Plastic artist Habib Najjar’s artworks depict Syrian heritage.

The plastic artist Habib Najjar  has managed  to revive and preserve  the heritage  through his  paintings and sculptures  which are characterized by  ideas and images inspired by the environment of his hometown, Mahrada in Hama province.    

Najjar’s art depends on  realism, research and experiment in the world of painting and its technique to present the aspects of daily life in artworks  through which he expresses the concerns of  human beings  in search of tranquility and familiarity .

The plastic artist , who had a passion for art since his childhood and had exhibitions in the preparatory and high school stages, told SANA that the heritage and ancient life in his city contributed to the formation of his talent , expressing  his admiration for its old neighborhoods which  he revived  through   his artworks  and they were a source of his works.  

He  described the painting, with all its natural and human elements as a living being . Sometimes the town appears as a body feeding from an artery in the ground, a deep-rooted tree, or as a warm embrace of a mother tending to her children. 

Najjar  believes that the visual culture that he acquired in his childhood through simple rural life had a great impact on the formation of his paintings , stressing that the  land, water and trees  are always present in  his artworks  as well as the  traditional clothes , which expresses the  artist’s main goal to create  harmony between man and nature .  

He  mentioned that the most important station  in his artistic experience is the painting and embroidering of   45 icons in the Byzantine style, which were distributed over the town’s churches and outside them.   

Artist Najjar  noted  that he uses many materials in his sculptures that simulate human feelings, nature and women and present them with a special aesthetic drawing. He inspired the  ideas of his artworks  from his local environment as  he carved on stone, marble and wood, indicating that his preoccupation for several years in drawing the Byzantine icon had a symbolic effect in his sculptural works.  

It is noteworthy that the artist Habib Najjar was born in Mahrada in the countryside of Hama in 1961. He participated in a number of exhibitions held in several governorates.   

Rawaa Ghanam