Salah El Din Taher Mohamed Abdeldayem (1911-2007), better known as Salah Taher, belongs to what is sometimes known as the "second generation" of artists in modern Egyptian art. A distinguished figure whose career featured numerous high appointments in the national cultural infrastructure, Taher's artistic journey left an indelible mark on the artistic landscape of the country. His style of painting underwent many changes throughout his life. In his early years, Taher was known for his academic portraits and landscapes. Later, in the 1960s, a transformative experience during a visit to the United States prompted him to shift to nonrepresentational abstraction. Using tools such as knives and combs to depict his subjects, he abandoned descriptive trends and focused on conveying his philosophy on spirituality, and interpreting music and literature in a visual art. Taher became known for his experiments with unusual tools for manipulating paint, employing a vast array of instruments such as combs, spatulas, rakes, solvents, and other devices to work in oil, watercolors, gouache, and acrylic.
Taher was born in Cairo to a family of Syrian origins who worked in the textile trade. He studied at the School of Fine Arts in Cairo and was mentored by the prominent artists Ahmed Sabri (1889-1955), Camillo Innocenti (1871–1961) and Roger Bréval (dates unknown). Graduating in 1934 and organizing his first solo exhibition the following year in the city of Minya, Taher dedicated the next decade to teaching in various schools in Minya, Alexandria and Cairo, before securing a professorship at the School of Fine Arts in 1944. From the mid-1940s to the beginning of the 1950s, Taher continued his artistic exploration within the vibrant artistic haven of "Al Marsam," the collective of studios established by Sheikh Ali Abdel Rassoul in the New Gourna village in Luxor, there forging a friendship with its designer, the architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989).
Returning to Cairo in 1954, Taher assumed a number of leadership roles. He served as Director of the Museum of Modern Egyptian Art for four years. In 1959, he became director in the office of the Minister of Culture and National Guidance and then director of the fine arts department in 1961, within the same ministry. He gave lectures at the Institute of Cinema, 1961 to 1965, and became the Director of the Khedivial Opera House (1962-1966). In 1963, he joined a group of artists sent by the Ministry of Culture to record impressions of the construction of the High Dam and ensuing resettlement of the people of Nubia. In 1965, he was awarded a grant by UNESCO, which supported travel for six months and allowed him to meet such artists as Henry Moore and the art critic John Russell. In 1966, Taher was appointed artistic adviser at Al Ahram newspaper, a position he held up until his death in 2007, and during which he wrote more than 250 articles. Taher was also commissioned to produce several murals and 35 large paintings that are today part of the Al Ahram collection.
In 1980, Taher became a member and chairman of the artistic committee of the Supreme Council of Culture, the Chairman of the Art Committee of the National Specialized Councils, and head of the Société des Amis de l'Art, holding the latter post from 1984 until his death.
The artist was a close friend and mentee of the Egyptian journalist, poet and literary critic Abbas Mahmoud Aqqad (1889-1964) from the early 1930s until the death of Aqqad in 1964. Aqqad bequeathed an extensive library to the artist that went on to greatly shape his thinking. Taher counted writers, critics, artists, such as Tawfiq al Hakim, Umm Kulthum, Ihsan Abd el Koddous, Anis Mansour, Kamal Mallakh, Naguib Mahfouz, Zakariyya Ahmed, Adam Henein and Tharwat Okasha, among his circle, many of whom he painted portraits of.
Taher was an avid reader and music aficionado, his diverse interests included philosophy and psychology. He practiced boxing and even acted in a film. Throughout his life, Taher maintained small size notebooks, where he wrote his thoughts on many subjects such as spirituality, Sufism, the importance of yoga and meditation, among other reflections, which in turn find expression in his paintings. Taher also experimented with Arabic calligraphy, creating a series entitled "Huwwa," converging his love for the Arabic letter and his interest in Sufism.
Taher had more than eighty local and international exhibitions. He participated in the Egypt Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1952, 1956, 1958, 1962 and 1966), and participated in the Alexandria Biennale in 1961, where he was awarded the first prize for painting. In 1959, he won Egypt's State Encouragement Prize for oil painting and the Guggenheim Award in 1960. In 1974, Taher was awarded the State Prize of Merit for Art and the Medal of Science and Arts. In 1999, he became the first artist to win the Mubarak Award for Arts, Literature, and Social Science, now known as The Nile Award.
Taher passed away in Cairo on February 6, 2007.
Ayman Taher
Artist Ayman Taher (1946-) was mentored by his father Salah Taher (1911-2007) who organized his first exhibition at the age of 12. Having graduated from the School of Fine Arts in 1970, Ayman Taher decided to study underwater photography and diving, in order to break away from his father's legacy. He lived between Cairo, Hurghada, and Sharm El Sheikh, and exhibited his photographic works in Egypt, at the Louvre Museum in France and at the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Brooks Institute of Photography in California, now known as the Brooks Institute. Ayman Taher contributed photographs to several books including Sinai: the Site and the History published by the New York University Press in 1995.
Ayman Taher returned to painting in 2006 and has held numerous exhibitions in Egypt, often exhibiting his work in parallel with the work of Salah Taher
