Biography
Mahmoud Hammad was one of the most prominent modernist artists in Syria. He was a prolific and multidisciplinary artist and a significant participant in establishing the Faculty of Fine Arts of Damascus University (Kuliyat al-Funun al-Jamila). In addition to many paintings, watercolours, metal, and stone etchings, Hammad’s oeuvre includes reliefs (medallions and murals for monuments), monument designs, stamps, and sketches. Hammad adopted Arab nationalism, was involved in pan-Arab gatherings dedicated to the visual arts and engaged in the Hurufiyya movement.
Hammad’s family is of Palestinian origin, specifically the West Bank city of Nablus. His father, Amin Hikmat Hammad, was the manager of several postal and telegraph facilities under Ottoman rule in the early 20th century, and the family had to move between several cities in the Levant. His mother, Zakia al-Hallaj, an Egyptian Turk, passed away when the artist was at a young age, and appeared several times in his works in the way he imagined her.
As a child, he attended Italian primary and secondary schools in Damascus, where he learned to draw under the supervision of an Italian priest, Father Ludovico. In 1939, he visited Italy for the first time and showed an interest in engaging deeply with art. However, with the outbreak of the Second World War, he had to return to Syria.
In 1941, Hammad participated in a group exhibition for Syrian artists held at the Institute of Law, an exhibition considered a milestone in the history of art in Syria. In the same year, the artist co-established the Atelier Veronese (1941–50). In 1943, he co-founded the Arab Association for Fine Arts, a short-lived entity that lasted only two years.
During this time, his artistic production was mainly experimental. Like many of his contemporaries, Hammad learned about different art movements through books and publications. The medium of most of his works was oil and acrylic on canvas or wooden panels, while most of the compositions were of portraits, landscapes, local heritage scenes, and patriotic themes, like The Bombardment of Damascus (1945), which portrays French troops shelling the Syrian parliament.
Between 1946 and 1953, Hammad worked as an art teacher in several Syrian cities. In 1950, he participated in the original art exhibition held at the National Museum of Damascus (Al-Muthaf al-Watai fi Dimashq) and won the first award for his painting Maaloula. His first one-person exhibition was held at the Syrian Arts Association (Al-Jam’ia al-Suwria Lil-Funun al-Jamila) in 1953. The same year, he received a scholarship from the Syrian state to study painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome. He received a diploma in medal-making in 1955 and graduated in 1957.
Hammad set off on what they called a trip from Italy to Andalusia using his car, along with his friend and artist Adham Ismail (1922–1963). They aimed to get acquainted with the art and culture of the Italian, French, and Spanish cities and towns they passed through. They both wrote travel diaries, and the trip had a significant cultural and personal influence on them. While in Italy, he crossed paths with Syrian artists also studying there, namely Fateh Moudarres (1922–1999), Louay Kayyali (1934–1978), and Fathi Mohmmad (1917–1958). He also met the Lebanese artist Derrieh Fakhoury (1930–2015), who later went with him to Syria, where they got married. This period of Hammad’s practice is characterised by intensive production, and his works were either portraits, nudes, landscapes, or cityscapes.
Upon returning from Rome in 1957, Hammad was appointed a fine art teacher in the southern Syrian city of Daraa, where he embarked on new artistic explorations. His home became a place of encounters with fellow artists Mamdouh Kashlan (1929–2022) and Adham Ismail. Together, they established what became known as the Daraa Trio. While this era witnessed the introduction of geometrical lines and patterns, marking his first experimentation with abstract representation, he preserved figurative representation, with most of the works portraying peasants and villagers from the area.
The Higher Institute of Fine Arts (Al-Ma’had al-’Ali lil-Funun al-Jamila) was established in 1958–59 as Syria's first official art education entity. It became the Faculty of Fine Arts in 1963. In 1960, Hammad was appointed as the Head of the Engraving Department and a professor at the Institute, then as the Head of the Art Department, to become a prominent figure in establishing this nascent educational entity's theoretical and practical curriculum.
Aimed at providing abstract and experimental visions, he co-founded Group D around 1965 in collaboration with fellow artists Nassir Chaura (1920–1992) and Elias Zayyat (1935–2022). Thanks to a UNESCO scholarship, Hammad had the chance to spend several months between Rome and Paris in 1967, an experience that brought back the tendencies of cultural openness. Hammad was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts in Damascus in 1970, and the most significant achievement during his tenure was commencing the construction of the current building of the faculty in the neighbourhood of al-Baramkeh, based on a blueprint drafted by Italian architects.
Pan-Arab sentiments witnessed the peak of expansion during the 1970s, including Arab artists who met several times to align their artistic aspirations and unionise. Hammad participated in many gatherings, and among the most high-profile meetings he attended as a member was the First Arab Conference of Fine Arts (Al-Mutamar al-ʿArabi al-A’waal lil-Funun al-Jamila) in Damascus in 1971, followed by the First Arab Festival for National Art (Al-Mihrajan al-ʿArabi al-A’waal lil-Fan al-Qawmi al-Tashkili) held in Damascus in 1972, and the First Conference of the General Union of Arab Visual Artists (Al-Mutamar al-A’waal lil-Itihad al-ʿAm lil-Tashkylyyn al-ʿArab), organised in Baghdad in 1973.
Out of his contention that it is an authentic aesthetic Arab movement, such meetings strengthened Hammad’s intentions to adopt the Hurufiyya. In these works, he borrowed Quranic texts like "Peace, a word from a Merciful Lord,” and 'If you are grateful, I will certainly give you more,” or Arabic mottos like “words of king, kings of speech”, or even from Arabic poetry “I taught him archery, and when he became adept, he targeted me.”
During his professional career, Hammad won several state competitions, most notably for his design of the Martyrs Monument in the Syrian city of al-Kiswah in 1976 and theMonument to the Unknown Soldier on Mount Qasioun in 1985. He was also commissioned to design stamps and state medallions, most prominently among them the Gold Victory Medallion commissioned by the Syrian parliament.
Mahmoud Hammad’s oeuvre could be divided into four periods: Beginnings (1939–1953), Rome (1953–1957), which was characterised by realistic expressionism, Daraa (1957–1963), which witnessed the beginning of abstract artistic tendencies, and lastly, Hurufiyya, which lasted from 1964 until the end of his career.
Hammad was posthumously decorated with Syria’s Order of Civil Merit, First Class in 1989. Before was awarded the Order of the National Council for Arts and Letters in 1977 and the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic—Knight Class in 1976.
