Khaled 'Karl' Ghattas was born in Egypt in 1958. He moved to England in the late 1970s to study medicine and while he graduated and practiced in the field, he later transitioned to philosophy and painting. Ghattas is remembered as a significant self-taught painter who exhibited widely, embracing abstract expressionism, while exploring spiritual themes.
Painter, philosopher, poet and junior surgeon, Khaled 'Karl' Ghattas was born in Egypt in 1958. Trained initially as a medical doctor, he studied in hospitals across London and Chester, qualifying from the University of London in 1982. After becoming disillusioned with clinical practice, he pursued an MSc in Philosophy at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1989. During this period, he taught philosophy at LSE and later became a visiting lecturer at Winchester School of Art (1994–96), while also assessing works for Westminster Arts and holding additional teaching posts in London and Barcelona. Although Ghattas continued to practise medicine for some time, as a permanent locum at the Royal National Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital, he ultimately left the profession to focus fully on painting, a discipline in which he was entirely self-taught.
Ghattas developed a practice that encompassed oil painting, printmaking, and later, video. Known for his sharp intellect and magnetic personality, he gradually developed an idiosyncratic approach that brought him increasing critical attention. Ghattas’ primarily worked in abstraction, with paintings that often operate at the intersection of abstraction and symbolism, mixing gestural energy with organic forms suggestive of elemental forces, cellular structures or sacred landscapes. His work, marked by its ambitious scale and shaped by his dual background in medicine and philosophy, evokes a deep engagement with a sense of transformation, conveying spiritual states rather than literal scenes. Themes of belief and metaphysical inquiry run through much of his art, especially in images engaging with religion. His 1996 exhibition Images of God at Hirschl Contemporary Art in London's Cork Street reflected this sustained interest in the sacred.
Ghattas' career as an artist gained momentum in the early 1990s, with group exhibitions including The Laing Open at the Mall Galleries in 1991, regular appearances at the Affordable Art Company, and in the Courtauld Institute of Art’s Biennial in 1996. His solo exhibitions included a 1992 show at Z Gallery in New York, and later, the aforementioned Images of God. His artwork was also used as the cover illustration for several publications.
In his later years, Ghattas began writing and publishing poetry and he won three international prizes for his work. Surviving a myocardial infarction in 1999, Khaled Ghattas died from a heart attack in Barcelona, Spain on 12 July 2007. He was survived by his partner Celso, two sons, and his mother, Sawson Bekhit, a retired gynaecologist. His works are represented in the UK public domain in the collections of the Ferens Art Gallery, Fitzwilliam Museum, Courtauld Institute of Art, and the Royal Free Hospital.