full essay - Contemporary Practices

110 EssayMahmoud Saïd, Femme devant le Nile, oil on canvas, 80x55cm., 1936. Dr.Hussam Rashwan Collection, Alexandria.framing her face and her strangely raised eyebrowsbring her on the verge of caricature. At the same time,her robust body and polished gold skin invade mostof the pictorial space, as if the artist had blown out ofproportion a traditional Renaissance portrait imbuedwith own imagination. This fantasy female ‘creature’is like an indelible apparition, whose monumentalityand highly finished sculptural aspect make her standout as an indestructible statue of which, accordingto Miller, ‘the visual result walks a fine line betweenkitsch and a powerful and monumental expression ofhuman mysticism’ . Femme aux boucles d’or is the fruitof resistance to the rapid political, social and culturalchanges unfolding around him and stands for his refugeof what can be described as a ‘pre-modern temporality’.Invitation au voyage can also be read along the same