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Eclectic Wonders: The Collection of Timothy Egert

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Lot 29

Louay Kayyali
(Syria, 1934-1978)
House of Cards

Withdrawn

Amended

Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art

24 November 2020, 15:00 GMT

London, New Bond Street

£40,000 - £60,000

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Louay Kayyali (Syria, 1934-1978)

House of Cards
oil on panel, framed
signed "Louay Kayyali" and dated "1975" in Arabic (lower right), executed in 1975
96 x 96cm (37 13/16 x 37 13/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a distinguished private collection, UK
Property from a private collection, Aleppo
Acquired directly from the Artist by the above

Louay Kayyali is remembered as one of the most sought-after Arab artists of the Modernist era. We are delighted to be presenting this exquisite example of the artists tender and ennobling depictions of Syrian daily life. Kayyali was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1934. He received an art scholarship in 1956 to study at Rome's Academy of Fine Arts and participated in numerous exhibitions and fairs during his time in Italy, including representing Syria along with Fateh Al Moudarres at the 1960 Venice Biennale.

In 1961, Kayyali returned to Syria where he took up a professorship at the Damascus Higher Institute of Fine Arts. After the Arab defeat in the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967, Kayyali abandoned painting due to depression. In the early 1970s, he returned to painting and began producing numerous paintings depicting everyday people from the streets of Syria's such as newspaper sellers, shoe-shiners, and the characters depicted in the present works

"The Card Players" is a prime example of Kayyali's mature period in which key characters from Syrian daily life merge to the forefront. These mesmerizing portraits condensing all minor detail articulate the softness and vulnerability of Kayyali's subjects. Melancholy, resignation and solitude best characterise much of Kayyali's work after the 1967 war and the sentiments of political failure in Syria and the Arab world in general. His paintings externalized the pressing humanitarian and political issues that surrounded him. Kayyali's powerful depictions of ordinary people are characterized by strong fluid lines that define the figures and the absence of extraneous detail.

Saleroom notices

This work has been withdrawn.

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- Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art