CARAVAN Board Member Sylvia van Vliet Ragheb shares her top pick.
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888, Oil on canvas, 95 x 73cm
This artist is a must on my list, he is one of my all-time favorite masters - the fact that he was born not far from where I grew up might have something to do with that. Growing up, my parents would take me on a yearly trip to the Van Gogh Museum after it opened in Amsterdam in 1970 and I still visit whenever I am in the Netherlands. I chose Sunflowers because van Gogh painted this in the short period that he was happy -and it shows in its vibrant yellows and composition.
Van Gogh at The National Gallery, London.
Sylvia van Vliet Ragheb is the co-Founder of Syra Arts, a gallerist and specialist in contemporary Arab art. Originally from the Netherlands, she is a graduate of the Schoevers Institute in Nijmegen, studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris, and has since lived in Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. While in Egypt she became immersed in the Egyptian art scene.
Following the “Egyptian Revolution,” Sylvia moved to Washington DC, co-founding Syra Arts, with a gallery in the Georgetown area promoting Egyptian and Middle Eastern artists in the US. Her gallery represents some of the Middle East's leading contemporary painters, sculptors, and jewelry designers. She also represents the renowned Egyptian jeweler, Azza Fahmy, in the United States.