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Article

Ermes, Ali Omar  

Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom

Publication History:

Published online:
02 July 2009
Collection:
Grove Art Online

(b. Tripoli, Libya, 1945).

Libyan painter. He returned to Libya in 1970 after graduating from the Plymouth School of Architecture and Design in England. In 1974 he was appointed consultant to the Festival of Islam in London, and in 1981 he settled in England. He typically uses individual letter forms based on the maghribī style of script typical of North Africa, setting one or two large letters against a richly textured abstract ground with accompanying excerpts from Arabic and world literature that address social and moral issues. His works have been exhibited in more than 60 solo and group exhibitions and can be found in many major museums. Chairman of Muslim Cultural Heritage Center in London, he has also been involved with several other cultural and intellectual institutions there.

A. O. Ermes: Ali Omar Ermes: Art and Ideas: Works on Paper (exh. cat., Oxford, Ashmolean, 1992)A. O. Ermeswith S. Rizvi: Reaching Out: Conversations on Islamic Art with Ali Omar Ermes...

Article

Wakil, Abdel Wahed el-  

Hasan-Uddin Khan

Publication History:

Published online:
2003
Collection:
Grove Art Online

(b Cairo, Aug 7, 1943).

Egyptian architect. He graduated from Ain-Shams University in Cairo in 1965. Between 1965 and 1970 he lectured at the university while studying and working with his mentor Hassan Fathy, the well-known proponent of vernacular architecture. In 1971 he went into private practice, eventually establishing offices in Cairo, Jiddah, and Ashford, Kent. He acted as an adviser to the Ministry of Tourism in Egypt (1972) and as consultant to UNESCO (1979–1980). From 1993 he was based in Miami, FL, with intervals spent in Saudi Arabia. In 1980 he won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Halawa house in Agamy, Egypt, completed in 1975. The two-story house was built around a courtyard, and the articulation of space was handled with great sensitivity and simplicity. Openings in the white walls filter light to the interior through carved wooden screens (Arab. mashrabiyyas), and much of the courtyard remains in shadow, staying cool during the heat of the day. From this small vacation house El-Wakil went on to design larger houses such as the spectacular Al Sulaiman Palace (1980) in Jiddah, which uses the same principles but on a more lavish and larger scale. For a short time, the architect toyed with other expressions of form but quickly returned to his exploration of tradition. El-Wakil’s most convincing designs have been those for mosques (for illustration ...