Mahmoud Hammad

Born Damascus, Syria, 1923 (d.1988)

Hammad was awarded a scholarship to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, 1953–7. On his return to Syria, he taught art at secondary schools and, from its establishment in 1959, at the College of Fine Arts, University of Damascus – where, from 1970 to 1980, he was dean. Initially influenced by European academic figurative art and Impressionism, he later established himself as one of the first artists to use the Arabic script in the abstract art movement in Syria. Hammad also played an important role as a teacher, inviting Italian and French lecturers to the College of Fine Arts and influencing a number of Syrian artists of the following generation. His works are in a number of public and private collections, including the National Museum in Damascus.