23 May 2020
H.E Shaikha Mai Mourns the Death of International Fine Artist Adam Henein, H.E: Egyptian artist Henein’s legacy will stay anchored forever in the memory of Arabs and worldwide
Egyptian artist Adam Henein, whose acclaimed sculptures and paintings united modernist abstraction with pharaonic iconography, died on Friday at 91. Henein counts among the most influential Arab artists of his generation, with a practice that centered Egypt’s working-class citizens and their natural surroundings and utilized traditional Egyptian materials such as bronze, granite, and papyrus. Birds in flight were a recurring motif, appearing in geometric sculptures whose scale spanned the intimate to the monumental. H.E paid tribute to the diseased saying “We lost with his death, a great icon and irreplaceable unique art symbol, who glorified us with his creative works that invite meditation and that have thrilled the imaginative minds all over the world”. H.E added: “ saying goodbye to the legendary artist we lost, we ought to meditate and take a look at his universal legacy that will always remain anchored in the memory of Arab world people first, and embodied in his own museums, public spaces carrying his name and his exhibitions too”.
Commenting on the deceased ties with Bahrain, H.E said: “The late artist Adam Henein had a very strong relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain, reflected through the beautiful sculptures, visions and ideas; he held his first exhibition in 2009 as part of Spring of Culture events, hosted at Bin Matar House, part of Shaikh Ebrahim Center for Culture & Research subsidiaries, appointed as the honorary President of the 6th edition of Bahrain International Sculpture Symposium, being held at Bahrain National Museum courtyard, as part of festivities marking the Muharraq Capital of Islamic Culture 2018”. H.E also said that “artist Adam Henein had his charming touch and rainbow colour and his creative artworks everywhere and his death is a big loss for art and culture”.
Acclaimed most prominent Egyptian and international sculptor and artist Adam Henein started his journey in the 1960s and he was the founding father of the annual Aswan International Sculpture Symposium in the city of Aswan. His art was infused with a fidelity to his Egyptian roots and social reality of his country. His early works embody the graceful solidity of ancient Egyptian statuary and express a sense of simplicity in the treatment of mass and volumes. Henein has held many individual exhibitions in Cairo, Alexandria, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and Rome, and participated in numerous group exhibitions around the world. Henein has received numerous awards for his work, which has been exhibited in Egypt, the Arab world, Europe, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. His works can be seen at his Museum in Harraniyya inaugurated in January 2014, the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art in Cairo, hosting more than 4000 artworks masterminded beautifully by the artist throughout his lifetime spanning over 60 years.
