Nostalgia in the drawings of Syrian Expatriate Saief Daoud of old Damascus
The conditions of expatriation have not prevented Syrian artists and intellectuals from creativity and success rather they are a major incentive to present the best to express their deep loyalty and sincere feelings of nostalgia to their motherland.
The color intertwined with poetic visions in art works displayed in” Tarnim” exhibition by the Syrian expatriate artist Saif Daoud. This intertwining gave the paintings a touch of sadness, alienation and suffering.
Artist Daoud told SANA that the exhibition , hosted by Mustafa Ali Gallery in Old Damascus, is a selection of 300 paintings that share one link, which is the suffering that he expressed through the brush and color, indicating that despite sadness and pain, hope remains.
Concerning the title of the exhibition, Artist Daoud said “Tarnim” inspires a song and a call to life and joy through the painting, pointing out that he worked on his art works in the technique of contrasting colors with Harmony to break the boundaries and separations between them, so the bright colors came to give the painting a color intensity.
As he is also a poet , according to the Syrian expatriate, his paintings embodied the element of intertwining the arts, underscoring that the painting has no specific color, but rather has a relationship to the psychological state where there is interaction between him and the painting. He believes that the message of art for artists in the expatriate is to convey thought and eastern civilization to the West.
On his part, Artist Mustafa Ali said that Daoud’s experience is distinctive in which the expressive element predominates through the rough and soft space and through the stark colors that are surrounded by cold colors and have a relationship with alienation and nostalgia. Artist Mustafa indicated that Daoud’s inner world appeared clearly to the attendees where we can read his insides on the color palette.
In turn the artist Mohamed Al-Rakou’i, viewed that the exhibition is a mixed-level experience, as the ideas are beautiful and show that the artist worked on them more than techniques and painting, adding that Daoud depended on childishness in his work, which is a beautiful style.
Rawaa Ghanam