Yacob Ibrahim
Yacob Ibrahim is one of the most influential art figure in Syria, he has shown his work in most western and arab countries. He uses perfectly history to render contemporary political messages in his paintings.
He began his career as an artist by imitating the old Masters of Post-Impressionism, such as Gauguin and Picasso, but also paintings of the French academies in the late 17th century. He mainly painted people and portraits. As of the early nineties, color became important. His intense colors and abstract shapes are reminiscent of Paul Klee.
 Syria .. The last Supper, Oil on Canvas, 197 x 253 cm, 2013 |  Syria .. The last Supper, Oil on Canvas, 197 x 251 cm, 2013 |
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 Syria .. The last Supper, Oil on Canvas, 151 x 151 cm, 2013 |  Syria .. The last Supper, Oil on Canvas, 289 x 317 cm, 2013 |
 Syria .. The last Supper, Oil on Canvas, 197 x 249 cm, 2013 |  Syria ..., Oil on Canvas, 250 x 200 cm, 2015 |
In 1996, he began developing a new style, wanting to achieve a fresco effect on the canvas. Having experimented for three years, he devoted the following seven years exclusively to developing a painting technique that was to unite sculpture and archaeological findings on the canvas.
His new technique was guided by styles of the past. He paints with white oil on black oil, layer by layer, from graphic art, to sculpture, to painting. This working method became even more important in his work. Through these abstractions, he discovered his own style, a new inspiration, referring to archaic elements combined with antique writings. What was once canvas then became artificial stone, a material that is hard to get hold of in Syria; that is why he began mixing his own paste. The symbols that Ibrahim uses are half calligraphy, half tokens - a blend of graffiti and the excavations in his country.
The Sumeric civilization existed more than 3000 years BC in Southern Mesopotamia; then came the Assyrians, the Arameans, and the Babylonian peoples. These early high cultures which invented cuneiform writing systems and other significant cultural contributions are still very important, especially with regards to archaeology. Yacob Ibrahim's works reminds us of the Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets.