page_title: Wahbi al-Hariri
section_title: Early art and archaeology in Syria
hierarchical_section_title: Wahbi al-Hariri / Career / Early art and archaeology in Syria
caption_attribution_description: English: Wahbi Al-Hariri with a Sculpture
context_page_description: Wahbi al-Hariri-Rifai Arabic: وهبي الحريري آلرفاعي‎ was a Syrian American artist who has often been called "the last of the classicists". As an artist he was remarkably prolific in the last years of his life despite a protracted and painful struggle with terminal cancer. He was also an accomplished architect, archaeologist, and author. His artwork has garnered international recognition and praise both in his lifetime and posthumously.
  He has also been recognized as a significant Middle Eastern cultural pioneer for his role in the "establishment of the foundations of the Plastic arts movement" in the Levant and for mentoring many important Arab artists.
context_section_description: After returning to Syria in 1937 he taught art at the al-Mamoun (Tajhis al Oula) in Aleppo and also maintained a vibrant studio which also grew to be an intellectual hub. He taught periodic academy-style classes at his atelier, and organized and held gallery exhibitions with other Aleppine artists. There, he also hosted salons that attracted many contemporary philosophers and political thinkers. His work from that period included sculpture, oil painting, and photography.
  As an art professor, he mentored future artists such as Fathi Kabbawah, Fateh Moudarres, Louay Kayyali, Ghaleb Salem, and Taleb Yazji; al-Hariri and his protégés are considered pioneers of the Nahda, the Levant's contemporary cultural and arts renaissance. According to Fateh Moudarres, whose surrealist work has earned international recognition, Al-Hariri was an influential mentor who nurtured Moudarres's formal technique and artistic style as well as enriched Moudarre's worldview:
  Wahbi Al-Hariri taught me elegance in drawing, how you should look at things with respect and pursue them accordingly, and the exact order of the universe. Indeed, it was a great opportunity, for I was taught at the hands of expert professors.
  In addition to teaching and practicing art in Aleppo, al-Hariri also became actively engaged in archeology and was "appointed Inspector General of Historic Monuments and Sites." One of his early victories, as chronicled by French archaeologist and assyriologist Raymond-Jacques Tournay, O.P., was the retrieval of the stele of Tukulti-Ninurta II.
  According to Amer Moubayyed, an Aleppo historian, Wahbi al-Hariri:
  ...preserved important archaeological sites throughout the country; he was not only a successful artist and professor, but was also a patriot ... and a great artist who contributed to the renaissance of Arab art and was a great influence on many of his students ...in 1940 he undertook the carving of the commemorative medallion of Dr. Reda Said, the founder of the Damascus University Faculties—which still prominently occupies the [wall above the] central landing of the grand staircase ... and in 1946 he directed the archaeological missions at Tel Mari and Ra's Shamra. As the books on concerning Ebla indicate, this distinguished artist also directed the preservation of that archaeological site.
  Wahbi al-Hariri was an outspoken critic of the French occupation of Syria and "would often demonstrate against the French such that in March 1941 he was arrested by the French colonial forces and detained for forty days." Undeterred, he maintained his objections and, in retaliation, French colonial forces set fire to his studio destroying much of his paintings and sculptures before a scheduled exhibition of his work.
caption: Al-Hariri in his atelier in Aleppo, Syria, 1938.