Global Heshmat — Following Hassan Heshmat around the world

Made out of metal with a size of ca. two metres, the statue ‘Crossing the impossible – the Bar Lev Line and the Suez Canal’ was erected in front of the Panorama October in 1979. It symbolizes the surprise victory of the Egyptian forces against the Israeli army at the beginning of the 1973 war, when crossing the strategically important Suez Canal. Today the statue is missing.

The office of General Motors Egypt, opened in 1985 by President Hosny Mubarak. Despite inquiry, we do not know, if the mosaic still exists there.

The Bride of the Sea, the symbol of the Governorate of the Red Sea is approximately eight metres high and was made of white stone. We do not know when the statue in front of the Governorate`s building, located formerly in Dahar square, was removed and we do not know where it is today, but Hassan Heshmat designed the ‘The Bride of the Sea’ as the landmark for the governorate of the Red Sea in the city of Hurghada with wings heading to the sky. It was still there in 2009, as we know from photos, but it surely was gone by 2016, as al-Bawaba News reports about various statues of mermaids in the city at the time to the dismay of the inhabitants and is asking the same question: Where did the original go?

The artist subsumes this sculpture as ‘Works in the Field’ together with a stone frieze at the entrance of the Nasser Military Academy (Military School Directory reference) and the other one at the Officers Club Theatre in Zamalek (120 square metres). The following artwork was at the entrance to the Red Sea Governorate in Hurghada. For the first (and most probably last time) Heshmat made a statue of a public figure, namely President Gamal Abdel Nasser “larger than life size“ in stone. A copy in metal can be found at his museum in Ain Shams. Early on, the sculptor took an interest in art in public spaces. In 1968, he created a 40-metre-wide mosaic in Hurghada on the Red Sea, which depicts the pillars of the Nasserist renaissance: the mother, the fellah (Egyptian peasant), the worker, the engineer and the student. The cover of his book reads: al-cilm nūr, ‘Knowledge is enlightenment’, which recurs frequently in Heshmat’s works.

We have not been able to pinpoint the exact location of this mosaic, believed to be somewhere on the entrance to Hurghada.

According to his autobiography, Heshmat created a large stone facade and the Mykerinos Triad for the interior and exterior of the Egypt Air office in Paris. The photo shows the Triad in his garden. We do not know whether this was at one of the airports or in the inner city.

Two-meter work out of basalt stone in a church in Boston, USA. Photo from the museum in Ain Shams, 1974. Another of this figurine is located at the Cairo International Stadium.

The Nasser Higher Military Academy was inaugurated on March 3, 1965, by the late leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Russian experts were the initial teaching staff at the Academy. It is a stone frieze at the entrance to the academy.

The artist writes that he made the statue ‘The gift of motherhood’ for a children’s village in Alexandria. The only one we found was the SOS Children’s Village.

The Iparművészeti Múzeum (Museum of Applied Arts) in Budapest once housed works by Hassan Heshmat. Currently, there is no information available and the works whereabouts are unknown.

The Musée de l`Homme in Paris once housed works by Hassan Heshmat.

In his autobiography, Hassan Heshmat refers the “Beijing Museum” where artworks of his can be found. As we did not find a museum by that name, it could either be the Palace Museum or the National Art Museum of China. What do you know about Heshmat’s artworks in China?

A ceramic plaque (approx. 3.5 square metres) is expected to be located in Dayton, Ohio.