New Beginnings
On the occasion of Menhat Helmy’s 98th birthday, my mother and I have decided to launch a Substack newsletter to continue documenting her remarkable legacy.
As a child, I was mesmerized by my grandmother’s art — Nanaa’s art, I used to call it. I was far too young to grasp how privileged I was to grow up immersed in such culture; too young to recognize the unique place my grandmother occupied in modern Egyptian art, or understand the profound impact it would have on me as an adult.
I was just 12 years old when Menhat Helmy passed away in 2004. My aunt, Nihal Khallaf, assumed control of her mother’s work. As a successful businesswoman and art lover, she was ideally suited to look after the collection. Realizing the vast potential this held, my aunt decided to host a retrospective exhibition for Helmy’s work, the first since Helmy retired from her profession in the early 1980s. With the help of curator and sculptor Ehab El Laban, the exhibition debuted on December 19, 2005, at Horizon One gallery in Cairo, and was opened by former Minister of Culture Farouk Hosny. Life was good.
And yet, all good things must come to an end.
My aunt — one of the heirs to the family legacy — was killed in a car accident in September 2007. Her loss was as sudden as it was devastating. She was the heart and soul of our family, and the fabric that kept us together.
My family, comprised of my single mother and younger brother, left Egypt and immigrated to Canada, taking with us only a handful of my grandmother’s works. I entered university and emerged with a degree in political science and economic development. I became a journalist, got married, and cemented myself in the new world. The only true reminder of my previous life was the abstract etchings hanging on the walls of my apartment. And yet, something called me back to Egypt all those years later — a need to understand my grandmother’s work and to uncover the artistic heritage our family left behind in Egypt.
I traveled back to Cairo on three separate occasions during 2019, each time with a different purpose relating to my grandmother’s work. The initial trip was where I began the process of uncovering her work in storage, moving it back into our family home, and archiving as much of the documentation as possible, from letters to old catalogues, press clippings, and photos. Each of the following trips built on the foundation of the initial trip and allowed my mother and I to gather an exceptional amount of information on my grandmother, as well as help me identify and categorize approximately eighty percent of her oeuvre. We even discovered some previously unknown artworks along the way!
Since then, I have written articles recounting my experiences, academic pieces on my grandmother’s artistic endeavors, and established an internet footprint for Menhat Helmy’s work in English in order to ensure she is accessible to as wide an audience as possible. This included creating social media pages that are regularly updated with old photographs and artworks. I have also made myself and my resources available to researchers and scholars interested in learning more about her work.
My grandmother’s work has since been acquired by renowned institutions such as the Barjeel Art Foundation, and was featured at a historic exhibition titled, Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World 1950s-80s, which debuted at New York University’s Grey Art Gallery in January 2020. Other group exhibitions in Cairo, Alexandria, and Germany have since followed.
The process of uncovering, archiving, and managing my grandmother’s estate has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my entire life. Not only did it introduce me to an entirely new world—that of modern Egyptian art and the industry surrounding it—it allowed me to reconnect with my grandmother, who had passed away twenty years prior when I was only twelve years old. It is an experience that few ever get to enjoy, and I consider myself lucky to have had this opportunity.
Now, on the occasion of my grandmother’s 98th birthday, my mother and I have decided to launch a Substack newsletter where we will continue to document Menhat Helmy’s legacy in an even more intimate setting. We will discuss specific works of art, unveil previously unseen aspects of the artist’s archive, uncover letters and correspondences with other artists and family, and provide unprecedented insight into one of Egypt’s pioneering artists.
I hope you choose to embark on this adventure with us.
-Karim & Sara
The Art of Menhat Helmy is a subscriber-supported newsletter. Paid subscriptions will help our family continue to sustain Menhat Helmy’s legacy. If you can afford it, please consider subscribing here.