Louay Kayali

Louay Kayyali
Syria, 1934 - 1978

Depictions of banal daily struggles and the social and physical deprivation of the masses intertwine the artwork of Syrian painter Louay Kayyali during his prolific yet short-lived career. The Aleppo-born artist began painting at the age of 11 and held his first solo show at 18. Highlighting the individual struggles evident on the fringe of larger socio-political realities in the Arab region, Kayyali’s artwork provides a window into the lives of the deprived majority. His signature technique of painting on masonite chipboard contributed to the worn-yet-resolute nature of his solidly defined figures, often rendered with quiet, downcast gazes. Woman Sewing captures a fleeting moment of a seamstress’ ascetic routine of stitching clothing. Kayyali, who secured a scholarship in 1956 to study at Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts, participated in a range of fairs during his time in Italy, including representing Syria along with Fateh Moudarres at the 1960 Venice Biennale. After the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967, Kayyali sank into a deep depression and destroyed a series of politically charged charcoal drawings that epitomised the Arab struggle. Suffering from psychological distress and addiction through his 30s, Kayyali stopped painting until the early 1970s. The artist died tragically in a fire at the age of 44 in what some have deemed a suicide.

Submitted by Barjeel Art Foundation