Ramses Wissa Wassef the architectural painter

Ramses Wissa Wassef (1911–1974) is a pioneering Egyptian architect, professor of art, and architecture at the College of Fine Arts in Cairo and the founder of the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre.

Starting spark

Wassef wanted to become a sculptor -after high school- but changed his mind and studied architecture in France at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris and earned his BA degree in 1935 where his thesis project “A Potter’s House in Old Cairo” received the first prize.

After returning to Cairo he was astonished by the beauty of the medieval towns and the old quarters of Cairo. He developed an architectural style that bore the stamp of his strong personality and responded to the challenge of the times without breaking away from the past. Impressed by the beauty of the Nubian houses in the villages around Aswan, which still preserved the domes and vaults, inherited from the earliest Pharaonic dynasties, he showed their presence in his architectural work for reasons of aesthetics, climate and economics. He used traditional craftsmen such as stonecutters, carpenters, glass blowers and potters who had inherited the techniques and traditions of the Egyptian colloquial heritage.

He had a passion for beauty in form and believed "one cannot separate beauty from a utility, the form from the material, the work from its function, a man from his creative art "

Architectural works

Wassef is a history that lives through his humanist architecture works. Some of his architectural works include:

-Potter's House in Old Cairo.

-French College of Daher.

-French School of Cairo.

-Mahmoud Mokhtar Sculpture Museum, Cairo.

-Saint Mary Coptic Church in Zamalek, Cairo.

-Several churches in Cairo, Alexandria and Damanhour, including the Church of St. George in Heliopolis.

-The Junior Lycee school at Bab al-Louq Cairo.

-His home in Agouza, Cairo and several private houses along the Saqqara road near the Pyramids.

-Adam Henein House, Harrania Giza. Henein was his student at the college of fine art.

-Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center compound, Harrania Giza, including tapestry workshops and gallery, the Habib Georgi sculpture museum.

Social responsibility

He established his art center to teach young Egyptian villagers how to create art, including tapestries. He believed that children are endowed with creative power and potential as he wanted to prove that artistic creativity is innate in everyone.

The Art Centre won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture from the Aga Khan Development Network in 1983. It is open to the public, with an art museum exhibiting its early tapestry works, and a museum shop selling contemporary tapestry works by Art Centre artists. Tours are available, upon contacting the Art Centre in advance to schedule.

It has operated continuously since opening in 1951, with its artists creating tapestries there for over 60 years. The center's artists create the designs and weave the tapestries directly from their imaginations onto the looms. Pre-designed patterns have never been used, supporting Wassef's belief that artistic creativity is intrinsic, and can be expressed when a supportive context is available.

The renowned textile artists Ali Selim and Karima Ali, who began as children at the Centre in the 1960s and 1970s, continue to weave tapestry masterworks, now up to 10 feet (3.0 m) in width.

Exhibitions

Many exhibitions have been held in Europe and the Smithsonian Institution organized a traveling exhibit in the USA in 1975-76. The most recent exhibition was at the Coningsby Gallery in London, UK, in November 2012.

Awards

Egyptian National Award For The Arts - 1961, for his stained-glass window designs for The Egyptian National Assembly building, Cairo.

The Aga-Khan Architectural Award - 1983, for his achievements and particularly for the art center at Harrania, Giza.