Described by
some people as a true “Renaissance man,” Farid
Fadel was born in 1958 in Assuit, Upper Egypt,
into a family noted for both its musicians and
its doctors. He has since excelled at medicine,
art and music, taking all three gifts very
seriously.
In art, he has held 34 solo exhibitions; in
music, he has given several prominent recitals
and concerts, and in medicine, he obtained his
M.Sc. in Ophthalmology, and is presently working
as a practicing eye doctor at the Memorial
Institute of Ophthalmology, Giza. |
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In 1973, Dr. Fadel was awarded
the Pope’s Medal and Vatican Award in an art
contest with 50,000 participants worldwide. In
1975, on the inauguration of his fifth
exhibition, the Egyptian Parliament granted him
a trip to Italy to see Renaissance art, which
had a strong influence on his style. He has
taken part in several group shows, both in Egypt
and abroad, such as the People’s Show in
Portland, Maine, USA (1982), where he displayed
fifteen portraits. His fourteenth solo
Exhibition was held at the Egyptian Cultural
Center, Mayfair, London, 1989 and his 16th show
in the University of Toledo, Ohio, USA. In 2000,
Dr. Fadel traveled with his exhibition “On Both
Sides” to the USA where it was displayed in
Ohio, Connecticut and Washington D.C.
Some of his portraits were used
as covers for Egyptian magazines. One of his
paintings was chosen for the brochure of 1988
Nobel Prize Winner, Naguib Mahfouz. Farid Fadel
has completed the illustrations of a Children’s
Bible with colored-plates that follow a Middle
Eastern approach to the stories of the New
Testament. The three volumes were published in
1991, 1993 and 1995 and were best sellers at the
Cairo International Book Fair. Dr. Fadel
participated in “the Call for Peace” group
exhibition during the Gulf War in 1991. He has
also participated in two benevolence exhibitions
to support the earthquake victims in 1992. For 3
successive years he has participated in the
exhibition “Physician as Artist” at Riverside
Hospital, Toledo, OH and won the Blue Ribbon
Prize in 1997. His interest in art theory
culminated in the establishment of his “AIN”
theory (Aesthetic Integrated Naturalism), which
explains his particular views on a naturalistic
approach to fine art in a post-modern context.
A manifesto was also published
in 1997 during a lecture he gave at the Toledo
Museum of Art, Ohio, entitled “Musicality in
Art.” Dr. Fadel has studied violin for 8 years
with Professor Adolph Menassa, and for the last
16 years has studied piano. He has given piano
recitals in Egypt and the USA. He is also an
accomplished baritone-tenor soloist.
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