LOUAY KAYYALI (SYRIAN, 1934-1978)

In 1960s Kayyali moved from Aleppo to Damascus and quickly built a name for himself. He quickly acquired a glamorous reputation among the Syrian upper class, and every Damascene young woman wanted to be painted by him. In the past, master painters would have to visit the families to draw their daughters, but Kayali had an excellent reputatin and his clients held him in high respect, so that the young ladies were granted permission to visit his studio in the Muhajereen area in Damascus.
However, all this came to an end with the disasterous events of the 1967 war, and he sank into a deep depression that lasted into the 1970s.