Mahmoud Hammad: The Charm of Light

Due to the versatility of his practice, it is challenging to cohesively bring together the many diverse facets of Mahmoud Hammad’s work. His archive reveals a prolific career channelled into aesthetic, intellectual and cultural pillars, all drawing on a strict mental discipline, diversity of cultural sources and influences as well as numerous languages. (1)

To trace Hammad’s artistic thinking, we must examine some 4,000 works across various categories: paintings, watercolours, engravings, medallions and murals, monuments, sketches, a large collection of stamp designs, as well as decorative objects. Surveying these (with a focus on his figurative works, namely oil paintings on canvas and panel) has shaped a preliminary insight into major themes – and outliers ­ – within his practice as well as major historical and geographical influencers.

A biography of Mahmoud Hammad (1923–1988) was published in the 1990s by the artist and researcher Elias Zayat, who highlighted the most prominent stages of Hammad’s artistic production, dividing his career into four different phases: 1) 1939–53, marked by impressionist realism; 2) 1953–57, the Italy phase; 3) 1958–63, the Syrian city of Daraa phase; 4) 1964–88, marked by Hammad’s mastery of the style he committed to in his late years, namely, the manifestation of Arabic calligraphy in his paintings. (2) (3) (4) In fact, Zayat’s classification, also adopted by writers such as Salim Adel Abdulhak, Tarek Al-Sharif and Farouk Al-Bakili, was embraced by Hammad himself in his lifetime, thus providing a solid foundation for research into his oeuvre. (5) (6) (7)

Personal Influences

From an early age, Hammad was exposed to the culture of the country considered one of the most intrinsically and historically related to art: Italy. Enrolled in Italian primary and secondary schools in Damascus, as a child he learnt to draw under the supervision of an Italian priest known as Brother Ludovico. (8) In 1939, at the age of 16, he visited Italy for the first time and showed an interest in engaging deeply with its art. He studied painting, medal-making, etching and fresco techniques. While there, he also crossed paths with Arab artists such as Taleb Yazigi (1923-1995), Louay Kayyali (1934–1978), Fateh Moudarres (1922–1999) Fathi Muhammad (1917–1958) and Derrieh Fakhoury (1930–2015) among others.

Along with his peers, Hammad co-established the Atelier Veronese (1941–50) as well as The Arab Association for Fine Arts (1943–45). Against a background of poor governmental backing and societal support for art and artists, he and his peers were distinctly conscious of the necessity to establish an artistic nucleus.

This era (the ‘first phase’ as classified by Zayat), marked an experimental time for Hammad, in the sense that he had no stylistic or cultural commitments. While this period was overwhelmingly marked by an exploration of impressionist realism, some paintings (particularly his nudes) have a more symbolic and romantic approach. His usage of varying thicknesses of paint, however, yielded a visual uniqueness that is different to other artists’ use of romantic symbolism around the turn of the 20th century, such as Gibran Khalil Gibran.

There is no doubt that Hammad was influenced by Europe, even before he actually visited its museums and experienced European art first-hand. He first accessed it through books, such as History of Art and the Most Well-known Pieces of Work (1927) by the Egyptian intellectual Salama Moussa (1887–1958), a publication that Hammad made specific mention of in his diaries[sa2] . His impressionist realism, however, unfolds in his portrayal of landscapes and heritage scenes, as evident in works such as Aleppo Ain Al-Tal (1949), and even more evidently in the paintings Beirut and Maaloula (both 1952).

This excerpt is the truest reflection of the artistic and aesthetic trends Hammad shared with his contemporaries. However, the nostalgia is not purely emotional, but rather, illustrates how his cultural identity embodied pan-Arab sentiments. (11)  

Hammad’s pro-Arab sentiments did not prevent him from documenting his admiration for masters of European – and in this instance Spanish – art in its own right, adopting a comparative and descriptive approach[sa2] : “After visiting Andalusia, we headed north to the capital Madrid, where we spent days at the Museo del Prado looking at masterpieces by the pioneers of Spanish art: (Diego) Velázquez, (Francisco de) Zurbarán, El Greco, (Francisco) Goya”. (12)

Cultural influences aside, crucially, the excerpt above also affirms that Hammad’s visual connection to nature was notexclusively to the image (or the actual landscape), but to the influence of the natural light prevalent in both Syria and Italy. Indeed, this can be traced back in his work to a period as early as the 1940s, as evident in the two previously referenced works Beirut and Maaloula, and manifested in Hammad’s description of “shadows perforated with sunspots”.

Back in Rome, Hammad’s knowledge and visual inventory were further enriched by the physical and material conditions under which he produced his works, most importantly in his choice of medium, which played an active role in his ability to simplify or stylize as necessary. Most of Hammad’s paintings in the era preceding Rome (i.e. before 1953) were painted on wooden panel, but it was here that he had the opportunity to experiment on canvas. (13) Furthermore, due to the different pigment absorption and colour consistency levels between panel and canvas, Hammad’s work is characterised by the thick layers of colour necessary to achieve the needed pigment coverage, which in turn influenced his style.

This defining, foundational phase of Hammad’s career manifested itself in a natural and gradual – but not imitative – tendency to stylise colours and shapes, and this unbridled experimentation and exploration equipped him with the intellectual and cultural agility to embark on unrestricted artistic journeys. By the 1960s his work, however, along with that of many of his peers, began to evolve into a more abstract form, incorporating the hurufiyya (or 'letters' of the alphabet) style, a movement that was important to Hammad as a unifying pan-Arab movement.

This took place at a time in the region during which abstract representation was coming to the fore – both as an initiative to further the Arab modernism movement, as well in its role as a medium through which to emancipate artists from Western artistic styles. The objective was to foster a unified Arab artistic language, specifically through the incorporation of Arabic letters (the aforementioned hurufiyya movement).

Thus, abstract representation through hurufiyya correlated to what is called ‘Arab modernism’. Not all Arab states, however, moved towards modernism in the same way, due to each country’s different political context as well as the different times at which art schools and academies were established in each. In this regard, if compared to some of its neighbours, the Syrian art scene lagged behind. (16) There were also further impediments at play, as explained by Silvia Naef in an article on plastic art and modernism in Iraq: “The emergence of abstract art in the early 1960s created two tangible complications: first, the viewer’s inability to understand abstract art language at the time; and second, the meaning behind this [new] art in countries that had no inherited figurative legacy for the abstract art to be a response to”. (17)

Another complication was the lack of a unified understanding of what exactly the term ‘Arab Art’ entailed – a question absolutely integral to the feasibility of developing Arab aspirations and trends for art. In her book Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, Nada Shabout addresses this issue, suggesting ‘Arab art’ be considered something produced in Arabic-speaking countries, rather than a ‘school’ or formula of art from the region.

Shabout also highlights the need for a distinction between Arab art (in its modern and contemporary manifestation) and Islamic art (as heritage). In this regard, she sheds light on the arguments that pan-Arabism in and of itself is a language older than Islam, and that Islam spread not only through Arab lands, but also to Persia. Shabout goes on to clarify that either way, current terminology is problematic due to lack of original sources. (18)

In fact, Arab artists gathered on several occasions to align their aspirations for official representation (both artistic and legal). Hammad was part of such congregations, starting in the early 1970s with the First Arab Conference of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1971, followed by the First Arab Festival for National Art held in Damascus in 1972 under the motto ‘Visual Art in the Decisive Battle’, and the First Conference of the General Union of Arab Plastic Artists, organised in Baghdad in 1973. (19)

Hammad also tackled this issue in his writing: “art movements in the Arab countries are going through a process of rapid development. Through exposure and intellectual exchange among artists, we shall definitely achieve the much-talked-about Arab identity: an identity that should be characterised by contemporaneity and be on par with the finest art forms of its era”. (20)

Thus it was that hurufiyya formed a cultural link to the pan-Arab ideologies discussed by artists at these conferences – so ideological, in fact, that they risked overshadowing the original artistic purpose of such events. (21) Furthermore, the Iraqi form of hurufiyya was the most favoured, as Madiha Umar (1908-2005) was the first to initiate it in late 1940s. Furthermore, in 1971 Shaker Hassan Al Said (1925-2004) wrote the ‘One Dimension Manifesto’ which laid out aesthetic, theoretical concepts. This manifesto, in addition to Al Said’s previous book Conceptual Studies (1969) became a central part of  intellectual discussions. Thus, against a backdrop of an overarching tendency to merge all Arab art into one pot – and amid the rigidity of the Iraqi theoretical approach – Syrian art was denied the chance to be dealt with independently.

Within this context, it becomes evident that Hammad’s approach to, and implementation of, hurufiyya – almost exclusive to him in Syria at that stage – was not mere imitation of a popular art movement. In fact, he talks in his diaries about Ismail: “He arranged his papers, drawings and studies in his studio in Mehdi Ben Barka Street, updating me on the latest research he conducted in Cairo, namely studies in which he adopted Arabic writing as a structural and formal element in the painting. This is something that pre-occupied me at the same time and we discussed it extensively.” (22) Elsewehre, he wrote: “We were introduced to writing codes from an early age, and they accompanied us until they became an intrinsic part of ourselves, with each of us having unique handwriting. Honouring Arabic, also, has been an element of our heritage since the earliest copies of the Quran were created”. (23)

From an artistic perspective, hurufiyya depends on the symbolic potential of Arabic calligraphy: this lies both in its interpreted semantics and phonetics and in its unifying capacity for Arabs, and, for some artists, due to its association with the language of Islam. This one to ask: Is hurufiyya indeed abstract? Is it completely void of figurative representation? Both Quranic text and Arabic poetry are in fact quite pictorial. Thus, during the decades of retardation of visual arts in the Arab world, a ‘painting’ was often implied through words.

Phrases selected by Hammad to be used in his works, including "Peace, a word from a Merciful Lord” (a Quranic text), “Words of King, Kings of Speech” (an Arabic motto), and “teach him archery” (taken from Ma’an Bin Aws’ poetry), bequeathed abstraction with a pictorial meaning different to its defined aesthetic meaning. For Hammad, hurufiyyamanifested itself as a formative visual treatment wherein depth of light disappeared, and spaces split into two distinct dimensions – quite different from his earlier works. It must be noted that contemporary Syrian artists during Hammad's time were generally not particularly interested in abstraction. Indeed, there were some dismissive comments or analytical viewpoints, such as Fateh Moudarres’ perspective on abstraction as a concept. (24)

Ultimately, one might say that Hammad was a mirror of himself. His self-portraits – something he continued to practice from the beginning of his career till his death – reflect the history of his artistic path. In each self-portrait, we see a step reflecting the progress of time. His renowned hurufiyya style could be considered a phase of cultural inclination, while his previous phases showed aesthetic captivation with colour and light, something which enhances his affiliation to the region on the visual level at least.

Footnotes:

1) in addition to his native Arabic, Hammad was fluent in Italian and French and familiar with English.

2) Hammad spent two years in Daraa and then moved to Damascus, where he taught at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, and became the Head of the Engraving Department for the academic year 1961–62. The Daraa (or Horan) phase in his oeuvre lasted for five years. [AW1] [na2] 

3) Hammad commenced his experimentation in abstraction and Arabic calligraphy in 1963.

4) Zayyat, Elias, ‘Mahmoud Hammad (1923–1988)’, Arab Encyclopedia, Eighth volume, p. 512, (https://arab-ency.com.sy/ency/details/4393/8)

5) For example, Adel Abdulhak, Salim ‘Artistic Renaissance in Syria’, Radio Syria magazine, 1954, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/masa-items/mqlt/images?view=slider#3)

6) For example, Al-Sharif, Tarek, ‘In Autumn Exhibition’, Al-Thawra newspaper, 1963, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/masa-items/mqlt/images?view=slider#19)      

7) For example, Al-Bakili, Farouk, ‘Syrian Art: Five Artists and One Cause’, Arab Week magazine, 1966, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad. (https://www.atassifoundation.com/masa-items/mqlt/images?view=slider#47)

8) Adel Abdulhak, Salim, ‘Artistic Renaissance in Syria’, Radio Syria magazine, 1954, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/masa-items/mqlt/images?view=slider#3)

9) Although Elias Zayat mentioned in detail the stages of Hammad that the Daraa stage began in 1958, his daughter Lubna Hammad, confirms that the Daraa stage actually began since 1957.

10) Hammad, Mahmoud, ‘My Memories with Adham Ismail’, date unknown, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/ar/mwd-rshyfy/mkhtwtt/images?view=slider#50). Also published in Khalil Safieh, Adham Ismail: Three-dimensional Reading, Pioneers of Plastic Art, Ministry of Culture in the Syrian Arab Republic, Damascus, 1991.

11) The adherance to the pan-Aran movement was evident in the diaries of several artists. For example, in ‘My Memories with Adham Ismail’, Hammad writes: “Adham had a perforated piece of paper in the shape of a word, and his correspondents in Antioch had the same. If a piece of correspondence was positioned on top of thispiece of paper, the intended idea could be decoded from through the position of the perforations. Instructions and information related to the struggle for the Arab identity of the Sanjak [of Alexandretta] were communicated via this secretive method. Since then, Adham started participating in exhibitions held in Damascus, including the one organised by The Arab Association for Fine Arts held at the Al-Hourie School in 1942.

12) Hammad, Mahmoud, ‘My Memories with Adham Ismail’, date unknown, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad

13) Due to the scarcity of materials at the time in Syria, artists often resorted to using panel (MDF or plywood) – most famous for this was Louay Kayyali. Hammad expands on this issue in his manuscript ‘Personal Experiences in Plastic Art’, 1984, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/ar/mwd-rshyfy/ktbt/images?view=slider#19). Hammad explains: “We had a real difficulty in acquiring materials and paint colours. Thus, we resorted to pigments used in wall paint. We had to finely grind them with flax oil and then fill them in old, cleaned toothpaste tubes. For small paintings, we used plywood sourced from empty wooden tea containers. We continued this practice until the Department of Provisions provided us with a quota, i.e. a specific amount of this type of wood to be distributed to us, like that of carpenters.”

14) Most meetings took place at Mamdouh Kashlan’s flat, as he mentioned in an interview, and the trio established what became known as Daraa School. Explained Kashlan: “The common theme among the three of us was the rural life of Daraa. Each addressed this topic in his own style and approach, adopting different colours, lines, formations and dimensions. After two years, we had to separate due to our circumstances”. Hammad, Lubna, ‘A History of Art Associations in Damascus During the 20th Century: From Emergence Until the First Arab Conference of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1971’, The Journal, Atassi Foundation, 2020

15) Manuscripts, Hammad’s answers to an interview with Mamdouh Kashlan, date unknown. (https://www.atassifoundation.com/features/a-history-of-art-associations-in-damascus-during-the-20th-century-from-emergence-until-the-first-arab-conference-of-fine-arts-in-damascus-in-1971)

16) Various authors, Imperfect Chronology: Arab Art from the Modern to the Contemporary Works, Barjeel Art Foundation, Prestel ,Munich, London, New York, 2015. Fine art faculties were established in 1908 in Cairo, in 1937 in Beirut, 1946 in Khartoum, 1956 in Riyadh and 1960 in Damascus.

17) To find a solution for this dilemma, Shakir Hassan Al Said (a former member of the Baghdad Modern Art Group) issued, alongside other members including Rafa Al-Nasiri and Dia Azzawi, the One Dimension Manifesto in 1971. As audiences had no frame of reference for either abstract works or their interpretation at the time, Al Said believed that by paring back and returning to ‘khat’, the line/letter “Signatories believed that using the Arabic letter helps….” Silvia Naef, Paris – Baghdad? Plastic Arts and Modernism in Iraq, Al-Adab, p.68-73, Beirut, 2004.

18) Shabout, Nada, Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, University Press of Florida, 2015

19) Hammad, Lubna, ‘A History of Art Associations in Damascus During the 20th Century: From Emergence Until the First Arab Conference of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1971’, The Journal, Atassi Foundation, 2020

(https://www.atassifoundation.com/features/a-history-of-art-associations-in-damascus-during-the-20th-century-from-emergence-until-the-first-arab-conference-of-fine-arts-in-damascus-in-1971)

20) Hammad, Mahmoud, draft answers for an interview, date unknown, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/ar/mwd-rshyfy/mkhtwtt/images?view=slider#49)

21) Their statements were anti-colonial with pro-Palestinian rhetoric, containing organisational and administrative suggestions similar to the rhetoric of Iraqi political parties at the time – predominantly, the Ba’ath Party, which had had a strong presence since it was established in 1951. Indeed, Iraq was often the sponsor for such gatherings and congregations.

22) Hammad, Mahmoud, My Memories with Adham Ismail, date unknown, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad

23) Hammad, Mahmoud, draft answers for an interview, date unknown, Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad (https://www.atassifoundation.com/ar/mwd-rshyfy/mkhtwtt/images?view=slider#49)

24) There have been many debates against dispossession in Syria especially since the Italian professor Guido La Regina joined the teaching team of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus. La Regina’s abstract trends influenced students, but were not very well welcomed by the art scene. In an interview with Syrian artists conducted by Farouk Al-Bakili in 1966, there was an argument related to the usage of abstraction in the Syrian context, Louay Kayyali has has expressed disliking approach of the new (abstract) tendencies of his peers. Moudarres had an honest philosophical and aesthetic response: “Although I haven’t reached the phase of pure abstraction, I believe in it being the alphabet of visual language in painting and sculpture, while it is the whole language in music. Thus, abstraction is inherent in each and every genuine work of art since human draw on the cave walls of Lascaux and Altamira, and other ancient caves. Prominent paintings of the Renaissance have an abstract composition despite the clear shapes in them. For those who proclaim the death of abstraction, they consider it a school. Abstraction, however, is, as I said, the foundation of building a genuine painting” Farouk Al-Bakili, Arab Week magazine, 1966. Modern Art of Syria Archive (MASA), Atassi Foundation, The Archives of Mahmoud Hammad.

Sources (English):

Various editors, Imperfect Chronology: Arab Art from the Modern to the Contemporary Works from the Barjeel Art Foundation, Munich, London, New York : Prestel, 2015

Shabout, Nada, Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics, Florida: University Press of Florida, 2015

Sources (Arabic):

الياس الزيات، محمود حمّاد (١٩٢٣-١٩٨٨)، الموسوعة العربية السورية، المجلد الثامن.

محمود حمّاد، «ذكرياتي مع أدهم إسماعيل» ، تاريخ غير معروف، أرشيف الفن السوري الحديث، مجموعة أرشيف محمود حمّاد، مؤسسة أتاسي.

محمود حمّاد، تجارب شخصيّة في الفن التشكيلي، ١٩٨٤، أرشيف الفن السوري الحديث، مجموعة أرشيف محمود حمّاد، مؤسسة أتاسي.

محمود حمّاد، مسوّدة أجوبة على لقاء، تاريخ غير معروف، أرشيف الفن السوري الحديث، مجموعة أرشيف محمود حمّاد، مؤسسة أتاسي.

لبنى حمّاد، تاريخ تأسيس الجمعيات الفنية بدمشق في القرن العشرين منذ بداية ظهورها وحتى انعقاد المؤتمر العربي الأول للفنون الجميلة بدمشق عام 1971، مجلّة مؤسسة أتاسي، ٢٠٢٠.

سيلفيا نيف، باريس - بغداد؟ الفنون التشكيلية والحداثة في العراق، الآداب: بيروت، ٢٠٠٤.

فاروق البقلي، الأسبوع العربي، ١٩٦٦، أرشيف الفن السوري الحديث، مجموعة أرشيف محمود حماد، مؤسسة أتاسي.