The original article in the Arabic language at : Watani Newspaper Website :  http://www.wataninet.com/watani_Article_Details.aspx?A=6051

The article translate to English by: Youssef Mohammed

Aesthetic Values of Micro-Mosaic
Vision: Ibram Mosaad

”We stand in front of a pharaonic Egyptian artist, who introduces an art that is considered a global addition to the mosaic art, with the recognition of the global mosaic art associations in England, America and Germany, which are considered the cradle of micro-mosaic. We are already in front of Extraordinary Art and an artist who spent eighteen years in drafting these works, with which he trespassed the greatest works made in Europe and America by the recognition of the top artists out there. His work is considered a school for the art of mosaic.”

These words were written by the great artist and critic Makram Hanin, in introduction of the first exhibition for micro-mosaic in the world, for the creative artist Saad Romani Michael, which is held in the main hall of Fine Arts at the Opera House, from 10- 22 May.

The exhibition comprised 38 works of the very precise mosaic, representing a difficult and strict aspect, which is avoided by the majority of artists. This is called (micro mosaic), as described by the artist Saad Michael. It is a great challenge to the artist, where the artist goes beyond it to question the micro pieces of glass, the width of which is less than a millimeter and the width of the largest piece does not exceed four millimeters. This art provides millions of color degrees, which chromaticity contribute to give a tinge of realism to the final painting, as well as shadows and bright colors; so that the viewer may think that he is in front of an integrated chromatic work and not shorthanded in limited color degrees as handled by lots of mosaic artists.

The blatant challenge to adapt the raw material, which was handled by the artist Saad Michael, is considered a unique example of patience in implementation and accuracy in composition. Perhaps his work in the design of jewelry bestowed him with a kind of precision in dealing with the mosaic work. You cannot find random spaces between the pieces, as everything is calculated before inlaying glass on epoxy material. He starts with the basic lines of the painting in order to handle the glass pieces with the forceps. As for the color shadows, he has to imagine them in order to anneal the raw material into something beyond the configuration. That is called employment. Often, we see mosaic works with good configuration, but the (employment) of the color shadows is not significant, due to one of two things, either the lack of patience of the artist in laying the pieces that reflect the precise color shadows, or the artist use of large-size pieces that does not harmonize with the desirable meanings. This is what the creative artist Saad Mikhail, avoided as he managed through 18 years of patience and use of millions of color micro pieces to produce the best group of world mosaic products.

the artist Saad Michael, was able renovate the mosaic art by analysis of the color spaces of artistic works and dismantle them, so that he can reassemble the pointed color parts. This artistic trend for the development of precise color points is considered a kind of Pointism. It is one of the photography trends, which depends on tightening the spaces into points of color, which may be available in the original from which the design is derived. They may also be generated by the artist and analyzed in accordance with his vision of the work of art.

As for the work steps undergone by the artist Saad Michael, he says: An organized plan has been made for processing the palette of colors, which took more than two years, before placing or rather (inlaying) the pieces by using certain type of adhesive epoxy. The subsequent process of the palette, which is the inlaying process, is considered the most important as it looks like inlaying of diamonds and precious stones by the use of forceps; so every color degree will take its space in which it is employed to serve the final composition.

The Hunter and lights stings

Who looks at the (Hunter) Painting from beyond two meters, he may think it is an oil painting, but when you approach it, you will be surprised that it is a very accurate mosaic painting, where the artist Saad Michael was able pass the limits of raw material (glass) and reach the position of the raw materials touch. You will also be surprised of how this creative artist was able to make the viewers feel the cloth texture, the tree and the hunter, through stones, in an accurate way and wonderful imagination to ensure the aesthetic values of the material.

The most important characteristic of the (Hunter) Painting, is represented in putting the high stings of light in their natural places, as if the light is emitted from the left side of the painting and is reflected on the wrinkled face of the hunter, at his finger folds, at the edge of his cloak and on his neck. The same applies to the elements surrounding the fisherman, where the artist Mikhail Saad was interested in giving naturalism to the work.

The most up-to-date Cleopatra

Many people have portrayed Cleopatra in their works, where some of them drew her in the position of glory and others introduced her in tough character, but the creative artist Saad Mikhail was able- through the mosaic- to make of Cleopatra a manikin who takes pride in herself, holding the end of her dress of kingship colors. The painting that contains many glass pieces to constitute the loving queen was the finest painting in the exhibition, as if the artist does not practice his art on the level of artistic creativity only, but also on the level of intellectual and philosophical creativity as well. We did not see an artist who depicted Cleopatra in such free situation before. With that, Saad went beyond the border to come out of the traditional art into a more liberal art, as a kind of renovation in processing art works and display of the aesthetics of raw material.

The Glittering Chiffon

When you see the (Glittering Chiffon) painting, you will ask yourself, how the artist put the transparent chiffon over the texture of flesh, as there is great difficulty in implementing it with mosaic, due to the very strong affinity between the degrees of body color and the degrees of chiffon color. With great skillfulness, the brilliant artist was able to turn the glass into chiffon, showing the areas of transparency of the body and the different color that express texture. The painting contained micro pieces of glass to play the role of the chiffon and its texture implications, whether on the woman's body or on the walls surrounding it.

The puzzling matter here is the graduation of the chiffon color from the snow-white color on the left to the dark color on the right side, as if this woman raises her hand to be seen through the sun rays that penetrate chiffon, producing a great deal of shadows without using a photographic camera. But the artist Saad Mikhail was able to depict this moment, with its reflection to the right, making dark shadows, in a scene that is more brilliant than being a photographic one.

Bouquet of roses

The artist Saad Michael introduced (The Bouquet of Roses) to show the full harmony among colors, which revives the memory the creations of the world artist (Van Gogh), where the color degrees are used in a high professionalism and were distributed unevenly in a manner of contrast. If you separated the artwork vertically from the middle, you will find the parts size, the blocks and colors are commensurate between the left side and the right side; even the degrees themselves are almost distributed in the same hot and cold degrees on both sides. This is due to the nature of the (Banquet), where colors should be distributed consistently and in balance. If we look at the shadows of the roses, we will find that (the motion of glass position is commensurate with the movement of the roses themselves.

The matter for Saad Romani is not just implementation of the work, but it is how to adapt its elements to employ them in the work. Each rose has a particular tilt and specific colors to lead to their shadows that form with their counterparts the same basic direction of the shadow in the painting. The artist – in order to provide a realistic aspect to the roses, put shadows of black stones in the background, as a kind of soft shadows (fade-feather) so that the roses will not appear with sharp edges with the background. Everything in the painting is carefully calculated prior to implementation, where his works have been prepared in periods that may exceed years for each painting.

Jesus, the Christ

No exhibition for the artist Saad Mikhail was void of a painting for the Christ, with the light aura around his head, made of gradient white glass. He was also interested in clarifying the details of hair, its gradient color and the skin color due to the shadows, colors and reflections. It is worth mentioning that the mosaic Christian works spread in Europe, Italy and the Vatican, and perhaps the most famous works are the walls of St. Peter Church, in which marble pieces were brilliantly used, where you cannot be sure whether it is an oil painting or a marble work. Fantastic mosaic paintings were also discovered in Hagia Sophia Church in Constantinople that date back to the Gregorian sixth century. The exhibition is disiguished by displaying mosaic works for world figures like Naguib Mahfouz, Omar El Sharif, Fairuz, Beethoven and Queen Elizabeth…etc.

If we are talking about the creations of the unique Egyptian artist, Saad Romani Mikhail, who won an international fame through his excellent approach in micro-mosaic, we hope that other mosaic artist will proceed on his path, and that this critical field of art will occupy a place in the Egyptian and international universities as well as schools of art, so as not to return to extinction. We also extend our gratitude and appreciation to the creative artist Saad Mikhail for the great works he introduced to revitalize a field of art, which we had thought that it has come to an end.

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