January 7, 2018 23 Culture Egypt museum pays tribute to cartoons Ahmed Megahid toon and cartoonists are disappear- ing, too. Newspaper editors, faced with Tunis, Egypt ever-tightening budgets, have said they have no choice but to let car- n Egyptian artist is try- toonists go. Some of Sabbagh’s ing to make sure that the colleagues have stopped drawing. art of drawing cartoons, Others have changed professions to or caricatures as they earn a living. are known in the Arab Those conditions were in Abla’s world,A gets adequate recognition as mind when he turned the ground a modern art form and secures its floor of his home into a cartoon place as an important historical re- museum. He opened the museum cord of its influence in Egypt. almost ten years ago. His persever- Mohamed Abla, who once sought ance over the years has earned him to become a professional cartoon- one of the largest caricature collec- ist but is a prominent fine artist and tions in the country. sculptor, founded Egypt’s first mu- Abla said he tried to land a job as a seum of cartoons. cartoonist in one of the local news- The museum in Tunis, a village papers years ago but was unable to in the central province of Fayoum, find work due to a lack of opportu- boasts hundreds of cartoons, satiri- nities. Still, his commitment to cari- cally and artistically documenting catures was undimmed. almost everything that has hap- “This is not about me but about pened in Egypt in the past century. the tight spot that drawing cartoons “Some of the cartoons are among as an art is being pushed into,” Abla the first to be drawn in Egypt,” Abla said. said. “They would have been lost Abla said increased scrutiny and forever if they had not been exhib- a lack of appetite for political criti- ited here.” cism and satire have sounded the Abla, originally fond of collecting death knell for cartoon drawing at stamps and rare coins, developed a time when political cartoons are Colourful art. A painting by Sudanese artist Rashid Diab. (Karen Dabrowska) a passion for collecting cartoons needed more than ever. more than two decades ago. He has There are at least 16 journalists collected hundreds of cartoons, currently in Egypt’s jails, according some by Egypt’s most prominent to Reporters without Borders, an in- cartoonists. ternational NGO that defends free- Artist Rashid Diab’s His museum is turning into a dom of information and the press. mecca for cartoon lovers and stu- Although none of those in jail are dents from all parts of Egypt. Every cartoonists, the situation in Egypt day, dozens of cartoon lovers pack means that everyone in the media, the museum’s halls to view the ex- including cartoonists and the edi- self-styled mission to hibits, which represent an honest if tors who hire them, must be cau- sometimes ironic take on the coun- tious. try’s history. Abla’s museum has three main Abla said his museum aimed to halls featuring exhibits that focus pay tribute to the hundreds of Egyp- on various themes. One features revive Sudanese culture tian cartoonists who are out of work cartoons that satirise economic or suffering due to tough financial conditions in Egypt. Another shows conditions. cartoons that mock the country’s Karen Dabrowska “The young generation does not work: traditional folk themes, Ara- “To say the truth, cartooning is politicians. A third features car- have any idea about modern Suda- bic calligraphy, animals, human becoming the Cinderella of all jour- toons taking on social issues. nese art, which needs to be collect- figures and African motifs. He said nalistic arts in this country,” said Many of the cartoons in the mu- Khartoum ed and kept in Sudan,” Diab said. he was inspired by the “Nile, the veteran cartoonist Mohammed al- seum are about political, economic “The day will come when we have silence of the desert and the ability Sabbagh. “Newspaper editors rarely and social conditions in Egypt at the hen he talks about a museum of modern art and there of women to give unconditionally.” take cartoonists very seriously.” beginning of the 20th century; oth- the art scene in will be no art to put in it.” Diab’s colourful art is centred In Egypt, just as across the Arab ers focus on current conditions. Sudan, there is a Born in 1957, Diab was raised in on traditionally clad female forms world, most newspapers boast a Visitors to the museum pay 10 look of sadness and Wadi Medani on the banks of the moving away in time and space. daily cartoon or caricature taking an Egyptian pounds (56 US cents) to despair in the eyes Blue Nile. He graduated with hon- “Everyone in Sudan is trying to ironic or sarcastic look at a political enter. Abla uses the fees to maintain Wof Rashid Diab. The country’s in- ours from the Khartoum College find an identity. Ethnic groups or social situation. The cartoons of- the museum and pay for general up- ternationally acclaimed artist has of Fine Art and moved to Madrid may have settled in the city but ten get to the heart of an issue with keep. exhibited his work in Europe, the where he studied art at the Com- mentally they are at home [in their few clean pen strokes in a way that “I have no support whatsoever, so United States, the Middle East, plutense University. He received a village],” he said. even the most incisive editorial or this money is important to keep the Asia and Africa. doctorate in painting from the uni- “My art is portraying life in Su- well-researched investigation does place open,” Abla said. There are approximately 2,000 versity in 1991 and joined the fac- dan — capturing everything. The not. The museum has many regular artists in Khartoum but there is ulty as an art teacher. He was the political and the social context is One of Egypt’s most widely read visitors who come every few weeks no national art gallery to exhibit first Arab African to teach at the transformed into images. When dailies, al-Akhbar, used to publish to see what new exhibits are on their work. Diab’s Dara Art Gallery university where he remained for you have no freedom of expres- the famous Kafr al-Hanawdah car- show. Abla changes exhibits every attached to his residence in cen- nine years. sion, you can’t say anything. You toon on its second page every day. two days, meaning every visit is a tral Khartoum, his arts centre and In 1999, he decided his country have to speak through painting.” The cartoon always depicted new experience. four other private galleries are the needed him. “Sudan had a very bad Diab insisted he has no interest a farmer, wearing the traditional “This place is more than wonder- country’s only exhibition venues. reputation and I could not tolerate in politics. The administration of Egyptian jellabiya and addressing a ful,” said Nagham Tawfiq, a fine arts Diab has discussed the pos- people talking about my country the arts centre takes up a lot of his government official, informing him student and frequent visitor to the sibility of acquiring the post of- in a bad way. I had to change that,” time as does travelling abroad to of the main issue of the Egyptian museum. “Apart from being unique fice building from colonial times, Diab said. organise exhibitions and lecture. people on a day-by-day basis. as a concept, the museum brings which he described as “a work of He bought a massive villa, which He has become an unofficial cul- Political cartoons have lost their together some of the best cartoons art,” for a national art gallery. He houses the Dara Art Gallery and his tural ambassador for Sudan. His art lustre, however, and many daily drawn in the history of our coun- said he was adamant he would studio. “The factory where I pro- is currently on display in Qatar. In newspapers no longer feature a car- t r y.” continue contacting officials until duce my art,” he jokes. January there is to be an exhibition Dozens of people visit the muse- the building was transferred to art- In 2000, he bought 3,200 sq. me- in Nairobi and in March in Egypt. um every day, bringing Abla enough ists for their use. tres of land and built five villas to “Culture involves large expens- revenue to sustain the operation. “The government’s relationship be used as an arts centre. There are es and the results come later,” he He said the museum is currently op- with culture is very ambiguous,” accommodations for artists, work- said. “Through art people change erating at capacity and an influx of Diab said. “No one knows if they space, two galleries, a blue medita- their ideas; they appreciate new new visitors would be challenging. want to conserve the old build- tion room where you can hear the things.” “The more people visit the muse- ings and preserve the identity of silence and a massive garden with Many people in his neighbour- um, the more money I need to keep the city. They have a big Ministry a stage and performance area. hood had never been inside an art it clean,” Abla said. “I only want to of Culture but there is no budget The Rashid Diab Arts Centre is gallery. Now they eagerly wait for rescue the cartoons exhibited here and the ministry is filled with un- decorated with the artist’s earlier new exhibitions.