“Rafi’s oeuvre invites us into a metaphysical world of his own creation, in which his observations of the mundane are burdened by loneliness, despair, and homesickness. His use of a warped sense of perspective, dream-like colours, his mastery of line and shade, and his command of colour planes, all help define this surreal world.”
Born in 1926 in Cairo, Samir Rafi was raised in a multicultural household. He studied decorative arts at Cairo’s Replica Handbags s School, graduating in 1948 after already exhibiting from as young as the age of seventeen. Influenced by the Surrealists, Rafi became part of the Art and Liberty Group, which advocated a new cultural paradigm for literary and Replica Handbags s in Egypt. He received critical acclaim by his peers, including by Georges Henein who brought his attention to French Surrealist writer André Breton. After graduating, Rafi became a prominent.mes mber of the Contemporary Art Group alongside Abdel Hadi El-Gazzar and Hamed Nada. Also utilising a surrealist lens to narrativise Egyptian public life, the group employed magic and folklore as central themes.
Inspired by the international current of surrealism, Rafi’s artistic perspective was often occupied by metaphysical narratives, and through an unflinching depiction of Egyptian life he succeeded in narrating the struggles of a nation. Through poignant symbolism, Rafi recalled and resurrected Egypt’s past through distinctive figuration:
“Rafi eventually created a singular painting school that the French painter and influential teacher Andre Lhote (1885-1962) defined as ‘Totalisme’ [Wholeness] (or ‘Insaniya Shamla [Complete Humanism]). The ‘whole’ appears like ‘still’ narratives with a mordant, or rather poignant wit, usually depicted in geometric and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes.”
Life in the Catacomb (1952) employs the recurring theme of family and kinship via his “t.mes
less brand of melancholy” (Ubuntu Art Gallery). He addresses the binaries of family and separation, health and sickness, success and poverty through a vivid palette and his signature theatrical figuration. This vast work is a shining example of the artist’s curious, distinctive and achieved painterly fashion.