Margo Veillon in Gallery Tilal

Margo Veillon from the 27th of June to the 7th of June in Gallery Tilal, Shuwaikh.

A typical Margo Veillon line: she was never less than forthright and in life, as much as in her art, she avoided sentimentality like the plague. Her aim was clarity. Fortunately she possessed the requisite skills, and honesty, to avoid any tawdry claims on the emotions.

Born on 19 February, 1907 in Abbasiya, she was the second child of a Swiss businessman. She attended several schools in Cairo, at least five different primary schools, and the Lycée Français, from which one might deduce she was, at the very least, a spirited pupil. Eventually she was sent to Switzerland, to school in Zurich, returning in 1924 determined to become a professional artist.

Throughout a long life Margo Veillon travelled extensively: work survives from Italy, Greece, Guatemala, Spain, Mexico, Sudan, Ethiopia and Switzerland. Throughout the sixties she would spend at least one month a year in London, and sometimes New York. Yet, she would regularly insist, "I have never travelled for the sake of travel." All the time she drew, painted, photographed.

Eventually -- at which point she was well into her nineties -- Margo confided that she no longer felt the need "to capture, capture, capture". Having spent much of the previous century doing precisely that, and mostly in Egypt, the comment was less a reduction of that enterprise than an intimation (she would, typically, allow herself no more than this) that the project was as complete as it would ever be.

With the passing of Margo Veillon June 9, 2003, Egypt has lost one of its most ardent chroniclers. Few could ever, will ever, match her passionate objectivity.