Anna Boghiguian

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 2004

Condition: This work is in very good condition. Some faint ans light handling marks to some edges of the painting. Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are accurate.
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Born in Cairo, Egypt in 1946, Anna Boghiguian studied art and music at the Concordia University in Montreal and political science and economics at the American University in Cairo. Throughout her travels the artist developed an intimate visual diary, drawing and colouring her surroundings assimilated with text, poetry and sketches. Every image is marked with a different kind of dynamic, often spontaneous.  

The diversity in Boghiguian's work is infinite. By capturing snapshots of the untouchables in India, to architectural wonders in Cairo and Alexandria, the street traffic, or even reinterpretations of antiquity tragedies such as the Necropolis - City of the Deads, the artist relentlessly creates intellectual and visual links between history, literature and poetry as well as present issues. Her diversity in the handling of medium is also considerable. Her paintings exude this feeling of spontaneity and as a consequence make her works de facto so personal yet accessible to the audience. Anna Boghiguian's depiction of Alexandria - Ramleh is a colourful pictorial memory of an eternal city that has left throughout centuries travellers and authors mystified.

Anna Boghiguian has been widely exhibited in renowned institutions throughout the world since the late 1980s. Her works can be found in the permanent collections of Neue Galerie, Kassel, Germany; Institut du Monde Arabe Paris, France; Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, UAE; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France and Musée Carre d'Art, Nîmes, France.

When suddenly, at midnight, you hear
an invisible procession going by
with exquisite music, voices,
don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now,
work gone wrong, your plans
all proving deceptive—don’t mourn them uselessly.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving.
Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say
it was a dream, your ears deceived you:
don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these.
As one long prepared, and graced with courage,
as is right for you who proved worthy of this kind of city,
go firmly to the window
and listen with deep emotion, but not
with the whining, the pleas of a coward;
listen—your final delectation—to the voices,
to the exquisite music of that strange procession,
and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing.

C.P. Cavafy in The God Abandons Anthony, 1911