Fateh al-Moudarres

Fateh al-Moudarres ( Arabic فاتح المدرس, DMG Fātiḥ al-Mudarras ; * 1922 in Aleppo , Syria; † June 1999 in Damascus , Syria) was a Syrian painter , pioneer of modern art in his country, writer and sculptor .

Fateh al-Moudarres was born in Aleppo, Syria in 1922. The early death of his father and the forced departure from his homeland in the north are later reflected in many of his works, as is the death of two children. After arriving in Damascus and an autodidactic phase with realistic and surrealist influences, Moudarres went to Italy in 1954 and studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, where he stayed until 1960.

He eventually developed his own style, which he himself described as "surrealistic and figurative, with a strong abstract element". Moudarres also devoted himself to religious, including Christian motifs. He took up mythological and iconographic themes such as dervishes and the holy city of Jerusalem. But politics, which worried him a lot after 1967, was also an issue.

Between 1969 and 1972 Moudarres completed his studies in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, before he began teaching in Damascus at the College of Fine Arts at the university there and influenced numerous young artists.

Moudarres had numerous exhibitions on four continents, including Germany. He won an honorary medal at the 1963 Biennale in Sao Paulo, a retrospective honored him in 1995/96 at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, and some of his literary works have also been published.

The artist died in June 1999. His works achieve rising prices at auctions in London and in the Arab world.

Web links

• Moudarres pictures and selection of prizes won
• More Moudarres pictures
• Obituary by a Syrian journalist and friend