The Arab Atelier for Culture and Arts, headed by art critic Hisham Qandil, is organizing a memorial service for the late renowned artist Ismat Dawstashi as part of the cultural salon at Zamalek's Day Gallery. At 7:00 PM on Wednesday, the memorial service will feature a group of artists, critics, and media professionals, most notably novelist Ibrahim Abdel Majeed, poet Zein El Abidine Fouad, Dr. Reda Abdel Salam, Dr. Hassan Abdel Fattah, Mohamed Abla, Ahmed Abdel Karim, Dr. Sami El Balshy, Dr. Mohamed El Sabban, and the head of the Fine Artists Syndicate, artist Tarek El Koumi.
Art critic Hisham Qandil said it was only natural for the memorial service to be held at the Arab Atelier, which honored the great artist Esmat Dawstashi twice during his lifetime, publishing two large-format books about his long experience with art and life, in collaboration with the Zahidiya Foundation for Culture and Creativity. We also held and organized more than one exhibition for him, and a large retrospective was scheduled for Zamalek.
Qandil added that Esmat Dawstashi is one of the icons of Egyptian fine art—an artist, critic, writer, and thinker. When faced with his works and his circumstances, try to wander beyond the frame of the painting, which might imprison the contemplation within you. Don't exhaust yourself with what the sea whispers—the sea of Alexandria, which he loved—or what the river cries out from—the Nile, which overflows with love in his blood. In both cases, his art will overflow, drowning you. Given this, why not try to unleash all your senses, without clothes, toward the painting? Qandil continued: The problem is that the profusion of Ismat Dawstashi, the artist with the definite article Alif Lam, does not lie in the quantity or diversity of his output, but rather in the many details and subtle miniatures in each work. Therefore, you will not be able to escape drowning—and I do not say immersion—in any of his works, and how many, how abundant, and how beautiful they are. However, this stimulating intellectual confusion is not limited to the works of Ismat Dawstashi, but extends to his personality, such that you will constantly ask yourself, in the manner of Heidegger: How do you know the work of art? The answer: By the artist. And how do you know the artist? The answer: By the work of art! In this way, you arrive at a logical response that may extricate you from this vicious cycle, namely that art is only by art itself, for the artist and the work of art are, in and of themselves, and in their relationship together, thus thanks to a third act prior to them, which is the one that gives the artist and the work of art their names, namely, art. Qandil concludes: This is the entry I see as the correct one into the world, or rather the worlds, of Dawstashi, who says in the introduction to his book “Art and Life,” published in 1994, “It is a documentary obsession that I am the owner and creator of. It is an obsession that does not include what has been written about me, what has been published about me, or what I have accomplished, because this is the last thing I have thought about.”
