The Popular Chorus

About the artist:
This painting by Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar (1925-1966), Hunger (also referred to as the Popular Chorus), lands the 23-year-old in jail overnight along with his mentor Hussein Youssef Amin. the painting depicts a line of barefoot women and a girl standing with empty bowls before them in a clear protest against the crippling poverty of the time and sending a strong message against the king and the ruling elite. After the 1952 Free Officers’ coup which ousted King Farouk, el-Gazzar, an avid supporter of the new regime, would go on to paint al-Mithaq (the Charter) in 1961, depicting Egypt as a woman wearing a crown holding then President Gamal Abdul Nasser’s manifesto. the new regime later commissions a second version of the Popular Chorus after the original one disappears.

For more, see Yasmine El Dorghamy's 'Timeline of Egyptian Modern Art' from Rawi magazine's Issue 8 available online (link in details).