Samir Rafi, a prominent Egyptian modernist, was widely known for combining international trends with traces of Pharaonic art in compositions that poignantly depicted modern day Egypt. After obtaining a bachelor's degree from the School of Fine Arts in Cairo, where he focused on the decorative arts, he went on to complete a PhD in art history from the Sorbonne in Paris in 1953.

Returning to Egypt a midst the fervor of pan-Arab nationalism, he exhibited extensively in Cairo and worked alongside a number of artists who were seeking to express a national identity through the symbolic, and whose aesthetic had fully divorced itself from the legacy of colonialism.

After teaching decorative arts at the School of Fine Arts in ...