Oct 15, 2020 - Sale 2547

Sale 2547 - Lot 21

Price Realized: $ 2,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,000

IHAP HULUSI GÖREY (1898-1986)

MISR EGYPTIAN AIRLINES. Circa 1937.


39 1/2x27 3/4 inches, 100 1/4x70 1/2 cm. Misr Press, Cairo.
Condition B+ / B: time-staining in right margin, slightly into image; repaired tears and creases in margins; sharp horizontal folds; ink stamp in lower left corner. Paper.

A nearly photographic image of a Havilland D.H.86 Express (from the name on the nose cone, we know it to be the Al Fostat - named after the country's first capital city) flying over the Great Pyramids of Giza. The historical precursor to today's EgyptAir, Misr-Airwork was a joint venture funded largely by the Misr Bank (Misr is the Egyptian word for Egypt), working in conjunction with British partners. The company was founded in 1931 and had its first flight in 1933. Born in Cairo to Turkish parents, Hulusi abandoned his parents' plans for him to become a diplomat and devoted his life to graphic art and painting. He studied in Germany under Ludwig Hohlwein before settling down in Istanbul. In 1928, Turkey adopted the Roman alphabet (they had been using the Ottoman Turkish Alphabet, which was a version of the Arabic alphabet) and in 1934, president Kamal Ataturk asked Hulusi to design a poster of him teaching his daughter the new letters. Hulusi is renowned as the "first modern graphic designer from Turkey," and "the man who illustrated the Republic." Crouse p. 25.