Limited Editions

 
Shown as part of the installation of Piss & Vinegar (art and ferment) for the exhibition FOODshed (2014) at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY.

     

Click to enlarge

 

These two editions of lithographs were produced with artist and print maker Shannon Broder.

Left:

Title of print: “Caricature of A.Z.Abushady by Mohamed Fridon, 1928”
Date: 2014
Medium: Lithography on rag paper
Dimensions: 15 x 11 inches (unframed)
Edition of 25 + 5 A/P

Right:

Title of print: “Abushady’s Complete Specification, 1919”
Date: 2014
Medium: Lithography on rag paper
Dimensions: 15 x 11 inches (unframed)
Edition of 25 + 5 A/P

 

 Click to enlarge:

I: Abushady's Complete Specification (1919)

Source image

 

This technical drawing is part of Abushady's patent for "Improvements in and relating to Combs for Beehives," and depicts a removable aluminum honeycomb. I became aware of Abushady's patents for beehive improvements while conducting routine online research. I discovered a scan of the image on Wikipatents, which no longer exists. Later, mention of the patent reappeared online and I was able to locate and obtain a copy of the patent itself from an antiquarian book dealer.

The patent application is dated July 24, 1919, London:

The patent was accepted and registered on September 9, 1920, and printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Love & Malcomson, Ltd.,1920.

You can download a PDF of the full patent here:

Download Abushady's Complete Specification - Honeycomb Patent 1919

 

 II: Caricature of Abushady (1928), by Mohamed Fridon

Source image

Abushady is best known in Egypt for his influential poetry journal Apollo (1932–34), a vehicle for experimental Modern Arabic poetry that he designed, edited and published. He launched a group of poets known as "Apollo's Society" or The Apollo School (Arabic: مدرسة أبولو‎) that included artists and poets from beyond Egypt's borders.

Abushady lived and worked in a milieu that included visual artists as well as writers and poets, many of whom produced drawings and illustrations for his numerous publications. One of these was the well-known Persian cartoonist Mohamed Fridon (or Fereydūn (Persian: فریدون‎). This caricature, which shows Abushady as a polymath or jack of all trades, has been reproduced in scholarly articles about the Apollo poets:

I discovered the original drawing, shown framed below, and secured it in the family archive:

Below: removed from its non-archival matte: