The Flood Canvas Aldine

Description of the work

Aldine (Franco-Egyptian painter)
The Flood Oil on canvas Dimensions: 114 × 146 cm (frame)
Signed by the artist on the front and back
Dated: 1969

This monumental work, entitled The Flood, testifies to Aldine's expressive power. Through dynamic gestures and superimpositions of materials, the painter evokes a universe in movement, between chaos and rebirth. The palette, dominated by deep tones of blue, black and brown, is confronted with golden glows reminiscent of a sky crossed by a storm. The energy of the lines and shapes suggests the devastation of the elements, but also the light of a possible appeasement.

At the crossroads of abstraction and cosmic evocation, this painting illustrates the intensity of Aldine's artistic approach, where the cultural memory of his origins and his contemporary sensitivity meet.

Abdellatif ALDINE (1917 – 1992)
Franco-Egyptian painter and sculptor Born in Cairo in 1917, Abdellatif Ala El Din, known as Aldine, is a singular figure of the second School of Paris. Initially trained in physical and chemical sciences at the Sorbonne, he turned towards a scientific career before a decisive encounter, in the mid-1940s, with the art critic Michel Ragon, encouraged him to devote himself fully to painting and the visual arts.

Settled in France since 1953, he successively held the positions of cultural attaché at the Egyptian Embassy in Paris, then Director of the Education Bureau and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. At the end of the 1950s, he definitively chose the artistic path and set up his studio in Montparnasse.

As much a painter as a sculptor, Aldine quickly established himself with powerful works, such as The Man from Hiroshima, presented in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad. His artistic career oscillated for a long time between figuration and abstraction, before evolving towards an almost exclusively abstract expression. His paintings, with evocative titles – The Crucified, The Templars – reflect a spiritual and mystical quest. His pictorial language is characterized by broad brushstrokes, curvilinear contours and an exploration of major thematic cycles: Nebulae, Steles, Whirlwinds.

Aldine's works are now held in important public and private collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg), the Musée national d'art moderne (MNAM), the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille, as well as the Aga Khan collection.