KINDLY
signed Guirguis Lotfy in Arabic and dated 2020 lower right
egg tempera on board
122 x 81.5cm; 48 x 32in
150 x 110cm; 59 x 43 1/4in (framed)

Graduating from the Alexandria Faculty of Fine Arts with a masters in Coptic painting in 1980, Guirguis Lotfy was influenced by the Neo-Coptic artistic revival of the mid-late twentieth century. Under the influence of Pope Cyril VI who encouraged the importance of learning from Coptic arts, Neo-Coptic revivalists sought to employ the traditional iconographies from early Egypt, Byzantine and Greco-Roman Christian art in modern religious painting. The movement was pioneered by iconographer, scholar and theologist Isaac Fanous who chaired the Institute of Coptic Studies in Cairo and helped to promote the city as an integral centre of Coptic art.

Lotfy employs the traditions of Coptic art in his own unique reinterpretations. His stylised figures have large heads and eyes and small mouths which signified a devotion to prayer and spiritual relationship to God in Coptic iconography. Flat planes of gold and ultramarine rendered using the ancient painting medium egg tempera combined with patterns and symbols to emulate mosaic transport the viewer to the aesthetics of the past. In doing so, his works embody a distinct spiritual dimension, as Coptic art was used to communicate Christian stories and doctrine to largely illiterate audiences. However, unlike Neo-Coptic revivalists, Lotfy applies this visual language to a secular context. His icons are not saints but local characters, assembled in familiar settings amongst animals and everyday objects, to form striking images capturing the essence of contemporary Egyptian life. His use of Coptic iconography and traditional media enliven the antiquated, diverse and spiritual history of Egypt to create a new symbolic visual language for the richness of the quotidian.