Ihab Shaker

Ihab Shaker (1933 to 2019) was an Egyptian painter, cartoonist, illustrator and animator, born in Cairo in August 1933. He drew cartoon series and illustrations for Egyptian newspapers and magazines, made short animated films, and painted women, music and folk tales.

While a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Cairo, from which he graduated in 1957, he drew the cartoon series Bahlawan Family for El Gomhouriya from 1954 to 1957. He designed for Sabah El-Kheir from 1956 and drew Forqoeloz for Rose El-Youssef in 1960. With Samira Shafik he created the characters Shamsa and Dana. In 1965 he moved to France to study animation with Paul Grimault, made five short animated films and became a member of ASIFA, the International Animated Film Association. He worked on plays with his brother, the puppeteer Nagi Shaker, and on Ebtessamati (My Smile), shown at the Châtillon cultural centre in Paris in 1972. He returned to Cairo in 1975.

His painting Oriental Melodies (2009) was acquired by the Museum of Egyptian Modern Art in Cairo. From 28 November 2017 to 28 January 2018 the Ofok Gallery at the Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum held a retrospective of his work. He died in 2019.