Ziad Zukkari

Ahmad Ziad Zukkari (Ziad Zukkari) , (1926 – 11 September 2014) was a Syrian modern artist, painter and calligrapher. He was mainly a figurative painter who specialised in traditional scenes that represent traditional architecture and costumes. He also executed postage stamps. He painted most Syrian monuments and costumes. He was active starting in the mid-XIXth century, and was "the first to document the Syrian cultural heritage... omitting neither a comma nor a period."

Biography Ziad Zukkari was born in 1926 in Damascus. At age eight, he started drawing, with white or coloured chalk, family trips and scenes of daily life on the walls of his family house in Douma. Later, his family left Douma to settle in Damascus, in the neighborhood of Al Bahsa Al Baraniyah, in front of the Al Tausiyah mosque (peacocks mosque), where many artists and calligraphers are living. He discovered the atelier of the painter Akram Khalqi located close to Arnous avenue in the neighborhood of Al-Salihiya, and he spent hours there. The artist Mamdouh Kashlan considered him a "master of representation of cultural heritage". he exhibited reproductions of traditional costumes from various governorates of Syria. In the wake of this exhibition, some of his canvases were exhibited at Le Méridien hotel of Paris on the occasion of the day of Syrian gastronomy.

Since the onset of his career, he tried to systematically represent the Syrian traditional costumes, especially those that were exhibited in the Al-Azm Palace of Damascus.

Awards Certificate from the Tishreen University for his contribution to scientific research, 5 October 1991 Certificate from the Adham Ismail Centre for Plastic Arts, in recognition of his artistic activity in documenting cultural heritage, 7 September 2005