Hamed Nada (1924-1990) was deeply influenced by the folkloric traditions and mystical beliefs passed through word of mouth in Cairo’s historic district of Al-Khalifa, where he grew up. As such, his work is fundamentally autobiographical, while carrying universal allegorical properties. Hamed Nada’s early career was imbued of social realism, a movement that naturally imposed itself upon the artist through his engagement with the Egyptian Literary Society and their publication, al-Thaqafa. At the same period, he was introduced to the Group of Contemporary Egyptian Art, where he shared with his friend and colleague Abel Hadi el-Ghazzar (see lot 44) a taste for human psychology, in particular seen within the prism of superstitious symbolism. In a quest to explore the darkest corners of the human psyche, Nada developed a metaphorical sense of space conveying a unique pictorial universe saturated with supernatural energies. Cats, lamps, roosters and chairs became a signature constellation in his meticulous compositions, as so many metaphors of the human soul, longings and fears. Nada later slowly progressed to depict scenes of daily life, tinted with fatalism and political resonance, and adopted a simplified perspective through two-dimensional spaces, emphasizing the distortion of stylized figures gesticulating along his canvases.

A masterpiece of eclecticism, the present painting dives into what could be a scene straight out of the human subconscious, exhibiting distorted figures representative of Nada’s progressive turn towards primitive abstraction. Two naked women interlaced in what can be interpreted as a passionate embrace or a violent fight are observed by a cat on the forefront, while in the background, two men sit in discussion near a bending woman with a rooster perched on her back. This incongruous, raw scene turns the painting into a deeply confrontational piece, forcing the viewer’s attention onto the intimate parts exhibited by the exaggerated postures of its subjects. This prescribed position of voyeurism is reinforced by the various animal figures staring at the characters, whose own eyes are meeting in various directions. This triangle of perspectives acts as a breach of the fourth wall, in a theatrical enactment aiming at absorbing the viewer while simultaneously triggering a sense of intrusion. In effect, this painting triggers the very cathartic feelings that have made the popularity of supernatural folklore tales in every part of society.