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Lot Essay
Painted in 1976, the present work is an exceptional example from the artist's flower series that presents a striking and accomplished composition of sunflowers in a blue vase set against a non-descript blue background. Unlike his earlier flower compositions which were more free form, this example shows Kayyali's refined and developed colour palette and strong use of lines in a manner that reflects his affinity to the style of Italian frescos, which Kayyali used in many of his works following his time in Italy. Although beautiful and striking in its vibrant use of colours, the overpowering shades of blue throughout the work offer a deeply melancholic overtone to the composition and emit a sense of misery.
Unsurprisingly, a few flowers appear to be wilted as they undeniably allude to the greater reality of life that distracted Kayyali. While he painted a series of flowers in the mid-1970s a few years before his tragic death in 1978, the present work is a rare example from the artist's golden age of painting. As a metaphor for purity and innocence, patience and simplicity, his flowers are charged with symbolic meaning while hinting at the artist's melancholic state of mind as he projects his sadness and despair onto the surface of the canvas.
Known for his unstable psychological condition that was heightened by deepening social rift in Syria, Louay Kayyali became known for his acclaimed lyrical and figurative style that captured Syrian street life in the 1960s and 1970s. Often depicting dispossessed young people, street vendors and fishermen, Kayyali would occasionally move away from his classical portraitures to capture simple compositions of boats and flowers, in an attempt escape from the harsh reality of life. Although basic in composition and seemingly serene and jovial, his sunflowers are thus tainted with an underlying sense of pain and sorrow, a metaphor for fleeting memories and objects, as the flowers' fate is to wilt and dry as time passes by.
Unsurprisingly, a few flowers appear to be wilted as they undeniably allude to the greater reality of life that distracted Kayyali. While he painted a series of flowers in the mid-1970s a few years before his tragic death in 1978, the present work is a rare example from the artist's golden age of painting. As a metaphor for purity and innocence, patience and simplicity, his flowers are charged with symbolic meaning while hinting at the artist's melancholic state of mind as he projects his sadness and despair onto the surface of the canvas.
Known for his unstable psychological condition that was heightened by deepening social rift in Syria, Louay Kayyali became known for his acclaimed lyrical and figurative style that captured Syrian street life in the 1960s and 1970s. Often depicting dispossessed young people, street vendors and fishermen, Kayyali would occasionally move away from his classical portraitures to capture simple compositions of boats and flowers, in an attempt escape from the harsh reality of life. Although basic in composition and seemingly serene and jovial, his sunflowers are thus tainted with an underlying sense of pain and sorrow, a metaphor for fleeting memories and objects, as the flowers' fate is to wilt and dry as time passes by.