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TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
103-115
DOI
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
17 December 2024
ACCEPTED
19 January 2025
PUBLISHED
23 February 2025
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue02 2025
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
Mythical Imagination as a
Source for Contemporary
Arab Design
Lect. Dr.Haider Addam Hamza
Ministry of Education, Babylon Education Directorate, Ira
q
Abstract:
The first chapter of the research discusses the
methodological framework of the study, the research
problem, the research significance and necessity, the
research objective, the research boundaries, the
identification and definition of terms. The second
chapter covers the theoretical framework and previous
studies. The first section addresses fantasy, and in
defining it, explores the theory of fantasy and its role in
design, mythology, and the linguistic interpretation of
myths, as well as its psychological aspects. The second
topic is myth throughout history, the impact of myth
and the psychological dimensions of the symbol
historically, myth in primitive art, initial primitive
symbols, the image of the legend in ancient Iraqi art,
mythological imagination in ancient Egyptian art,
previous studies, chapter three This chapter dealt with
research procedures, first: research methodology,
second: research community, third: research sample,
fourth chapter This chapter dealt with first: research
results, second: Conclusions, Third: Research Sources.
Keywords:
Mythical Imagination, Design.
Introduction:
Chapter One
Methodological Framework of the Research
Research Problem
Imagination has gained great importance in the
humanities in general and in the field of design arts in
particular. It is an interest that derives from its
irreplaceable
effectiveness
in
human
cultural
achievements throughout history. Creativity, whether in
science or art, cannot be achieved in isolation from
imagination, which provides a fertile climate for
achieving innovative formulations and solutions.
Creative imagination gives an innovative pattern,
identity, and a unique and new sequence of imaginary
images and ideas used to solve problems. It is a new
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internal means of representing the problem and trying
to find a solution to it in most arts. Arab artists have
presented artistic design works that carry in their
subjects clear aspects of mythical imagination that
contain new and distinctive methods and formulations
that are a different approach to what was familiar
before, which confirms the importance of mythical
imagination as one of the most important sources
influencing many of the visions, experiences, and
products of contemporary Arab designers who were
inspired by the cultural heritage through mythical
imagination. Based on the above, the problem of the
current study is summarized in the following question:
- To what extent can mythical imagination To enrich
contemporary Arab design?
The importance of the research and the need for it
1. It can enrich the field of contemporary design.
2. It contributes to establishing the foundations of
identity in the field of contemporary design.
Research objective
1. To reveal the reflections of mythological imagination
in the works of contemporary designers.
2. Mythological imagination as an important source for
design
Research limits
1- Objective limits: Studying myth as a source in
contemporary Arab design.
2- Temporal limits: The time period (1938-2012).
3- Spatial limits: Selected designs for some countries
(Iraq, Palestine, Egypt).
Definition and definition of terms
Imagination in language
The definition of (imagination) is mentioned in Lisan al-
Arab under the entry (khil), meaning what appears to
you in wakefulness and dreams of an image, and
(imagination and imagination), “
the person, the
specter, and imagination is a piece of wood that is
placed and a garment is thrown on it for the sheep. If a
wolf sees it, it thinks it is a human being” (Ibn Manzur,
2003, p. 201), “Imagination is mentioned in (Kashaf
Istilahat al-Funun) with the opening and the lightening
of the lower double in the language, meaning the
thought, the person, and the image that is seen in a
dream, or imagined in wakefulness, as it is a force that
preserves the images drawn in the common sense if
those images
are absent from the apparent senses”
(Al-
Tahnawi, n.d., p. 130), “Imagination is also
mentioned in (Al-
Ta’rifat) as a force that preserves
what the common sense perceives of images of the
senses after the absence of matter, such that the
common sense sees them whenever it turns to them, so
it is a storehouse for the common sense and its location
is the first posterior part of the brain” (Al
-Jurjani, 1986,
p. 60).
Imagination technically
Imagination is defined as “a faculty of the mind by which
absent things are represented as if they were truly
present to our feelings and emotions” (Abdel Nour,
1979, p. 244), “or it is “the faculty that generates
sensory perceptions of material things that are absent
from sight” (Abdel Nour, 1979, p. 245), “and its
definition is mentioned in the (Lalande) Encyclopedia as
a sensory or mental copy of what the sight has perceived
with or without a new combination of the elements that
compose this imagination” or it is “a visual
representation created by the activity of thought, new
combinations in terms of their images, if not in terms of
their elements that arise from the creative imagination”
(Lalande, 1996, p. 617), “and imagination is mentioned
in (Dictionary of Literary Terms) as “the ability by which
the mind can form images of things or people after
retrieving them” (Wahba, B. T., p. 164), and (Al
-Noura
G.) defines it as “the process of organizing a new set of
past experiences so that a coherent series is gathered
between them with many relationships.” The different
ones that compose new images that did not exist
before” (Al
-Noura Ji, 1990, p. 128), as (Asaad) defines it
as “the mental function that the imagination performs
to manufacture or formulate new mental images using
in that part of the perceived and remembered mental
images as raw materials used in the manufacturing
process or the new formulation process in which those
perceptual and remembered mental images will
appear” (Asaad, 2003, p. 78).
The operational definition of imagination
It is the power that brings together the conflicting
characteristics and features in the sensory perception
for the sake of creation, and creation is of two types:
primary, which makes human perception possible, and
secondary, which seeks from the real to the ideal as if
everything is new.
Design
“Graphic design is based on applying a set of principles
and working on a set of elements to create a visual
communicative artwork based on the fixed image and
takes the form of a print or displayed on a two-
dimensional surface” (Musa, 2011, p.
23).
Graphic art in its general meaning is the art of cutting,
engraving, or processing wooden or metal panels or any
other material with the aim of achieving printed
surfaces and obtaining different artistic visual effects by
printing them (October 14 Foundation, 2012). Chapter
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Two
Theoretical Framework and Previous Studies
Section One
Mythical Imagination
Fantasy
The meaning of the term fantasy, whether in art in
general or in design in particular, is that fantasy images
are not created for the purpose of entertainment, play,
or escape from reality, because they are like the myth
industry - they are - "a way to describe the human
experience, and they are considered the language
available to designers to record their feelings and deep
emotions for what they aspire to and what is achieved
from desires, inclinations, and hopes away from the
dominance of their painful reality, and therefore we find
them presenting in their artistic works the alternative
face of their culture and ideas through an imaginary
"fantasy" vision that honestly expressed their
philosophy, dreams, and hopes for every period they
lived, "fantasy, in brief, is an imaginary criticism of the
life they lived, and it is not the product of an era or the
monopoly of a certain art from the known and popular
arts, but it is as old as man, and it is “It explores the
essence of hidden, mysterious and exciting things in
order to reach basic concepts on which art and artists
are based” (Abaza 1994, p. 20) as in Figure (1).
Figure (1) Design in imagination and aesthetics of
images using more than one design style. This work can
be used in posters, movie advertisements, and
television programs.
In the definition of imagination, the term imagination
in art is generally defined as “to describe any work that
inspires astonishment, strangeness, or abnormality”
(Shabl, 2000, p. 32). Al-Mawrid dictionary defines
fantasy as a term that refers to something imaginary,
unrealistic, and eccentric. It is a wild imagination, i.e.
difficult to achieve. It is a fruit of the imagination, and
it is also characterized by freedom from the restrictions
of the traditional and conventional form (Al-Mawrid,
1977, p. 337). The dictionary of art defines fantasy as:
“Any art characterized by strangeness and deviation
from the natural course of life’s reality, and
characterized by Grotesque (*) or irrational design
according to a logic that is inverse to natural logic in its
characteristics. In this way, it becomes an art called
(fantasy)
–
strangeness
–
or a departure from the
natural or usual familiar thing or similar names.” Also,
there are no temporal or spatial affiliations for this art,
and it also makes art limited to the dreamy aspect. The
imaginary that derives its roots and origins from visions,
dreams, the subconscious, and the fantasies of human
imagination in general, and this is represented in many
works of religious images (Al-Mawrid, 1997, p. 337). The
Encyclopedia Britannica defines fantasy in the field of
music as “like a piece or piece of instrumental music that
is completely controlled by the composer according to
his desires and shapes according to his own mood and is
characterized by improvisation and freedom in dealing
with it, through which the highest degrees of
contradiction are achieved.” The essence and content of
this definition apply to the concept of fantasy in design,
which depends on the spontaneous and random aspect,
strange and unusual compositions, and the unnatural
combination of more than one element in nature in
unusual forms (Scientific and Artistic Terms, 1968, p.
163). The philosophical dictionary of fantasy refers to it
as “an ancient term used by
Aristotle, and from him it
moved to medieval philosophy to denote sensory
images in the mind, and has now been replaced by
imagination in its broader meaning. The dictionary of
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"Terms in Art and Art Education" defines imagination
as "an imagination based on mythical forms and
shapes that do not belong to natural reality, and as an
artistic style associated with dreams, fantasy and
poetry" (Al-Shall, 1984, p. 109). Robert Curcios and
Gustav René Hock define "imagination" as "the
medium that is completely appropriate for
representing the human self", as they see that the
basic position of imagination is a position that opposes
everything that is prevalent, followed and familiar to
the concept of visual reality.
Theory of Imagination
In the field of fine arts, "imagination is what reshapes
the elements that reach the senses and the mind, as
the visual world is merely a storehouse of images and
symbols, which imagination is supposed to give status
and value after digesting and transforming them, and
from here confirms the belief that life imitates art and
not the other way around" (Hajjaj, 2003, p. 140).
Fantasy in design
Design (fantasy) in its comprehensive imaginative
sense is considered one of the cultural terms in which
meanings overlap and mix with each other in this
regard, and which can be used almost to describe any
work of art that seems surprising or unusual. Fantasy
design mixes reality with fantasy in different and varied
artistic styles or mixes fixed things in nature with
strange and exotic things. It remains a design work in
which unnatural compositions, unconventional and
strange combinations, and the opposite of the logic of
natural things are evident in a way that is different
from their nature and systems known in reality.
"Herbert Read confirms that "fantasy is one of the
trends of design art and its role was to storm the
kingdom of imagination, explore the depths of the
unknown, and the world of the supernatural. It was
represented in the symbolic and surrealist schools"
(Mansour, 2015, p. 136).
Myth
The explanation of the word "myth" in the Oxford
Dictionary states that myth is defined as "just a
fictional story that includes supernatural people,
actions and events, and embodies an idea Popularity of
a natural history or historical phenomena. The
Encyclopedia Britannica defines myth as "a complex
cultural fact that can be approached and interpreted
from different and complementary points of view.
Myth tells a sacred history and relates an event that
occurred in primeval time. In other words, myth tells
how reality came into being through the actions of
supernatural beings, be it the place of truth or the
universe. Myth is therefore a narrative of creation. It
tells only what really happened and what has fully
manifested itself" (Scientific and Technical Terminology,
1968, p. 170).
The Encyclopedia Britannica classifies myths into several
types: “There are myths of creation or formation, which
have been mentioned in many different civilizations,
and concern the origin of the universe. There are myths
that are related to the other world, some of which
concern research into the end of this world, and others
explain and interpret the relationship between the
world of eternity and our earthly world. Myths
sometimes revolve around heroes who made this land
suitable for human habitation. There are also some
myths that provide an explanation of how the idea of
death and evil entered our lives. The Concise Arabic
Encyclopedia defines myth as “a story transmitted
through narration about gods and supernatural events.
It differs from epics, which are characterized by
recording human actions and also includes fables that
were invented for the purposes of education and
entertainment. We must point out here that there is a
relationship between myth and religion, and rituals
often tell the events of a myth. The myth explains, with
the logic of the primitive mind, the phenomena of the
universe, nature, and social customs” (The Concise
Arabic Encyclopedia, p. 148). Religious historians claim
that ancient myths were based on mythical narratives
that developed to explain the nature of the universe,
the fate of man, the origins of customs and beliefs, as
well as the names of sacred places and prominent
individuals. Others believe that "myths are stories about
the gods and their powers, and explain the natural and
social phenomena of the abstract world" (Muhammad,
1985, p. 156).
Myth has also been defined as meaning stories that deal
with the wonders performed by gods and heroes,
especially stories that are sung on public occasions. It is
also used in a broad sense of a story told to shed light
on a mysterious secret that cannot be explained.
Linguistic interpretation of myths
Max Mulier says, "Myths arose as a result of
shortcomings in language, which leads to one thing
having multiple names, and one name is often given to
different things" (Kaspor, 1975, p. 33).
Tharwat Okasha believes that "myth is a type of
intellectual creativity in an imaginary guise, and any
deep look at any of those ancient myths reveals the
effect of thought and opinion in it. It is an attempt that
came in those early ages, when the mind was in a
primitive state that did not accept opinion or thought
unless this came and that came through imagination"
(Okasha, 1990, p. 178). The New Standard Encyclopedia
defines myth as dealing with the subject of gods, while
legend deals with the subject of humans. Myths emdiv
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the primitive beliefs of peoples, and provide an
imaginary explanation for the wonders and
supernatural phenomena. When they lack a scientific
explanation, the forces of nature emdiv and deify it.
Kennedy defined myth as a story revolving around
gods, a god, or other supernatural beings, explaining
the nature of the universe, the earth, living creatures,
religious rituals, and customs. Kirl in his book (The
Nature of Greek Mythology) sees that Plato, the first
writer of myth, was the first to use the term
Muthologia in the sense of (saying about) or (telling
about) or in the sense of stories.
Randle Clark says that myth is a way to express one's
contemplations on the universe and on the needs of
the human spirit before the emergence of philosophy
separate from religion (Clark, 1988, p. 256).
(Muller) also sees that myths in the highest sense are
the power that language exercises on thought in every
field of mental activity.
Myth in Psychology
Myth from the point of view of "psychologist" Carl Jung
"reveals the compatibility of the rhythms of the soul
with the rhythms of nature and the conflict between
light and darkness and between truth and falsehood.
Jung considered the archetypes and archetypes to be
the content of the collective unconscious and that they
are responsible for establishing the familiar
stereotypes from myths, dreams and art that have
existed since ancient times" (Monroe, 1971, p. 339).
Ancient myths “testify that immortal works of art have
acquired a human quality because they have emerged
from the collective unconscious, where generations
meet throughout history, and in them man uses his
“intuition” by which this material falls into
symbols as
a symbolic expression that depicts what is happening
in the depths of the human soul in contrast to the
events of external nature” (Atiya, 1996, p. 143), and
myth is the expression of the internal and external
worlds, and it is also a thought about events and an
interpretation of them.
Section Two
Myth and symbol in history
The impact of myth and the psychological dimensions
of symbols historically
Man can perceive or formulate symbols, and these
symbols may suggest something mysterious or hidden
or something more than their direct meaning, due to
the unconscious dimensions they contain that are
often difficult to interpret clearly. From this point of
view, it can be verified that symbolic behavior is
necessarily human behavior, as man is the only one
among creatures who can use spells and talismans, and
observes certain rituals and rites on occasions such as
birth, marriage, and death, as patterns of behavior
formed from symbols that society has agreed upon, and
uses in his daily life (Issa, B. T., p. 25). The only way
people communicate lies in their shared sense of the
tangible world that directly surrounds them, and
likewise understanding a language becomes dependent
on the use of written symbols of lines and relationships,
“which are ultimately a reference to something, and this
in itself is a reflection of a cumulative experience that
can develop, and gather around signs or symbols whose
origins may go back to distant times that witnessed the
attempts of the first man to adapt to the mysterious and
exciting universe” (Issa, B. T., p. 40), and thus today’s
man has become an extension of the maker of images
on the walls of caves, the maker of rituals, and the
creator of myth in ancient times. Myth is understood as
a true story or a basic narrative about its subject that
relates to the origin of the world or the formation and
origin of death and the structure of temples or
structures, and myth is more comprehensive in that it
returns its society to the original primary (primitive)
truth, which is a truth that is backward in terms of time,
place, and type of existence, and myths tell stories of
sacred beings, whether human or animal, and the
subjects usually concern the beginnings and the
emergence of all things into existence. In addition to
this, mythology has a role in human life and the life of
society, as it was considered the guiding force in
primitive societies by instilling some ideas in the minds
of members of society in terms of good qualities,
customs and traditions. Mythology also has a role in the
life of civilized societies, as it seeks to give some social
patterns and bestows upon them the characteristic of
legitimacy and stability. It is one of the means of social
control in terms of teaching members of society to
comply with the behavioral patterns accepted by any
society. Mythology also seeks to give members of
society the opportunity to vent some repressed desires,
and may be used to express, in its symbolic nature, a real
or imaginary character for exaggeration and to indicate
something unique. Mythology is symbols of permanent
philosophical truths and describes historical facts. It is a
crowd of religious, philosophical and moral ideas. It is a
product of the collective unconscious. It is an ancient
basic model of a central human experience in which
ancestors participated and passed on to descendants.
This explains the closeness of mythology to the human
soul. The difference in languages can be attributed to
the nature of the personification in the myths of the sun,
moon and other cosmic planets. We feminize the sun
and masculineize the moon in Arabic, while others do
the opposite. The phenomenon of masculinization and
feminization of celestial bodies can have a kind of
connection to the results of the supporters of this
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school. Masculinization and feminization were a reality
for ancient man, because they originated from the
collective unconscious, where generations meet
throughout history. If the artist wants to reach the
heart of humanity, he must search history until he
reaches its depths, searching for the best formula to
express unknown truths, in the material of the
collective unconscious. From the above, we conclude
that most of the myths of the ancient world revolve
around the actions of gods and heroes and myths of
the beginning of creation and divine formation.
Ancient man was trying to explain the origin of natural
phenomena and their supernatural powers, which he
could not find an explanation for except through the
myth that gave him this explanation through the myths
of creation in general, then the myths of the creation of
man. Each of the ancient civilizations had several myths
stemming from the philosophies and character
formation of the inhabitants of these countries, and
they were also linked to the nature of the geographical
formation of these countries. Myth in primitive art
Figure (2) Some of the primitive symbols and the oldest
murals in Mesopotamia in Tell Hassuna, dating back to
the first quarter of the sixth millennium BC (5500 BC).
The true beginnings of the mythological imagination of
the first man were linked to the beginnings of his
attempts to express his own vision of the mysterious
phenomena of the universe that he faced, and this
confrontation was linked to the fears, obsessions and
desires of that man to understand them, and he tried
to emdiv his fears and first desires in the form of
various expressive attempts, of which we are
interested in the visual attempts that appeared in the
first cave drawings, which were among the true
beginnings of the myth and thus the true beginning of
the art of design as well, and the design imagination of
man continued to create, move and cross the horizons
of the unknown and discover its hidden layers and
secrets, whether they exist in the vast universe or in
the world of the human psyche, which is full of secrets,
as in Figure (2).
"The first primitive man believed in the possibility of
gaining the power of control over the animal by simply
emdiving its image... as a magical meaning confirmed
by most of the cave wall drawings" (Atiya, 1997, p. 24),
"and thus the imagination of ancient man was depicted
that he could approach the atmosphere of hunting by
performing a kind of ritual in which the presence of
hunting and the hunter are present in an atmosphere
similar to the atmosphere of real hunting, "which
subconsciously gives him a positive, self-actual action
that helps him in the hunting process and reassures him,
and it is an imaginary, mythical atmosphere to which
ancient man resorted, as hunters in the Paleolithic era
used to aim arrows at the drawing they executed on the
rock, and these customs are similar to the magical
traditions that are still prevalent in some backward
countries of the world to this day, most of which are
based on the belief in the possibility of inflicting harm
on an enemy by harming a drawing of it" (Atiya, 1997, p.
30).
Primitive Symbols
These symbols arise from the collective unconscious,
which is a deeper layer than the individual unconscious,
and they appear in A group of religious beliefs, myths,
folk tales, dreams and visions, as well as multiple styles
of art, and the primitive symbols represent an infinite
number of images and forms that do not take on a
personal or subjective character, nor do they have a
specific time or culture, but rather universal patterns
stored in the subconscious of individuals regardless of
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their identities or races. Primitive man was linked to
nature and its phenomena and the extent to which he
was affected by them, whether in a way that benefits
or harms him. The turning point for the first man was
his resort to magic and divination in order to secure
himself from the wrath of nature and appease it.
Therefore, the artist resorted to drawing beliefs on the
walls as charms to serve mythological rituals, and the
culture of the occult emerged. The image of myth in
ancient Iraqi art
The nature of ancient Iraqi art, according to the
researcher's opinion, includes data that confirm the
ability to refer thought to effects and artistic
production that represents that intellectual and
ideological accumulation in a harmonious whole that
forms the comprehensive structure of Mesopotamian
culture theoretically and practically. Art overlapped
with the devotional state that interested both humans
and Mesopotamian society. The first incentive for
human actions in ancient Iraq was his firm belief that
divinity is a natural state and that it is closely linked to
society, which gave it a complex ritual dimension,
represented in giving the image of the Mesopotamian
god utmost importance by stimulating the frameworks
of intellectual and mythological research to a level that
is beyond the limits of reality. Therefore, we find that
the products of ancient Iraqi art showed many images
of gods, closely linked to what the occupational
tendency of each artistic era of civilization in ancient
Iraq leads to, as in Figure (3).
Figure (3) The winged bull The winged bulls were
placed in pairs facing outwards. The myths, religious
beliefs, and magical rituals in Mesopotamia had a great
role in enriching their artistic and literary works, when
man felt the presence of hidden powers around him,
and latent abilities within him. These beliefs differed
from one civilization to another. (Mortkart) wrote,
saying: “Whoever wants to understand the essence of
art in ancient Iraq must try to comprehend the idea of
the god that was accepted at that time” (Mortkart,
1997, p. 15). The researcher believes that the nature of
ancient Iraqi thought and its spiritual dimension called
on the artist to interrupt the representation of reality
and attempt to abstract it and activate the symbolic
dimension of forms, where the nature of multiplicity in
the images of Mesopotamian gods acquires clear
importance in expressing the positions and events that
address the problems of Mesopotamian religious
belief at that time, and the divisions of the gods clarify
the main and secondary roles that the important gods
played, and those that gain their importance from the
mythological data, which determine the requirements
of the symbolic inclusion of the partial units included in
the formulations of the images of those gods, as the
gods were embodied by symbols that accompany them
in their movement and travel in order to preserve
through them the sacred extension from within to
where the secret lies, it is the multiplicity of visible
causes that were reduced to a visible, tangible god.
Mythical Imagination in Ancient Egyptian Art Egypt
enjoys a unique nature, its land is flat, its sun is bright,
its sky is clear, and its annual Nile flood fills the land with
fertility and life, in addition to its dry climate, which had
the greatest impact in preserving its heritage for
thousands of years away from decomposition and
erosion. This climate and this environment had a great
impact on the vision of the ancient Egyptian artist, so he
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began to look and contemplate what was around him
and think about the reasons for the beginning of these
natural phenomena that were characterized by calm
and moderation, which arose from the nature of his
stability on the banks of the Nile since time
immemorial and his connection to the Egyptian
environment of birds, animals, plants and inanimate
objects. Then the people of Egypt enjoyed a calm and
stable life, not interspersed with battles, grudges and
hatreds, which confirms the effect of the environment
on the form of the myth, as in Figure (4).
Figure (5) A schematic drawing of the creation myth in
Heliopolis, the god Shu lifting the div of the goddess
Nut, the goddess of the sky, from the div of the god
Geb, the god of the earth (from one of the coffins in
the Louvre Museum)
The connection of ancient Egyptian art to religious
aspects was strong, and its main concern remained
what it would face after death, "because it believed in
resurrection after death and that there is another
eternal life other than the one it lives. This was a
motive to preserve its div after death and decorate
the tombs and carve statues, stories and imaginary
myths on the walls for the journey of death and
resurrection in the afterlife. These myths were linked
to ancient Egyptian religions, as religions are fertile
fields for studying myth and its symbolic connotations,
and this is what we find clearly and evident in ancient
Egyptian art, which was full of many imaginary myths
that include many symbols. The ancient Egyptians did
not know a specific definition of the word religion, so
it did not occur to them that religion would be
something separate from life, but rather, with its
rituals and myths, it is life itself, and from the temples
the force of life emerges and works to continue it
through its rituals And its prayers, the myth of the
ancient Egyptian is not just fairy tales, but rather an
intellectual approach followed by the ancients to
explain their view of the universe (Clark, 1998, p. 42).
The philosopher Joseph Ward stated that the
relationship between sacred things is a symbolic
relationship and not a natural or theoretical
relationship, and that without the symbol, religious
feelings are vulnerable to weakness and disappearance,
and that social life in all its manifestations and at every
moment of its history needs this broad symbolism in
order to continue to exist. The myth in ancient Egyptian
art, "was connected to its religious beliefs full of ancient
secrets that reflect worldly life from toil in the fields and
adventures in the desert, and the link in the role
between music, dancing and singing, as well as the
afterlife with its funeral processions, and standing
before the gods and witnesses of the reckoning" (Lane,
1987, p. 23). The myths and religions of ancient Egypt
were devoid of horrific rituals, and we did not see in
their myths and religious ceremonies an extravagance in
pleasure and pain or bloodshed as in the myths of other
civilizations.
The ancient Egyptian man tried to describe the
beginning of creation and explain the way in which light
emerged from this dense darkness and eternal night,
and the form and image of existence in the heart of this
endless watery void through the myths of creation.
Previous studies
1- Study: Ashraf Al-Sayed Al-Awili: Folk art in
contemporary Egyptian painting and approaches to its
use in art education, Master's thesis, Faculty of Art
Education, Helwan University, Cairo, 1991.
The subject of this study is summarized in the
approaches to inspiration from folk art through
classifying the works of contemporary Arab designers
who were influenced by folk art in their creativity and
the possibility of benefiting from those approaches in
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the way of dealing with art when teaching in the field
of design.
The study classified contemporary design solutions
and treatments in the works of these designers who
were inspired by folk art in their works.
The researcher benefits from this study in studying the
works of contemporary Egyptian artists who were
inspired by folk art to reach the most important trends
in taking from heritage and approaches to its use in art
education.
However, the current study aims to clarify the
expressive and philosophical values in contemporary
Arab design and to know and study the trends that
these artists relied on in taking from heritage and who
were inspired by mythological imagination in its
various sources and benefiting from ancient and
modern civilizations to produce contemporary works
of art.
2-Study: Ismat Adly Abaza: The symbolic form in
contemporary Egyptian painting and its connection to
local heritage arts and its impact on teaching painting
at the Faculty of Art Education, PhD thesis, Faculty of
Art Education, Helwan University, Cairo, 1994.
This study is concerned with clarifying the relationship
between symbolic forms in contemporary Arab design
and symbolic forms in ancient art to reach an
understanding of the artistic processes associated with
artistic creativity in heritage and among contemporary
Arab artists to benefit from them in the teaching
process, as well as studying the works of Arab artists to
reach the most important trends in taking from
heritage and then linking the trends of symbolic
expression in contemporary Arab design to ancient
heritage to try to create trends for students of the
Faculty of Art Education that are more connected to
values, environment and culture.
The researcher benefits from this study in the
expressive and philosophical trends of Arab artists who
dealt in their design works with the mythical
imagination associated with heritage to stand on some
of the starting points through which the field of design
can be enriched.
3-Study: Sally Muhammad Shabl: Biographies and
features in popular photography as a stimulus for the
creativity of art education students in the field of
photography, Master's thesis, Faculty of Specific
Education, Cairo 2000.
This study is based on addressing the topic of
biographies and epics in Arab design as a stimulus for
students' creativity and addresses the topic of all mural
drawings and designs and what they include in terms
of similarities with children's drawings.
The researcher benefits from the study by defining
popular arts and the popular artist and benefiting from
popular features and biographies as a trend that some
artists have relied on to inspire myths and imagination
in their artworks, but the current research is interested
in studying the expressive and philosophical trends
associated with heritage in different civilizations from
ancient and modern arts to produce contemporary
artworks.
Chapter Three
Research Procedures
First: Research Methodology
After the researcher reviewed the research methods, he
found that there is a method that suits his study, which
is the descriptive method (content analysis) to reveal
the mythical imagination as a source of contemporary
Arab design, based on the theoretical framework and
the indicators it includes, in order to achieve a
comprehensive achievement of the research objective,
since this method is the most appropriate scientific
method for the research topic.
Second: Research Community
The research community included advertisements in
social media programs specifically, and was determined
by advertisements published individually.
Third: Research Sample
The researcher chose a deliberate sample representing
the research community. The researcher collected (15)
models and excluded (6) advertisements with similar
ideas. Thus, the research community became (9)
models. (3) samples were chosen in the research, i.e.
(33%), due to the diversity of advertisements, their
style, and their relationship to design.
1- Artist Suad Al-Attar (1942-): An Iraqi artist born in
Baghdad in 1942 AD from the generation following the
pioneers’ stage
- Suad Al-Attar is considered the first
Iraqi woman to hold a solo exhibition in her country in
1964 AD - She is a descendant of an artistic family and
her passion for art began at an early age. She then
obtained degrees in art from the University of California
and obtained a bachelor’s degree from the University of
Baghdad and obtained postgraduate diplomas from
Wimbledon Co
llege of Art and London’s Central College
of Art and Design. She has been living in London since
1975 AD. The artist has held many private exhibitions
inside and outside the country. She also participated in
internal and external group exhibitions. The artist won
the gold medal (first prize) at the Cairo Biennale 1985
AD. She also won many awards inside and outside the
country and has collections in museums in most
countries of the world. Her oil paintings express her
contemplations of life with its tragedies, joys and
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feelings, which arouses a rich emotional response.
Suad Al-
Attar’s works tell of her magical symbols and
fantasies. Emerging and harmonious from its red and
blue colors or with the dialogue of "separation and
healing", "war and peace", hell and paradise, its artistic
leadership is based on a long history of personal and
creative stations and stages that formulated its
subjects in a mythical direction that contributed to Iraq
as a country open to the possibilities of love and war
and to a state of depictions of joy and sadness, epics
and spiritualities. This distinctive geography of this
country made it capable of seizing these meanings and
these subjects and making them create those immortal
human relationships between memory and place. Her
works are surrounded by an aura of magic and
imagination as if they came from imaginary ages and
from places full of fantasies and drenched in the fog of
legend. They depict moments covered with states and
situations in which the dream form is mixed with the
nightmarish meaning. Her paintings contain the
symbol translated into the composition of dream and
relaxation. The artist Suad Al-Attar displayed her works
outside Iraq more than inside it. Her works are full of
her dreamy personal imaginations. We see its
elements as if they are flying in space, so we find the
roc and Buraq birds. Simorgh, phoenix, griffin and
other forms that help her achieve her mythical
fantasies. In a group of her most wonderful works, she
resorted to depicting the myths (Gilgamesh, Ishtar, and
the winged bull) and transforming them into a sense full
of the atmosphere of Baghdad and Karbala. Despite her
estrangement from Iraq and her semi-permanent
residence in London, she is spiritually and creatively
closely linked to her mother country, so she chose from
the stages of her works what she produced before the
war. This stage is where we sense her belonging to the
mythical imagination, so she resorted to mythical
imaginary subjects linked to the history and civilization
of her ancient country. We see the winged lion of
Babylon, the guardian of the gates of ancient Babylon,
and its figures that mix with the forms of winged
animals, and we see her drawing (Ishtar) the legend as
if she were crying, Figure (6), intertwining with her
emotions as if the emotional energy was to express it
visually in a dream. Those symbols promising prosperity
appeared in the eighties until the early nineties of the
last century, symbols that almost overlap with color
techniques for a strong expression to confirm the idea
that comes from the heart to reach the eye of the
viewer. Its content is published, expressing the history
and civilization of the Tigris and Euphrates Valley, which
left its traces in all of its works, which were
characterized by a mythical imagination pulsating with
dreamy magic.
1-
Figure (6) Suad Al-Attar, (Ishtar), Iraq, oil on canvas, 100 x 160 cm.
1- Artist Mustafa Al-Hallaj (1938-2002)
Born in Salama, Jaffa District, Palestine in 1938. He
studied art at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo and
graduated in 1963. His first exhibition was held in Cairo
in 1964, and in Damascus in 1969. He participated in
many Arab and international exhibitions and received
a number of awards and certificates of appreciation.
He held more than ten solo exhibitions in most Arab,
European, American and Asian capitals. He is a
founding member of the Union of Arab Design Artists
and a member of the General Secretariat of the Union
of Palestinian Writers and Journalists. The Palestinian
artist Mustafa Al-Hallaj is a unique case in his life, art
and personal behavior, harmonizing his behavior as a
human being and his paintings as a displaced Palestinian
immigrant artist. The details of his artistic design story
are distinguished by the fact that they foretell the truth
of the pain and the depth of the tragedy he lived
through. His fame extended to many parts of the world,
beyond the borders of the country and the region. His
painting, which he drew in black and white, in which he
achieved
the
dramatic,
expressive,
legendary
dimension, is a human mixture that goes beyond the
boundaries of the familiar, outside the rules of academic
research and rebels against it. We see the expressive
tendency with a legendary character and ancient
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Canaanite and Syrian mythology, some of its
innovative self, evoking the tragedy of history and its
(tragedy) pages, tragic visual situations whose cosmic
and existential space summarizes the condensation of
time and the permanent Palestinian sadness, from the
distribution of his vocabulary, elements and symbols of
his paintings, so they came to match in representing
the state, behavior and interactive content with the
events, the loss of dreams and the tragedy of his
people, so they were a space for the imagination to run
wild, rebellious and legendary in all its symbolic states.
Singing a popular Mawwal with legendary features and
characteristics, opening the way for a fertile
imagination mixed with expressionism, Al-Hallaj chose
in his artistic works to be in black and white in the
shadows of narrative description with a legendary
touch, and a tendency to defy life and the reality of days,
taking shelter in the details of mythology and the
memory of places that give him a miraculous ability to
sustain work and life. We see this in domesticated living
creatures and some of the supernatural phenomena are
among the most common symbols in the narrative of his
visual texts. Palestine represents the basic element
present in all the details of his artistic design vocabulary,
inhabited in his self in his symbols and connotations,
telling the story of a thousand and one Palestinian
nights under the moonlight and the crowing of the
rooster, Figure (7).
Figure (7) Mustafa Al-Hallaj, (The Martyr), 1970, engraving, print on paper, 90 x 39 cm
1- Saad Kamel (1924-2012)
The artist Saad Kamel was born in Cairo and is
considered a pioneer of the popular trend in Arab art.
He held his first exhibition in 1954, which was opened
by the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Abdel Razzaq Sedki
at that time. After that, he held several exhibitions
inside Egypt and abroad in many countries of the world
(China - Florence - New York - Moscow - Yugoslavia -
Venice - Paris - Germany - Italy - London). The artist has
received several local and international awards.
Pictures of many of his paintings have been published
according to the topics that deal with folk arts. He
participated in editing the Encyclopedia of Folk Art. The
works of the artist "Saad Kamel" were distinguished to
confirm that the folk legend can provide us with new
tools, elements and dimensions for artistic creativity.
The artist began to draw some elements of nature,
which he modified and distorted and formulated from
them what translates his feelings in a new, innovative
way that is dominated by imagination. He creates from
the elements of nature a mythical imaginary world. We
see many symbols and talismanic signs and his
mythical characters mixed with the shapes of other
creatures that may be animals or birds and other
elements that the artist uses with signs and symbols, as
we see in Figure (8), which shows a human form
representing the bride, who has become an integral part
of the horse she rides. It was a mixture and integration
between the human and animal bodies together. We
see around the figure other complementary elements
that help confirm the idea. The hand, the eye, the fish,
the snake, the flower and the bird are all elements that
create a dialogue of symbols, which have their own
connotations. These The elements seem to combine to
create imaginary, mythical folk tales in their simplest
forms of expression. In his painting, we see "a mythical,
legendary animal in which the mental image is
manifested to reveal expressive contents in which the
imagination was unleashed to reveal this magical world.
His design vocabulary came out loaded with meanings
and philosophical contents of the visions accompanying
the depth of feeling, so it acquired a magical, mythical,
imaginary character. Its forms appeared in new forms
that resemble talismanic signs with its modified symbols
that represent a symbol of a strange animal, so his vision
of placing the huge mythical creature that dominates
the space of the painting is embodied to contain all the
elements of the painting with its div.
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Figure (8) Saad Kamel - Oil on canvas, 100 x 130 cm
Chapter Four
First: Research Results:
1- These works have creative aesthetic solutions that
should be perceived and appreciated in design. Thus,
the study has revealed the extent of the possibility of
integrating the mythical imagination of different
civilizations with modern and contemporary ideas,
exchanging experiences between the old and the new,
and reconciling them.
2- It became clear through the research that there is a
great extension and communication between the
features and characteristics of the mythical
imagination form in the past and in the modern era,
where many features and characteristics of the
imaginary forms appeared with their intellectual,
mythical, religious and psychological content in many
contemporary design works.
Second: Recommendations:
1- Emphasizing the mythical imagination as an
important source and one of the sources of inspiration
for what it enjoys of philosophical thought that feeds
the artist's mind with different images, giving greater
scope for innovating many design solutions with what
is consistent with the technology of the era, so the
artists' works came out distinct and bear the
characteristic of originality and modernity together.
2- Emphasizing the necessity of the contemporary
artist's interest in mythical imagination with its
expressive and philosophical dimensions to open new
horizons and a conscious vision through which multiple
aspects of the artist's personality and style can be
understood and the contents he achieves that enrich
the artwork with multiple expressive and aesthetic
values and give it the uniqueness of its artistic
personality.
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