Louay Kayali’s 85th Birthday

Google Dooles 19.01.2019 22:01  Date: January 20, 2019 Today’s Doodle celebrate the work of Louay Kayali, a modern painter born in Syria and trained in Italy whose quietly powerful portraits convey the strength, resilience, and nobility of everyday folk—bakers, fisherman, and pregnant mothers. Born in Aleppo on this day in 1934, Louay Kayali began painting at the age of 11 and held his first exhibition when he was 18 at Al-Tajhis Al-Oula School. Awarded a scholarship, Kayali moved to Italy in 1956 for advanced studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and went on to represent Syria at the 1960 Venice Biennale—a prestigious international art exhibition. Joining the faculty of the Higher Institute for the Fine Arts in Damascus in 1962, Kayali’s instruction made a profound impact on future generations of Syrian artists. During the mid-1960s, he began a series of charcoal works which marked a departure from his previous paintings. The emotionally challenging images in his 1967 traveling exhibition “Fi Sabil al-Qadiyyah” depicted human suffering, reflecting upheaval in the Arab world. Upset by scathing reviews of the show, the artist announced that he would no longer paint, and destroyed much of his work. Fortunately, he did return to painting, showing new work throughout the 1970s, including a joint exhibition with his old friend Fateh al-Moudarres. On what would have been his 85th birthday, we remember Louay Kayali, a passionate artist who aimed to paint exactly what he saw—and felt. Location: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Tags: