Founder of the Egyptian surrealism: Ramses Younan

Abstract

This article examines the personality and creative output of Ramses Younan, an outstanding Egyptian surrealist artist, painting theorist, critic and translator, leader of the avant-garde anti-fascist group “Art et Liberté”. The relevance of the work is considered in relation to the lack of publications about Ramses Yunan in Russian-language special literature, but also to the following. The focus on the exploration of the inner world of human, the artistic expression of complex thoughts and emotions, and the symbolic transmission of social and political ideas acquire special significance during periods of human history marked by tension, both during the emergence of surrealism in the early 20th century and in the present day. The exploration of perennial questions concerning human existence has elevated Surrealism from a mere artistic movement to a cultural phenomenon, one that continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary art and thought. The author's focus is on the period of the creative biography of the Egyptian figure from the beginning of the 1930s to the end of the 1940s, the time when his professional formation takes place, a circle of communication, interests and ideological attitudes is formed. The research methodology is based on a system-integrated approach, including comparative historical, biographical and hermeneutic methods. Through the correlation of the life path of Ramses Younan with the historical and political events and socio-cultural processes of the epoch, the moral and value guidelines and the ideological and artistic strategy of the master were determined, which found a multifaceted embodiment in his paintings, literary essays, and critical articles. The study demonstrated that this is one of the iconic figures in 20th-century Egyptian painting, whose activities had a significant impact on the formation of a new cultural appearance of the country. The introduction of previously unclaimed facts of biography into scientific use and critical understanding, the consideration of the breakthroughs of the innovative artist who advocated freedom of expression and social responsibility of the creator, as well as the cultural and art history analysis of his creative works, contributes to the further development of the stated problem, allowing to form the ideas of the Russian-speaking audience about one of the key representatives of Egyptian modernist art, in particular, surrealism.