Damascus-SANA
The memory of the international plastic artist, Hammoud Shantoot, is overflowing with pictures of real places whose places are engraved in his paintings, showing the old palaces drenched in light in his hometown of Syria and the harmony between nature and music in France, where he spends his days devoted to his art.
Art at Chantoot is a human entrance and a means of communication with the recipient, through which he presents his expressive paintings and his own language by transforming natural models in a way that increases their beauty and gives them new meanings.
Through his new exhibition, which opened at George Kamel Gallery in Damascus, he presented 25 paintings of different sizes that he completed during six years as a summary that transported him between Syria and France, to bear the title of his exhibition “Damascus .. Cretey”, the city he chose as his residence in the expatriate.
Shantoot pointed out during an interview with SANA’s reporter that the exhibition’s paintings rise from technique, content, boldness in color and realism that occurred as a variable in his plastic painting, while memory, place and silent nature remained the same fixed themes in his works.
This exhibition, which was inaugurated in the presence of a group of plastic artists and those interested, embodies the product of Chantoot's works that embody his living memory, which the stations of alienation were unable to ignore.
Shantoot says, "I used to reject the idea of displaying my work in exhibitions outside Syria, and this desire remained inside me even after my exile, because my country needs the presence of its children and deserves to spread the language of art and beauty in it."
Shantoot saw that the composition is an important element in the painting, and it is like a fingerprint through which each artist tries to establish his own identity and express the feelings hidden within him. The complex is difficult and aesthetically pleasing.
Shantoot expressed his optimism about the future of Syrian plastic art and concluded by saying, "I always leave a message of peace, hope, meditation, and imitation of the human spirit."
On the experience of the artist Shantoot through his exhibition, the able plastic artist Lujaina Al-Aseel pointed out that the spirit of renewal and distinction her family from the moment she entered the exhibition because his paintings differ from what her memory stores from the artist’s previous works, where she found privacy in conveying the Syrian features with honesty and delicate feelings.
As for the plastic artist, Muwaffaq Makhoul, he saw that the exhibition was a great surprise in terms of the aesthetic of human connotations in its contents, in the presence of artistic and chromatic awareness, considering that the artist Shantoot had a visual and emotional vision that enriched the cultural circle and formed a plastic school in Syria.
It is noteworthy that the Syrian plastic artist, Hammoud Shantoot, was born in Hama in 1956, a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 1980, a graduate of additional studies at the National High School of Arts in Paris in 1984, and worked as a teacher of fine arts at the Fine Arts Center in Damascus. He is one of the individual exhibitions inside and outside his country. He has won several awards and certificates of appreciation. His works are acquired by the Ministry of Culture, official bodies, and private collections.
Amani Farooj
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