Fathi Mouhammad
Fathi Mouhammad (painter ,sculptor ,engraver ,medal maker ) born in Aleppo 1917 and died in 1957.He was the precursor of sculpture in Syria . He lost his parents when he was a child. He began his carrier when he was working as a wood ornaments carver , when still he was a young boy.
In 1944 he sold his home to have the mean to study sculpture in Cairo . In 1948 , after being graduated from Cairo's academy of fine art he was sent to Italy to complete his study with a scholarship from Syrian government ,until 1950 .
He was commissioned by the government to make the figure of Adnan Maliky , (who's picture I will sent you ) against ten thousand Syrian pounds .
In the process of creating he discovered that the price of agreement was too low to complete the work ,he spent whole the money he received for the work and began to live in poverty and hungriness at the same he began to suffer from an unknown illness , and died in 1957.
My opinion about his work : If academism means just to know the craft of sculpture, without an individual viewpoint about reality , or absence of honesty to be yourself or to be so unconscious about yourself (to forget your viewpoint ) ,then again I will agree with those who condemn him with academism ,because few man can arrive at a level of craftsmanship as he arrived .but I know from his works which I saw with my eyes ,(works which were not shown publicly, because most of them are nudes ).
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