Louay Kayyali (Syrian, 1934-1978)

Best known for his depiction of the characters and personalities he encountered in the urban landscapes of his native city, Syrian master Louay Kayyali sought to challenge and highlight the sense of despair that plagued the Syrian population following the political and social upheaval that affected Syria and the Middle East in the 1960s.

Lyrical and elegant in their depictions of lonely figures, his paintings are reminiscent of Russian socio-realist paintings, with strong fluid lines and subtle colour palettes and he interjects a sense of austerity that is highlighted by the lack of extraneous details surrounding his subjects.

In Kar'i w al Kitab a lonely male figure sits upon a chair in what appears to be a blue worker's uniform. His hand across his cheek in an element of despair or frustration, his eyes falling to an open book of empty white pages. Often one to sit at cafés and gaze upon the intellectuals who would congregate together, in the present work Kayyali offers a sarcastic commentary on the downfall of intellectual development and thinking post the political changes in regime in a newly independent Syria. The workers who were the heart of the upheaval of the old political regime became numb to any sort of out-of-the-box thinking. By depicting this worker attempting to read what is essentially a blank book, Kayyali is clearly mocking the lack of free-thinking and the despair of social discomfort of the Syrian people. He was notoriously shunned from the intellectual socialist circle as a person from a privileged background. As a result, this work offers a haunting depiction of a lost and broken generation to which the artist belonged.