art a powerful tool to translate her feelings of revolt. She involved herself in every way she found and was made delegate to the First Women’s International Democratic Federation in Paris in 1945, where she was in charge of producing political pamphlets illustrating the cause. In 1949, she participated in the founding of the First Congress of the First Peace Council of Egypt while giving French and drawing lessons to gain financial independence from her family, who was not supporting her involvement in politics. As her mother attempted to convince her to complete her art studies in Paris, Efflatoun wrote:
"It was very tempting to go to a good academy, but I refused completely. With five or ten years of Parisian study I would be a better artist, but I would know nothing about my country, and then it would be too late. Now I began to understand my roots, to be Egyptianized, which was important for my futur…”
Her attachment for her country is manifest in her paintings from 1948 to 1958, a period that followed her visit of ancient towns like Luxor, and the discovery of rural Egyptian areas where popular traditions were still common. During her trips to farming regions, she would create sketches of the local men and women she would encounter, and produce paintings depicting “rhythmic groups of working people joined in a common activity” (B. LaDuke 1989, p.477). Her heavy layers of paint and dramatic shadows were intended to mirror the extreme heat and difficult working conditions. For more than a decade, Efflatoun transcribed her political stance and intense militant engagement in colorful paintings depicting the working class of her country, until her brutal imprisonment in 1959, following Nasser’s pledge to prevent the spread of communism in Egypt, led her to focus on new subjects. Although after her liberation in 1963, Efflatoun was forced to give up on explicitly political compositions to adopt a lighter style, she persisted in representing the working class and its living conditions, the one cause which always animated her (see for example La Moisson (1966), sold in these rooms on 29 March 2022, lot 17).
