The bread maker

Louay Kayyali is best-known for his depictions of dispossessed working-class figures, where the focus is on a single figure, typically ladies, vendors and street beggars. The present lot is an extremely fine and poignant example, the lady with her contemplative gaze and sad eyes meditating in front of her baking tray. Tired from the burdens of life, this is reflected on her pose. She is trying to survive in a harsh society which is not only male dominated, but also judgmental. Melancholy and resignation best characterize much of Kayyali's work after the 1967 war and the sentiments of political failure in the Arab World in general. Active during a time of immense upheaval, Kayyali was one of the region's most prominent socio-political artists, his paintings externalizing the pressing humanitarian and political issues that surrounded him. His powerful depictions of ordinary people are characterized by strong fluid lines that define the figures and the absence of extraneous detail. Although reminiscent of Russian social realist painting through his humane treatment of his subjects, he executed them with greater individuality. A recurrent theme in his work was the desolation and misery of social outsiders, his trauma finding expression in a series of deeply sentimental paintings.