Adam Henein
Adam Henein (1929–2020) is universally recognized as the titan of 20th-century Egyptian sculpture. Born in the historic jewelry quarter of Bab Al-Shaariya in Cairo, Henein graduated from the School of Fine Arts in Cairo before spending formative decades working at the restoration of the Great Sphinx in Giza. His sculptural practice synthesized the timeless majesty of Pharaonic basalt, diorite, and granite with the austere reductions of European twentieth-century modernism. His works reside in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, Mathaf in Doha, and his namesake Museum in Harraniya.
Abdel Hady El-Gazzar
Abdel Hady El-Gazzar (1925–1966) was the visionary leader of the Contemporary Art Group (Gama'at al-Fann al-Mu'asir) founded in Cairo in 1946. El-Gazzar's paintings delve into Egyptian popular mythology, mysticism, Sufi rituals, and post-colonial industrial dreams. His iconic masterworks, including 'The Green Fool' and 'Popular Chorus', are revered as seminal documents of modern Arab intellectual and visual history.
Gazbia Sirry
Gazbia Sirry (1925–2021) was one of Egypt's most prominent modernist painters. Over seven decades, her work evolved through vivid figurative social realism into intense, colorful architectural abstractions reflecting the bustling density of Cairo, houses by the Nile, and the Desert. She represented Egypt at the Venice Biennale and the São Paulo Biennial, and her works are held at the Centre Pompidou and Mathaf.