Looking to Mexico: Hamed Ewais, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Egyptâs Workers

Gabriella Nugent

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Chapter 4 Looking to Mexico: Hamed Ewais, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Egyptâs Workers

In: Art and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America

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Gabriella Nugent

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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 90â113

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004724815_006

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Abstract

This chapter examines the work of the Egyptian artist Hamed Ewais (1919â2011), who started to engage with Mexican muralism in the 1950s. His interest in Mexican muralism occurred against a backdrop of shifting geopolitics, when the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser came to power and, in the wake of the Bandung Conference of 1955, when there was increased collaboration between Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

After encountering Mexican muralism at the Venice Biennale in 1952, Ewais started to depict Egyptâs working class. Given this subject matter, the artistâs body of work is most often discussed in the context of supporting Nasserist ideology. However, the governmentâs official proclamations often intentionally obscured the continuing struggles between the workers and the state. While the government advertised positive images of workers, its concern for national unity and economic development limited their political freedom. I argue that Ewaisâs adoption of Mexican muralism allowed him to foreground the lived experiences of the countryâs workers. In doing so, Ewais departs from the previous generation of Egyptian modern artists who, in general, depicted idealized scenes of rural peasant labor. By contrast, I contend that Ewaisâs paintings demonstrate the exertion of labor on the individual. He details the constraints of the Nasserist state on its workers and a sense of ambiguity towards the fulfilment of the promises associated with the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. This line of inquiry opens up the global dimensions of Mexican muralism, which thus far has been limited to the Americas. I also address Nasserâs admiration for the historical precedent of Mexican muralism in which artists supported the ideological work of the state.

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Art and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America

Series:Â Islamicate and Ibero-American World Connections, Volume: 1

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004724815

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 26 May 2025

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 4 Looking to Mexico: Hamed Ewais, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Egyptâs Workers

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Art and Politics between the Arab World and Latin America

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Chapter 4 Looking to Mexico: Hamed Ewais, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Egyptâs Workers