‘Surface and Light: Works from 1970 – 2015’ by Wassef Boutros Ghali

‘Surface and Light: Works from 1970 – 2015’ by Wassef Boutros Ghali

The first floor of the Club features works by Egyptian artist Wassef Boutros Ghali. Boutros Ghali practised as an architect all his life and painted alongside it until his death in Cairo in 2023, bringing an eye for precision to the canvas.

In the 1970s, he moved to New York, where colour field painting and geometric abstraction sharpened his eye as a colourist, and he folded Le Corbusier, Rothko and Reinhardt into a unique visual language. He lived in New York from 1971, where immersed himself in the colour field painting and geometric abstraction that dominated the city at the time. He continued to draw on these influences when he returned to Cairo in 1985 but developed an approach that was entirely his own.

Boutros Ghali’s compositions are defined by colours drawn from the Egyptian sunlight. Architectural forms emerge, offering landscapes that recall the real world but could never exist in it. With a minimalist’s restraint, he refused overtly recognisable shapes, using colour to carry energy across his compositions.

Works such as The Blue Door (2000) and Horizon VI (2000), both featured in this exhibition, translate architecture, shorelines and the sea into compositions that speak to the alternative Modern which defined his lifetime. The works in this show span four decades, from two intimate works on paper produced in the 1970s to later paintings from the early 2010’s.

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2013
Acrylic on canvas
165.1 x 139.7 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
The Yellow Square, 2002
Acrylic on canvas
117 x 97 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
The Blue Door, 2000
Acrylic on canvas
117 x 97 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2001
Acrylic on canvas
116.8 x 96.5 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2015
Acrylic on canvas
116.8 x 96.5 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2013
Acrylic on canvas
165.1 x 139.7 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2001
Acrylic on canvas
180.3 x 109.2 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 1987
Acrylic on canvas
107 x 91 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2003
Acrylic on canvas
68.6 x 68.6 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Horizon VI, 2000
Acrylic on canvas
97 x 117 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 2007
Acrylic on canvas
116.8 x 116.8 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 1970s
Felt pen on paper
43.2 x 35.6 cm

Wassef Boutros Ghali
Untitled, 1977
Watercolour on paper
36.3 x 35.8 cm (51.1 x 51.1 cm framed)