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Valuing Syrian artIs the recently ‘flourishing’ Syrian art scene a bubble of money and fame? Or are we witnessing the coining of a genuine Young Syrian Artists Movement?

Four years have already passed since the time Ayyam Gallery, referred to by the Time-CNN blog as “the first major commercial gallery in Damascus deal-ing in contemporary Syrian art,” set up shop in Damascus.Although the gallery, along with a suite of other private-held galleries (like Rafia and George Kamel), has helped young Syrian artists become commer-cially-successful stars in Syria and overseas, the debate is still brewing on whether private galleries are actually moving the Syrian art forward by plac-ing young artists on the world map, or simply creating a “bubble art scene” that will soon vanish with the test of time.In the coming few pages, Forward Mag-azine investigates the opinions, pro and against.

By Ruba Saqr and Hamzeh Abu-Fakher

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Envying success!There is no doubt the art scene in

Syria is changing. The BBC, Time Maga-zine and many other international me-dia outlets, see new young artists in Syria as the bringers of good tidings to the country; Arab and international collectors are eagerly buying contem-porary Syrian paintings from younger

Syrian artists that are 30 to 50 years old and who are changing the image of Syria in so many ways around the globe, and international media are sure believers that the local art scene is “flourishing.”

But all of this positivity is finding a hard time convincing an older genera-tion of artists (but not all of them) with the notion that today’s young Syrian artists, whose paintings are sold for an average of $15,000-a-piece, are but a bubble waiting to burst.

According to Khaled Samawi, Arabi-an Business magazine’s Entrepreneur

of the Year and founder of Ayyam Gal-lery (based in Damascus, with branches in Dubai and Beirut), this is all a form of naïve envy.

“I think younger artists today are much freer to express themselves than older artists, who have a lot of com-plexes that come from their Soviet era classical perception of what art

is. Older artists still live in the past, plus they’re lazy. They’re too busy dis-cussing the prices of younger artists instead of sitting in their studios and experimenting,” Samawi mused.

Digging deep into the reasons behind the resistance of so many older artists (60-80 years old) towards the chang-es facing the local art scene, Samawi thinks it all boils down to the way art-ists used to view “money” versus the new generations’ way of thinking.

“When you come from a generally ‘leftist’ atmosphere, you start accus-ing everyone who is making financial

gain as ‘capitalist and commercial,’” Samawi said, describing an older gen-eration of artists who grew up in a so-cialist-dominated era. “Mind you, from my experience, these older artists are more motivated by money than any younger artist I know!”

Valuation: Older contemporary art

versus the new worldToday’s generation of artists has

a different set of “principles and val-ues,” young artist Kais Salman (34 years old) told Forward Magazine in a recent interview.

“While an older generation of artists, born in the 30s and the 40s, believes striving for art is the norm, artists born in the 60s and 70s believe ‘liv-ing on a rug and begging in the street’ do not necessarily make an artist,” he said. “We are lucky to witness a time when we, as artists, can concentrate on our art, and let someone else look after

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the marketing and the media.”Born in Damascus in 1948, Nazeer

Ismail, one of the famous artists in Syr-ia, is from a generation of artists who lacked the means to market their art-works. “In the 60s and 70s we did not care about selling our works because art trade was not common, only some art enthusiasts would buy some works

but there was no market for it. But late-ly an arts market is being established and money is becoming a major con-cern, drawing more mainstream artists to the scene,” he said.

Ismail believes the criteria for art valuation is the real problem in today’s art scene.

“Artists used to criticize and rate each other on art quality, originality and diversity; this is still present in some circles, but sadly the ability to sell became an essential caliber. People who sell more currently are believed to be better artists and their opinions are

deemed more important,” Ismail said.To Ayyam Gallery’s Samawi, critiqu-

ing young contemporary artists based on the price of their paintings is testi-mony enough to the “state of shock” the older artists are going through; “they have suffered so much to reach their goals, while a younger generation of talented people are finding dealers and galleries,” who do the suffering and the marketing for them.

When it comes to young art prices versus older art prices, “I just think the quality of art coming out of the younger artists in Syria is significantly more important than the quality of art coming from the older artists; it’s as simple as that,” Samawi said matter-of-factly.

To sell is not a sin!

George Kamel, another well-known owner of a self-named Damascus-based gallery, agrees that marketing and art do not make you less of an art-ist, or in his case, of an art dealer.

“Art has been undergoing market-ing efforts for centuries in Europe, this started moving to other countries opening up in the 20th century. Any-thing not marketed or supported will be hidden and not seen,” Kamel, born in 1970, said.

Artist Walid el-Masri, born in 1979, agrees, “Commercialism and original art are present side by side; they do not cancel each other,” he said.

But Rafia Qadamani, owner of Rafia Gallery, one of Damascus’s most well-known art outlets, begs to differ. To her, the exposure young Syrian artists are getting is not necessarily in their favor. “The demand on Middle Eastern art was proven in 2006 when auction houses in the UK and Dubai started selling them. They opened the world’s eyes to the regional contemporary art scene. As positive as that might be, it also confused the local art scene turn-ing many young artists to commercial-ism.”

Rafia believes young contemporary artists are not all the glimmer and glit-ter they are being marketed for.

“The 70s and 80s were better, up-coming artists nowadays don’t bring in anything new. Syrian contemporary art is not as developed as the other neighboring countries, such as Leba-non, Egypt and Iraq,” she told Forward Magazine recently.

Samawi on the other hand thinks that Syrian contemporary art is the

most developed in the Arab world. "While the modern art movement in neighboring countries such as Iraq,

Lebanon, and Egypt used to be more im-portant than the Syrian m o v e m e n t , the Syrian contemporary m o v e m e n t today is defi-nitely more i m p o r t a n t than those in neighbor-ing countries.

There is a reason why when the Wall Street Journal decided to do a cover story on contemporary art from the Arab world, Syrian contemporary art and young Syrian artists were the high-light of the article and Kais Salman was the cover image," he said.

As a 74-year-old artist, Samia Hala-by, a celebrated Palestinian artist with Ayyam Gallery, believes “only time can filter the Syrian art scene.” Why is Leonardo DiVinci viewed as the great artist he is? It is accumulation of opin-ions over a very long period of time, she said.

As an observer of Syrian col-leagues, not necessarily beating her $60,000-worth painting prices, she be-lieves young artists do face the chal-lenge of honing their “egos,” seeing how sudden media exposure and fame can get to someone’s head. But this does not mean the quality of the art presented in contemporary Syria is of less value.

“I actually think current prices are low; I don’t think the prices of my paintings are high, I think they will be much higher in the future, the same [goes] for all the artists here,” Halaby said.

Young art lacks depth?

Waleed Agha, a celebrated Syrian cal-ligraphist born in 1966, is a keen ob-server of the Syrian art scene. As harsh as his views might be, he agrees with several older generation artists, such as veteran artist Mamdooh Kashlan, in his criticism of younger contemporary artists.

Whereas Kashlan once told Forward Magazine, “there is a lack of depth of expression” in the works of young Syrian artists, Agha, who is a few de-

Ayyam Gallery's founder Khaled Samawi, standing next to Pales-tinian artist Samia Halaby, who is one of the older artists repre-sented by the gallery. "Beware of ego," Halaby advises young Syr-ian artists. Samawi, however, is a firm believer young Syrian artists are shaping a movement of their own

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Coining a new term: The Young Syrian ArtistsMovement (YSAM)?Amidst stormy opinions surrounding the local art scene, Samawi believes Syrian galleries, especially his own, have a role in branding and marketing young Syrian artists in ways that bring benefit to everyone involved.

Looking at international case stud-ies, he often likes to draw similarities between young Syrian talents and the Young British Artists move-ment (YBA), launched in the 1990s out of a group of conceptual artists, painters, sculptors and installation artists. YBA artists were re-jected at the time by major classical UK galleries, who held on to displaying more conventional forms of art, while viewing young artists as being not too worthy of being recognized. The YBAs reached fame nevertheless by adopting “shock tactics” to spread their art.

Ayyam Gallery, learning from such an experience, decided to be on the under-dogs’ side.

“My understanding is that today’s new young Syrian artists are just like the British; it’s a movement. They are very different from the older artists; they are fresher, and more liberated,” Samawi said.

To this testimony, Masri underlines the freedom of choice and expression that the new artists are creating for themselves.

“There are no absolute values in art. There is no black and white. There are different perspec-tives. It is all about how you see it; everything has a value to someone. But as long as you paint with your own style nobody will judge you because it is your character reflect-ed, not anyone else’s.”.

cades younger than Kashlan, believes “The new trend of contemporary art is painting vague and ambiguous distor-tion of figures, so that they would be sold. Distorted faces are the new face of art. Unfortunately many galleries adopt this when they should be adopt-ing [true Arabian] styles.”

The role of an art gallery

While many view Damascene galler-ies as business enterprises that don’t place a lot of weight on the quality of art they display, Qadamani likes to take a step sideways and see things differently.

“A gallery’s role is to protect the art-ist and give him exposure [while] set-ting the atmosphere needed for him to continue working on his art, as well

as being a place for intellectuals and scholars to meet and debate,” she said.

Sara Shamma, a young and well-acclaimed Syrian artist, argues differ-ently. “The main role of galleries is not developing the art scene; intellectuals and artists are responsible for that.”

However, Shamma agrees with Qada-mani in some respect; “Contemporary art in Syria is new; it has yet to yield results. But unfortunately anybody can be an artist nowadays; art is in a global decline.”.

Shabab UprisingFrom May 8-June 30, Ayyam Gallery Dubai is presenting its second Shabab Uprising exhibition, a showcase high-lighting ten of the most critically ac-

claimed emerging artists working to-day, including painters Thaier Helal and Kais Salman with photographer/filmmaker Ammar al-Beik.

The event is part of continuous ef-forts to support the Young Syrian Art-ists Movement, as Ayyam Gallery man-agement likes to see it.

Rafia Qadamani, owner of Rafia Gallery

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