Hellenistic and Roman Cultural Influences on Egyptian Feminist Artist

LaPaula Parker

Mediterranean Seminar

February 29, 2024

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 During the Hellenistic and Roman period, the Romans were heavily influenced by Greek

culture. A large part of Greek culture emphasized god and deities, these things helped explain

human behavior. Many of the Greek sculptures were modeled after the gods. This tells us that

their view of humanity and what it means to be human was based on their Gods. Religious

beliefs and more specifically differences were at the heart of the empire's expansions during this

period. As a result of these wars Greek culture began to spread more, following this there were

more trade routes across the Mediterranean exposing people to more cultural exchanges.

Religious iconography was a way to keep true to the culture's values and to promote a cultural

identity while the empires were still expanding.

In Ways of Seeing, noted art critic John Berger challenges oppressed persons to

interrogate our way of seeing and interacting with archives. He explains when we are presented

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with images as, “... a work of art, the way people look at it is affected by a whole series of learnt

assumptions about art. Assumptions concerning: Beauty, Truth, Genius, Civilization, Form,

Status, Taste, etc.” When we look at Greek sculptures from this period we can note how their

way of looking and viewing themselves was influenced by their beliefs about beauty and

civilization. They thought highly of their civilization and felt that there was genius in the creators

of their society, the sculptures were created with this intention. As modern artists when we view

these sculptures we take on their assumptions and use it to interpret our own environment and the

work that we create.

Berger acknowledges the culture that informs our present culture yet he also believes that

these assumptions are, “.. out of true with the present… and obscure the past”( Berger 8). The

way that we are taught to view art isn’t informed by our life experiences and instead by our

learned assumptions about things we should look for. Doing so, we aren’t able to connect the art

to our present experiences and thus he asserts our,“ fear of the present leads to mystification of

the past” (8). Berger explains that our assumptions derive from European aristocrats. He notes

how their preservation of art entered social scenes and became wrapped into the authority of art.

Berger asks us to adopt a new language of images that recenters our realities in art.

His television series, “Ways of Seeing” intended to teach people how to derive their own

way of viewing the world. He stresses, “The issue is not between innocence and knowledge (or

between the natural and the cultural) but between a total approach to art which attempts to relate

it to every aspect of experience and the esoteric approach of a few specialized experts who are

the clerks of the nostalgia of a ruling class in decline” (Berger 26). Even though there’s access to

some historical images and accounts, people aren’t relating them to their lives because of our

learned assumptions concerning the use of art. The first step in obtaining a better way of

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interpreting archival images is to realize the manner we are taught doesn’t serve the needs of the

majority. Berger makes it clear that art has always belonged to and came from the poor. In doing

so, he understands art’s revolutionary potential. He sees it as something that can and most

importantly should work to the advantage of poor oppressed people.

(“ The Elections” fig. 1 to the right )

Menhat Helmy was one of the first artists to display the changing social and economic

conditions in Egypt from the perspective of women. Helmy’s work was different from other

artists at the time because her etchings directly focused on the lives of working class women.

During the Nasserite regime of 1954-1962, there was a movement against communism. . The

Nasserite regime was brought upon by United States involvement in foreign affairs. The

Egyptian Feminist Union was shut down in the beginning of the Nasserite regime. Under the

Nasserite regime, women were imprisoned for their dissenting voices, so

they began to turn to art to express their opinions. Menhat Helmy

displays women’s viewpoint in the 1957 elections in her work titled

“The Elections” In the etching women are shown doing domestic work

and waving banners celebrating their first election. Berger’s criticism

shows the responsibility of deciphering

meaning from relics does not and more importantly, cannot belong to the

privileged minority, because they can’t connect this history to their present lives they surely, will

not put forward a method of deciphering history that puts us into our bodies. By concentrating on

the minority in Egypt Helmy’s work puts forth a method of deciphering present and past history

that encourages other women to be honest about their reality, thus centering themselves rather

than their circumstances. Patrick Matthew Kane’s article, “Menhat Helmy and the emergence of

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Egyptian women art teachers and artists in the 1950s”, attest to this explains that, “Helmy’s

etchings provide a conscious choice to capture and represent a neighborhood upholding its daily

work and social interaction, while confronted by urban disruptions of infrastructure and

poverty” ( Kane 17). Helmy’s work shows the common theme of artists using art to

commemorate their own perspective by doing so they highlight their culture, and project

themselves into another reality that differs from their own. When the Greeks were creating

sculptures they intended for viewers to look at the sculptures and be inspired by them. They also

wanted for them to feel closer to the gods and their own sense of cultural identity.

In Helmy’s work by showing Egyptian women doing simple tasks in the town square

they can be used to inspire other viewers who are looking simultaneously at the women

themselves are inspired because their work to better their community is portrayed. The etching’s

speak to the past, present, and the future all at once. They are timeless and speak to the power

fundamentally instilled in communities.

Another Egyptian artist, Gazbia Sirry used the presence of human figures in her painting

to convey her thoughts about the war. Sirry’s painting “Defeated Dawn” (Figure 2) created in

1967 shows the mourning of the nation in the aftermath of the 1967 war. The 1967 war began

after Israeli troops striked Egypt in response to their closing of the Straits of Tiran. The Straits of

Tiran were sea passages located between Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and Saudi Arabia where they

were used for ships to reach Israel. President Gamal Abdel Nasser closed the straits out of fear

that Israeli troops would invade Egypt. The war was fought for six days and resulted in Israel’s

victory. The nation was deeply affected by this loss and feared the recurrence of Israeli troops

invading. Sirry’s painting shows a woman in mourning, considering the loss of Egypt to Israel.

In Sirry’s painting there is a darkness that Chika Okeke-Agulu explains in “Politics by Other

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Means'' illustrate, “...her meditations on a nation under enormous stress…torn between the same

twin forces of secular nationalism and Islamic modernity that had formed the basis of its search

for political sovereignty at the beginning of the twentieth century” (18). Sirry’s late paintings

incorporate more colors in her work to show her support for increasing women’s rights and the

decline of the Nasser regime.

( “Defeated Dawn” fig. 2 to the left)

Similarly, Inji Aflatoun concentrated on showing the perspective of Egyptian women

from the lower class; she painted profiles of prostitutes, female prisoners, and textile workers.

She was one of Egypt’s first female political prisoners, under the regime of Gamal Abdel

Nasser. While imprisoned for her communist ideologies and her art,Aflatoun painted portraits of

other female prisoners. Efflatoun’s work concerned removing the British out of Egypt, she felt

that they were a direct cause for the lack of economic

opportunities for Egyptian women at the time. Efflatoun’s

work motivated people to be conscious of the plights of

women in Egypt, her portraits especially gained popularity

because people were able to sympathize with the images

she portrayed. The Hellenistic period focused on showing realistic portraits of people and

revered figures or gods. This set a cultural standard identifying who was worthy of having a

portrait or sculpture made, in other words, it let us know who to pay attention to and what was

important. Figures of the human body that are considered or treated as artworks speak to how the

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human wants to be viewed or seen usually. This can be complex when dealing with oppressed

communities who don’t always have power in how they are portrayed. The works will show how

others view a specific community and propose a rejection of this. In the case of Inji Aflatoun

her work calls attention to women prisoners. She makes a political statement using portraiture to

highlight who her attention is on and who needs to be revered in her community. She employs a

style that is seen in the Hellenistic period to her own culture that is plagued by similar religious

wars as the past.

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 Bibliography

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books, 1972.

Efflatoun, Inji. "Portrait d'une prisonnière." 1959, Oil on Canvas, 15.74 x 11.81’’. Mathaf, Doha,
MAT 2013.16.43 Courtesy du Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha

Kane, P. M. (2022). Menhat helmy and the emergence of Egyptian women art teachers
and artists in the 1950s. Arts, 11(5), 95. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11050095

Okeke-Agulu C. Politics by Other Means: Two Egyptian Artists, GAZBIA SIRRY and GHADA
AMER. NKA (Brooklyn, NY). 2009;2009(25):8-29. doi:10.1215/10757163-2009-25-8

Menhat Elmy, Defeated Dawn. Oil on Canvas

Prashad, Vijay. The Darker Nations. leftword, 2020.