Gazbia Sirry (Born 1925)

Gazbia Sirry was part of a group of female artists who came to prominence in the 1950s during the Nasser Era in Egypt. Throughout her sixty-year career, she has responded to shifts in the political, social, and artistic climates in Egypt. She is well respected for her richly colored canvases as well as her savvy perseverance in the occasional turbulence of the Egyptian art world.

Sirry was born in 1925 in Cairo into a wealthy family, and she came of age as an artist during the years surrounding the 1952 Free Officers Revolution. After graduating from the Higher Institute of Art Education for Women Teachers in 1950 (Currently the Faculty of Art Education, Helwan University)​, she earned government scholarships that sent her abroad, where she pursued her postgraduate studies with Marcel Gromaire in Paris in 1950, and then further studies at the Egyptian Academy in Rome 1952 and at the Slade School in London, in 1953. The government also supported her art making in Egypt. Her early paintings are characterized by depictions of strong, imposing female figures of all social classes. Through this variety, she emphasized that one singular, anonymous woman could not represent Egypt, but rather many different women defined the new Egyptian Republic. She painted these works in vibrant colors with strong black contours and a slight flattening of the picture plane, which became her signature style.