Damascus-SANA
The retrospective exhibition of the works of the late Syrian plastic artist Adham Ismail in Kamel Gallery provided a rich opportunity for fans of plastic art to see the experience of this artist in its various stages throughout his twenty-year career.
The exhibition, which includes about 80 paintings, whose works varied between sketches, studies, and paintings with various techniques, topics and styles, and reflected the richness of the late Ismail’s experience and the multiplicity of his artistic visions during his relatively short career as a pioneering artist, innovator and researcher in plastic art.
Among the exhibits, we see the woman in a strong presence. Ismail dealt with this topic in various cases, with his orientation towards portraiture and nature, in addition to his use of crafts in some works with a large experimental space that he was working on in this context, opening wide horizons to the artists who came after him.
It became clear from the exhibition’s paintings the extent of experimentation that Ismail worked on in terms of techniques to diversify his artistic orientation between watercolor, pastel, ink, oil and lead, in addition to the art of engraving with several techniques as well.
Regarding the exhibition, George Kamel, director of the gallery, said in a statement to SANA: “The late artist Adham Ismail is considered one of the most important pioneers of Syrian plastic art, and he benefited from his studies in Italy in the fifties of the last century to present contemporary artworks with an Arab concept with a national character, leaving a great impact on the professional.” The Syrian plastic artist as an artist and researcher in calligraphy, color and subject.
Kamel explained that the exhibition presents works from the hall's holdings belonging to the various stages of the artist's experience, since his artistic beginnings in the forties of the last century until his death in 1963, indicating that the exhibition is considered the first of the works of the late as a special retrospective exhibition for many years.
Adham Ismail was born in the city of Antioch in the Iskenderun al-Salib district in 1922. He obtained a secondary school certificate in 1945. At this stage, he discovered his artistic abilities. He worked as a teacher of art education in Aleppo and then in Damascus. He visited many Arab and foreign countries and held several exhibitions. In 1956 he graduated from the Academy of Arts. The beautiful in Rome, the decoration department. He also learned the art of medallion and frescoes in Italian institutes, and then worked as a teacher of art education in secondary schools in Damascus and at the College of Fine Arts.
Mohamed Samir Tahan