Wassef Boutros-Ghali’s precise, emotional paintings possess a distinctly spatial logic. An architect by training, the Egyptian abstract painter’s experimentations with geometry and color often give way to structural compositions. In one, an emerald wedge cleaves into a viridian square like joinery; in another, which features an icy-white pyramid, a fulcrum motif is repeated, creating visual tension.

Born in Cairo to an influential political family, Boutros-Ghali, who died in 2023, first fine-tuned his perception of light and space designing buildings, prime examples of the Egyptian modernist movement. His first completed project, Dar El Nil, was commissioned by his father and completed in 1951.

Wassef Boutros-Ghali, Catalogue Raisonné, a new book published by SKIRA, documents his legacy alongside the artist’s interview with Glenn Adamson and an essay by Sumayya Vally.

The written portion traces the evolution of his practice across a life spent in Cairo, Paris, and New York, which leaves his acrylic paintings and drawings to speak for themselves.