Inji Efflatoun’s “Contemplation”: A psychologically charged work from a groundbreaking surrealist artist

Inji Efflatoun’s legacy is equal parts artistic and political. Born in 1924 to an upper-class Egyptian family, she actively advocated for women’s rights and subscribed to Communist ideologies that both fueled her groundbreaking painting style and landed her in prison under Gamal Abdel Nasser’s rule. Inspired by “the social reality of the people of the Egyptian working class,” Efflatoun produced a number of “existentialist, psychologically charged” works throughout her younger years as a surrealist artist. Above is one of Efflatoun’s pieces, Contemplation (1940), which Mada Masr’s Ismail Fayed describes as “a voluptuous ink-on-paper urbanscape overwhelming several mysterious figures.” You can take a look at more of Efflatoun’s work featured in the SafarKhan Art Gallery here.