Google doodle is celebrating the 96th anniversary of Egyptian painter Tahia Halim by changing its default image to one of the artist’s work.
Halim was a pioneer in the modern expressive movement in the 1960s where she showed Egyptian people's idiosyncrasies in her art pieces. Her work depicts the Nile, boats and some national subjects.
She was born in 1919 and her primary education was done inside the Royal palace of Cairo, where she was raised during the reign of King Fouad I of Egypt.
Halim studied art under the supervision of well-known artists, such as Yussef Trabelsi, Gerom and Hamed Abudallah. She later moved to Paris in 1945 to join the Julian Academy.
Girl with a dove, circa 1963. Photo courtesy of invaluable.com
In the late 50s, she returned to Egypt to teach art in her private studio, in downtown Cairo.
Throughout her career, she received several honorary awards, both in Egypt and abroad. Halim died on March 24, 2003.
Her works are presented in various museums throughout Egypt, including the Egyptian Modern Art Museum in Cairo and the Fine Arts Museum in Alexandria.
Her paintings can also be found abroad, such as at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which acquired Halim’s " Hanan" (Compassion) for which she won the 1958 Guggenheim prize. Some of her other paintings can be found in the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm and in embassies and private collections worldwide.
Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm
