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Lot Essay
In 1975, Syrian Modern master Louay Kayyali was considered to be at the peak of his career. Considered his 'Golden Period,' by this time he had developed his signature style that was characterised by a modernity of fluid lines in deceptively simple and economic compositions.
Al Marakeb (The Boats) is a rich and magnificent example from Kayyali's illustrious period. Presumably a scene from Arwad, a small and inhabited island in Syria close to the centre of Tartous, he captures in a minimalistic abstracted format, three boats that lay silently on the shore. Kayyali had first discovered the island as a natural stop for a change of scenery. Like many Syrians travelling between the big cities Damascus and Aleppo, Kayyali would stop off to eat fish and admire thescenery. As he became more affected by the unravelling of the political events in the region, he found solace and calm in front of the sea and as a result, captured many fisherman and boats in his many beautiful compositions.
In the present work, Kayyali employs a traditional horizontal format, using the high, distinguishable horizon line to cut the composition into three parts, separating the sky from the shore. The treatment of his saturated sky, with wide and bold brushstrokes, hints at a gestural liberty that radiates with a positive glow, a rare moment of happiness in the artists otherwise depressive life. The freedom of his painterly hand disappears in the lower part of the composition, particularly with the positioning of the disproportionately large fisherman's boats and an even larger exaggerated shadow, heavy with its deepness of colour and form. Kayyali's treatment of these boats is in between an abbreviated rendering of form and an artistic reality, broken with thick descriptive lines that circulate the objects. His intense use of a deep red and rich Prussian blue to highlight the contours of the boats is juxtaposed against the whiteness of their main bodies as they stand out against the vastness of the yellow space that fills the majority of the canvas. Serene in its overpowering radiant light, the yellow of the sand offers a meditative quality which imparts a sense of tranquility, much in the same way that Arwad offered a sense of reflection and harmony to the artist while he was there.
Kayyali was in fact so taken by this island and its inhabitants that he chose to capture a large scene of Arwad, its fisherman at work and their boats, when he was commissioned to work on a large magnificent and impressive mural for the National Museum of Damascus that still hangs today.
From the private collection of one of Kayyali's close Aleppino friends Fateh Deiri, who long supported the artist during his lifetime, Al Marakeb is a seminal example of a series of different views of boats captured by the artist to have ever come to auction.
Al Marakeb (The Boats) is a rich and magnificent example from Kayyali's illustrious period. Presumably a scene from Arwad, a small and inhabited island in Syria close to the centre of Tartous, he captures in a minimalistic abstracted format, three boats that lay silently on the shore. Kayyali had first discovered the island as a natural stop for a change of scenery. Like many Syrians travelling between the big cities Damascus and Aleppo, Kayyali would stop off to eat fish and admire thescenery. As he became more affected by the unravelling of the political events in the region, he found solace and calm in front of the sea and as a result, captured many fisherman and boats in his many beautiful compositions.
In the present work, Kayyali employs a traditional horizontal format, using the high, distinguishable horizon line to cut the composition into three parts, separating the sky from the shore. The treatment of his saturated sky, with wide and bold brushstrokes, hints at a gestural liberty that radiates with a positive glow, a rare moment of happiness in the artists otherwise depressive life. The freedom of his painterly hand disappears in the lower part of the composition, particularly with the positioning of the disproportionately large fisherman's boats and an even larger exaggerated shadow, heavy with its deepness of colour and form. Kayyali's treatment of these boats is in between an abbreviated rendering of form and an artistic reality, broken with thick descriptive lines that circulate the objects. His intense use of a deep red and rich Prussian blue to highlight the contours of the boats is juxtaposed against the whiteness of their main bodies as they stand out against the vastness of the yellow space that fills the majority of the canvas. Serene in its overpowering radiant light, the yellow of the sand offers a meditative quality which imparts a sense of tranquility, much in the same way that Arwad offered a sense of reflection and harmony to the artist while he was there.
Kayyali was in fact so taken by this island and its inhabitants that he chose to capture a large scene of Arwad, its fisherman at work and their boats, when he was commissioned to work on a large magnificent and impressive mural for the National Museum of Damascus that still hangs today.
From the private collection of one of Kayyali's close Aleppino friends Fateh Deiri, who long supported the artist during his lifetime, Al Marakeb is a seminal example of a series of different views of boats captured by the artist to have ever come to auction.