Inji Efflatoun

"Upper Egypt Musician" Figurative Drawing 13 x 9 in (c. 1970) by Inji Efflatoun

circa 1970

Inji Eflatoun pursued free studies in art. Since 1942, she has participated in the exhibitions of the Avant grade "Art and Freedom Group". This was the first society that attempted to free modern Egyptian art from the bonds of academism and formalism prevailing then. In March 1952, she had her first one-person exhibition in Cairo and since then, she held 28 solo shows in Egypt and abroad. She has exhibited in Rome in 1967, at the "Paese Nove" gallery, in Paris at the "Galerie de l’Universite" in Dresden, East Germany, Warsaw, Poland, Moscow, and Prague. She held a one-person show in 1979, in New Delhi, India, in 1981 at the Egyptian Academy in Rome, and in 1988 in Kuwait. She has also participated in group exhibitions such as the Biennale of Sao Paolo in 1953, the Biennale of Venice in 1968, and the Contemporary Egyptian Art exhibition in Paris in 1971. In 1975, Mrs. Eflatoun helped organize the "Ten Egyptian Woman Artist in half a Century" exhibition, held in Cairo on the occasion of the International year for woman, and in which she took part. In 1976 she was in charge of the Egyptian Pavillion at the 87th "Salon des Independants" in Paris, in the Grand Palais. The artist’s works were acquired by the Modern art Museum in Cairo, in Alexandria, and in Dresden, the National Museum in Warsaw and by the Oriental Museum in Sophia, the Pushkin Museum in Sophia, the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, the Italian Deputies Council and by private collectors in Egypt and abroad. In 1986, she was awarded by the French Ministry of Culture a medal of merit called "Cavalier of the Arts and Literature". Inji Eflatoun died in 1989.