Tad

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Artist Tad occupied a prominent place in Egypt’s modern visual culture through his distinctive work as an illustrator, painter and designer. His long collaboration with Sabah El-Kheir magazine from the early 1960s defined his style, characterised by a fluid line and an acute observation of daily Egyptian life. Beyond his editorial drawings for Sabah El-Kheir and Rose Al-Youssef, he created book and magazine illustrations, particularly for children’s publications such as Aladdin and Qatr El-Nada, shaping a generation’s visual imagination. His artistic activity extended to film, television and public projects, notably the Child Museum commissioned by Dr Samir Sarhan. A cultural exchange with the Christoph Merian Foundation in Basel led to two exhibitions devoted to Egyptian life and to illustrated memoirs published in Sabah El-Kheir in 1988. Between 1990 and 1995 he produced weekly sketches for The Egyptian Gazette, refining his monochrome idiom into concise depictions of urban life. Tad exhibited widely in Egypt and abroad, including solo shows at the Cairo Opera House, the Goethe-Institut and the Akhenaton Gallery. A 1993 ARD documentary and numerous retrospectives organised after his death, particularly by his wife Gehan Salama, confirmed his role as a key figure in the modern history of Egyptian illustration and painting.