[EGYPTIAN SURREALISM - POSTCOLONIAL ART HISTORY] Two autograph letters signed by Egyptian Surrealist Georges Henein to Argentine poet and editor Marcos Fingerit

Cairo, dated November 1948 and March 1949. Two leaves of light blue stock measuring 25.4 × 20.3 cm, with holograph text in blue ink; the first letter 1 p.; the second letter 2 pp. (recto and verso). Old horizontal and vertical creases; light creasing and foxing; else about very good.

Two autograph letters signed by Egyptian Surrealist writer and publisher Georges Henein (1914-1973) to manuscript letters to Argentine avant-garde writer and editor Marcos Fingerit. Writing from Cairo in November 1948, Henein thanks Marcos Fingerit warmly for sending a copy of his journal "Unicornio", praising his efforts to publish "delicate voices" that conserve within poetry its "radiating power" in a time in great need of poetry. He mentions that his own journal "La part du sable" had ceased to appear but hints at a new publishing project in preparation. A second letter dated March 1949 accompanied a copy of Henein's book "L'incompatible" and mentions Philippe Soupault's visit to Cairo, to whom he showed Fingerit's "Unicornio" in the hopes of inspiring him to submit poetic works of his own. He concludes with a pessimistic appraisal of the situation of contemporary poetry. Two important and substantial letters documenting this unexpected juncture of two figures of the non-European avant-gardes.

Given his origins, Henein was predestined to establish and organize the exchange between Egyptian and European avant-gardists. As the son of a Coptic diplomat, he was familiar with moving between different cultures. He learned French in Rome when he attended the French grammar school Lycée Chateaubriand. English, French, and Italian were spoken fluently in his family. However, he only learned Arabic later from a Greek-Catholic monk. He began his law studies in Paris, which he eventually completed in Cairo. There he came across the francophone cultural organization "Les Essayistes" (The Essayists), which was founded in Cairo in 1928 on the initiative of a number of intellectuals. Its publication organ, the journal "Un Effort", was a shining platform for the presentation and discussion of the various currents of the European avant-garde. Henein became one of its most important and best-known authors.

After visiting Breton in Paris, he devoted himself entirely to surrealism and the task of making it known in Egypt. In 1937, he organized a conference broadcast on the radio as part of "Les Essayistes", which made him Breton's ambassador in Cairo. The first supporters of Surrealism in Egypt gathered around him: the poet Edmond Jabès, the journalist Émile Simon and the painters Kamel Telmisany, Angelo de Riz and Ramses Younan. In 1938, the group gave itself the name "Art and Freedom", in reference to the manifesto "Pour un art révolutionnaire indépendant", which Breton had written in Mexico in collaboration with Trotsky. This was followed by a series of exhibitions and individual publications. The war interrupted personal contact with Breton, whom Henein did not visit again until 1947 in Paris. After his return to Cairo, Henein published the two issues of "La part du sable" (The part of the sand), which he refers to in the letters to Fingerit. (Mona Khazindar, Georges Henein. A Surrealist in Egypt or the Wanderer between Two Worlds?, in: Nka. Journal of Contemporary African Art, Vol. 2021, Issue 49, pp. 64-81).