Global Heshmat — Following Hassan Heshmat around the world

Saeed Sadr (1909-1986) was a plastic artist, born in the Gabaliyya district of Cairo to a family from the Palestinian city of Tulkarem. In 1928, he received a diploma in “Decoration and Woodcarving” from the Egyptian Institute of Arts and Decoration. Then he joined the Camberwell Institute of Art in London, where he graduated in 1931 with a diploma “Professors of Painting”. Al-Sadr was a significant figure in the development of ceramics and applied arts education in modern Egypt. In 1940, he founded the Museum of Applied Arts at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Cairo and established its Department of Ceramics, contributing to the consolidation of ceramics as a field of study and practice. In 1960, the Egyptian Ministry of Culture commissioned him to establish a Ceramic Center in Fustat, further extending his influence beyond the university and into the wider cultural sphere. Al-Sadr served as Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts from 1967 to 1969, a position that further reflected his prominent role in the development of applied arts education in Egypt. Heshmat was his student and Sadr opened Heshmat’s first solo-exhibitions in 1953 in the Aladdin Gallery.