Mounir Ekdawi – Oxfordshire Artweeks

384 Mounir Ekdawi

Region: Jericho – City

Artform: Painting

About the Artist: Mounir Ekdawi (1930-2023)
www.ekdawi-collection.com

Mounir Ekdawi was educated in French, Arabic and English. While studying medicine in Alexandria, he took art lessons at the famous Alexandrian Atelier des Beaux Arts, where his first solo exhibition was held shortly after his graduation, in 1953.

In 1953, Mounir left Egypt. He studied and worked in Dublin and Edinburgh, specializing in psychiatry, before moving to Surrey and becoming a senior consultant. He was a leading expert in psychiatric rehabilitation and early proponent of art therapy.

For 20 years, Mounir was happily married to Pamela, who tragically died of cancer, aged 44, in 1978. They had three daughters.

Mounir would get up at 5.00 every morning and paint before work. After practising medicine for over 30 years, he took early retirement to paint full time.

Mounir’s first paintings are a mix of family portraits and pictures inspired by the life of Christ. Lifelong sources of inspiration for Mounir’s art were Coptic icons and the Fayoum portraits. His chief modern influences were Picasso and Francis Bacon.