Through careful brushstrokes and delicate handwork, Menhat Helmy created a world of art that is distinguished and everlasting. With paintings steeped in color and wonder, Helmy was a pioneer whose talent and influence continue to reverberate through the artistic industry today. Helmy was born in 1925 in Helwan to a family of nine siblings. At a time where women’s enrollment in higher education was the exception and not the norm, Helmy’s talent and love for the arts led her to graduating from Cairo’s High Institute of Pedagogic Studies for Art in 1949. Her dynamic talent earned her a scholarship to continue her education at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1953 — becoming one of the first to attend the prestigious school. During her time at Slade — which is ranked as the UK’s top art and design education institution — she studied under world-renowned sculptors like Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, and William Coldstream. Helmy’s primary focus was painting, graphics, and etching, which is a printmaking technique that uses chemical action to produce engraved lines in a metal printing plate. She later won the Slade Prize for Etching in…
The Legacy of Menhat Helmy: An Egyptian Pioneer of Graphics and Printmaking
June 10, 2023
