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Whenever we have the opportunity to stand before a work by Ahmed Farid, to contemplate its dense, vigorous brushstrokes, its glowing colours, and its intricate interweaving of forms, we are confronted with an extraordinary sense of energy, as though an immense force were radiating from within the canvas itself. We find ourselves facing an abyss, standing on the threshold of a new discovery. The longer we look, the more deeply we become aware of fissures that seem to bear the traces of a tremendous explosion, as if an entire world were unfolding before our eyes.It is a world whose features are all too familiar to us, yet one we often deliberately choose not to confront. Through Farid’s work, we are drawn into a vision of a turbulent universe, a world seemingly on the verge of collapse, which simultaneously becomes a mirror reflecting our own fears, insecurities, shortcomings, and sense of helplessness.
Yet these works do not fall within the realm of pure abstraction. Ahmed Farid belongs to an artistic movement that art historians refer to as Figurative Abstraction, one of the branches of abstract art that emerged in the aftermath of the Second World War. This movement, while embracing abstraction, never entirely severed its ties with the long-standing artistic tradition of representation, whose roots stretch back thousands of years.
Artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Antonio Saura, and others allowed recognisable forms, in varying degrees, to emerge within their compositions. Their presence, however, remained subtle and marginal, almost submerged within a dense web of charged brushstrokes and emotionally expressive gestures.
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11 Brazil St, Cairo, Egypt, 11211
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