Since the Assad regime fell after more than 50 years in power, the extent of Syria’s cultural isolation is becoming clear. Over the past two decades, as the art market engaged in earnest with Arab modernism, works by Syrian modern artists have become increasingly under-represented.
Of the major Middle East modern and contemporary auctions in the past two years at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, for example, only 3 per cent of the artworks sold – 23 lots out of 706 – were by Syrian artists and eight of those were by one, the Berlin-based Marwan.
Contemporary exhibitions focus on themes of conflict and migration, obscuring the image of a prosperous and connected Syria in which major modern artists such as Louay Kayyali, Fateh Moudarres and Mahmoud Hammad emerged.
In academic conferences and publications, work on Syria is often absent.
“The impact of the Baath party has been incredible in terms of isolating Syria on every level – culturally, artistically, economically, politically, even socially,” says Shireen Atassi, who runs the Atassi Foundation. Based in Dubai since 2012, the Atassi Foundation is the major collection and repository of Syrian art and artistic archives. They commission scholarship and exhibitions, contesting the growing sense that Syrian art is separate to the rest of the region.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Syrian art was at the forefront of pan-Arabism, and Syrian artists showed and collaborated with Lebanese, Egyptian and Iraqi counterparts. The first First Arab Conference of Fine Arts was held in Damascus in 1971 and it was artists from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon who founded the Union of Arab Plastic Artists that same year. Painters such as Mahmoud Hammad developed calligraphic works known as hurufiyya, alongside similar experiments in Lebanon and Iraq. Moudarres used his work after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War to support the Palestinian cause and called Beirut his second home.
“There would be no Lebanese modernism without Syrian modernism,” says the curator and researcher Maymanah Farhat. “In the modern Lebanese history that's being written and documented in books and exhibitions, there isn't enough attention paid to the symbiotic relationship that Damascus and Beirut had in the 1950s and '60s. You had someone like Fateh Moudarres, who's so important to Damascus, but also to Beirut. Or someone like Marwan, who is absolutely crucial to the development of art in Lebanon, as much as he is at the development of art in Damascus. Historians right now are blindsided by these borders.”
After Hafez Al Assad took power in 1971, he began a project of retrenchment that slowly drew Syrian artists away from international collaboration. Starting in the 1980s, Syrians required a permit merely to travel abroad and the number of foreign exhibitions plummeted. While there was a brief opening of restrictions in the 2000s – which coincided with the internet making information more freely available to artists – since the civil war started, Syria’s seclusion became only more entrenched.
The contemporary art scene suffered and most artists moved abroad. But modern artists, many of whom were older or who lived on through their archives, were less mobile. For reasons no one can pinpoint, each individually surmountable but adding up to a blockade, Syrian modernism receded from view.
There was little institutional support in Syria during its modern heyday, compared to countries such as Iraq or Egypt. Artists’ works entered private collections but there was no public repository responsible for supporting the cultural scene. While there was a prolific amount of writing on art from within Syria, it was generally in Arabic – and many current art historians, even of Arab art, do not read the language.
Archives became difficult to access, making it hard to research artists or to establish the provenance of a painting. As a result, fakes frequently circulated, spooking potential collectors and driving prices down. While works by Kayyali and Marwan led sales in the first wave of market interest in Middle Eastern art, particularly at the Christie’s auctions in Dubai in the 2000s, today their numbers have dwindled.
The decline at market had a ripple effect. It is an open secret in the art world that the market drives scholarship, as auction houses need to verify the provenance and veracity of the artworks they sell. They regularly consult academics and can be some of the first to commission research on a subject.
In the worst-case scenario, artworks can enter a doom spiral, where museums worry about the authenticity of a certain set of paintings, keeping them out of major narratives and therefore further reducing the amount of scholarship and public knowledge about them.
And modern Syrian art has had no vocal international champion nor major show. Atassi highlights the transformative power of an exhibition such as Art et Liberte, organised by Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath in 2016 and 2017, which brought international attention to the previously little-known movement of Surrealism in Egypt.
“These are all little things,” she says. “But they all come together.”
What’s next?
The recession of Syria from Arab art history is not total. The scholar Anneka Lenssen, who teaches at UC-Berkeley, published an acclaimed study of Syrian modernism in 2020 called Beautiful Agitation. The Syrian artist and scholar Nagham Hodaifa, who wrote her doctorate on Syrian art, says she is increasingly receiving inquiries from potential students. But it is an important reminder of the effects of war and conflict on the supposedly objective histories laid out in museums.
It is too much to say that with the regime change in Syria, its art history will begin to be reconsidered – most notably because no one knows what the government of Ahmad Al Shara will bring.
And much is already being done. In the period since the revolution, a shadow civil society has developed in the diaspora, with many individual-led projects taking responsibility for the country’s history – from Mnemonic, which records human rights abuse, to the Syrian Cassette Archive, which documents a period of popular music.
Late last year, the Atassi Foundation launched the Modern Art of Syria Archive, an online, searchable archive of thousands that will be entirely publicly available. They comprise the records of the Atassi Gallery, which Shireen’s mother Mona ran from the 1980s to 2010 in Homs and later Damascus. They contain, among other gems, recorded discussions between Moudarres and the poet Adonis at the Galerie Atassi, for which the lines stretched around the block. The archive also includes the records of Hammad and Leila Nseir, and they are hoping to set up a digital preservation studio in Damascus.
Increased access to material will, ideally, allow for further research into the full breadth of Syrian art history.
It’s not going to be a sharp change, Atassi points out. “It's just going to be a curve and there's going to be more traffic coming in," she says. "But we need multiple voices. History needs different perspectives.”
The five pillars of Islam
The five pillars of Islam
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
More on animal trafficking
More coverage from the Future Forum
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
BRIEF SCORES
England 353 and 313-8 dec
(B Stokes 112, A Cook 88; M Morkel 3-70, K Rabada 3-85)
(J Bairstow 63, T Westley 59, J Root 50; K Maharaj 3-50)
South Africa 175 and 252
(T Bavuma 52; T Roland-Jones 5-57, J Anderson 3-25)
(D Elgar 136; M Ali 4-45, T Roland-Jones 3-72)
Result: England won by 239 runs
England lead four-match series 2-1
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Read more about the coronavirus
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Analysis
Maros Sefcovic is juggling multiple international trade agreement files, but his message was clear when he spoke to The National on Wednesday.
The EU-UAE bilateral trade deal will be finalised soon, he said. It is in everyone’s interests to do so. Both sides want to move quickly and are in alignment. He said the UAE is a very important partner for the EU. It’s full speed ahead - and with some lofty ambitions - on the road to a free trade agreement.
We also talked about US-EU tariffs. He answered that both sides need to talk more and more often, but he is prepared to defend Europe's position and said diplomacy should be a guiding principle through the current moment.
10 tips for entry-level job seekers
- Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
- Keep track of the job trends in your sector through the news. Apply for job alerts at your dream organisations and the types of jobs you want – LinkedIn uses AI to share similar relevant jobs based on your selections.
- Double check that you’ve highlighted relevant skills on your resume and LinkedIn profile.
- For most entry-level jobs, your resume will first be filtered by an applicant tracking system for keywords. Look closely at the description of the job you are applying for and mirror the language as much as possible (while being honest and accurate about your skills and experience).
- Keep your CV professional and in a simple format – make sure you tailor your cover letter and application to the company and role.
- Go online and look for details on job specifications for your target position. Make a list of skills required and set yourself some learning goals to tick off all the necessary skills one by one.
- Don’t be afraid to reach outside your immediate friends and family to other acquaintances and let them know you are looking for new opportunities.
- Make sure you’ve set your LinkedIn profile to signal that you are “open to opportunities”. Also be sure to use LinkedIn to search for people who are still actively hiring by searching for those that have the headline “I’m hiring” or “We’re hiring” in their profile.
- Prepare for online interviews using mock interview tools. Even before landing interviews, it can be useful to start practising.
- Be professional and patient. Always be professional with whoever you are interacting with throughout your search process, this will be remembered. You need to be patient, dedicated and not give up on your search. Candidates need to make sure they are following up appropriately for roles they have applied.
Arda Atalay, head of Mena private sector at LinkedIn Talent Solutions, Rudy Bier, managing partner of Kinetic Business Solutions and Ben Kinerman Daltrey, co-founder of KinFitz
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
More on animal trafficking
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
