Biography
Elias Zayat was a Syrian artist and art restorer born into a Christian family in the Christian neighbourhood of Bab Touma in Damascus. He began drawing and painting in elementary school. In 1952, at 17, he joined the studio of pioneer artist Michel Kurcheh (1900–1973), who had studied in Paris in the 1920s. He followed the painter’s tutelage at his studio for the next three years. Zayat accompanied Kurcheh on trips to Ma’loula (an ancient Christian city where both artists painted from nature) and to exhibitions organised by art associations. This initiation involved the discovery of painting and drawing techniques, the art world, and various exhibitions. Zayat’s first paintings were inspired by Kurcheh’s impressionist style, which was then in vogue in Syria.
At the end of the 1950s, Syria had not established an art school, and artists were pursuing higher education abroad. Elias Zayat was granted a four-year scholarship (1956–1960) to study at the National Academy of Art in Sofia with the artists Ilya Petrov (1903–1975) and Boris Mitov (1891–1963). In her essay published in Elias Zayat, Cities and Legends, art historian Salwa Mikdadi points out that artists at the Academy were divided into two groups: those who followed the school of social realism and those who defended subjectivity in art. Zayat was part of the latter group. He painted portraits, landscapes and still lifes. During this period, he travelled to Paris and Brussels in Western Europe. During these travels, he visited several museums and galleries and was inspired by post-impressionist artists. His palette was drawn from Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne, using warm colours with an expressionist touch. He also took compositional elements from Wassily Kandinsky and found inspiration in Kandinsky’s writings on spirituality in art.
Between 1958 and 1961, when Syria and Egypt united to form the United Arab Republic, Zayat’s scholarship came to an end. Like many Syrian artists of his generation, he continued his studies in Cairo. This period was stimulating for the young artist, who visited many museums and learned about civilisations and iconographies that left their mark on him. He graduated from Jamia't Ayn Shams (Ain Shams University) in 1961.
Once back in Syria, he painted his relatives and strangers, the landscapes surrounding him, scenes of daily life, the souks, and the hills of Ghouta. He reconnected with his roots and homeland, as well as his Christian heritage. In the early 1960s, his interest in icons, iconography, and Christian theology informed his work. These investigations in search of an artistic identity were shared by his generation of Arab and Syrian artists, trying to explore their heritage (and not the one from western art canon and schools).
Whether relatives, saints, historical or mythological characters, the figures he paints seem to share the same deep gaze. Large brown eyes rimmed with black, reminiscent of archaeological figures from Mari, faces inspired by Palmyra statues and icons. The representation of the eye and the question of the gaze will run through all his work.
The creation of Kulliyat al-Funun al-Jamila - Jami'at Dimashq (the Faculty of Fine Arts attached to the University of Damascus), began in the early 1960s. In 1962, Elias Zayat was appointed assistant professor before becoming a full professor in 1980. This position enabled him to deepen his knowledge of ancient Syrian art, as well as archaeological sites and landscapes from other regions. At the Faculty, he met Guido la Regina (1909–1995), an Italian abstract painter who taught there from 1965 to 1967. This encounter led Zayat to experiment with abstraction for several years before rejecting it. The Mathaf al Watani fi Dimashq (National Museum of Damascus) holds works from this period. He returned to figuration after the Syrian defeat during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Syrian artists were deeply affected by it, and exhibitions were organised in Damascus in support of the fighters and martyrs between 1968 and 1969. Zayat took part in them with works The Good Earth and The Martyr’s Return.
Syrian art critic Tariq Al Sharif considers that it was in 1968 that Zayat found his style. He analyses the structure of the artist’s paintings and their verticality, with a movement that runs from the bottom to the top of the painting. “Thus creating two intertwined worlds, the first one pessimistic, and the second one in an optimistic atmosphere of renewal”, writes the critic in the catalogue of Six Syrian Artists, an exhibition held at the Markaz al thaqafi al Arabi- Dimashq (Arab Cultural Center in Damascus) in 1972.
This new, more expressionist style employs figuration to unite historical and mythological worlds, where animal, human, or divine characters blend with architecture and ruins. Civilisations and countries no longer have borders; all these elements mix and intertwine. The canvas presents an opportunity to merge these different layers of dream and reality, the real and the imaginary. His work blends the rich heritage of Syria, including various traditions and iconography, with influences from Babylon, Mesopotamia, the Sufi tradition, and Byzantine iconography. He draws his inspiration from history, mythology, and literary references from Arab writers and poets, such as Gibran Khalil Gibran, as well as spiritual sources like the Sufi teachings of Ibn Arabi. All these investigations into the history of Syrian Art and theology would inspire him for his artistic work, but he also produced a significant amount of writing as a researcher.
In parallel to his art and writing practice, Zayat began training in art restoration in 1973 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, Hungary. He pursued this occupation throughout his life, restoring frescoes and icons in churches, as well as modern pieces. His involvement in organising the Revival of Plastic Art Memory in Syria exhibition at the Damascus Museum in 2008, together with the preface he wrote for the catalogue, bears witness to his relationship with the materiality of contemporary works. Zayat highlighted the poor conservation conditions of the works in the modern art collection of the Damascus Museum and emphasised the need for their restoration.
Not only was Elias Zayat’s artistic work essential to the modern Syrian scene, but he also joined the community of Syrian artists who, from the 1960s onwards, actively participated in the revival and reflection on art and the artist’s status in society. Along with Nassir Chaura (1920–1992) and Mahmoud Hammad (1923–1988), he founded Jama’at Dal or Dimashq (Damascus or D Group). Subsequently, he participated in the creation of the Group of Ten (Jama’at al-Ashara). This group, which included the artists Asaad Arabi (1941– ), Ghayath Al-Akhras (1937–), Naim Ismail (1930–1979), and Nazir Naba’a (1938–2016), among others, shared a view of modern Arab art in search of an identity.
In his final years, the flood motif became recurrent throughout his work, allegorising the civil war in Syria. Pieces such as Deluge, the Gods Abandon Palmyra (2012) and After the Deluge (2015), presented at the Green Art Gallery in 2015, convey his vision of the world and his hope for a future in which chaos gives way to renewal.
