Remembering Buthayna Ali: Syrian artist leaves lasting legacy on the creative scene she helped transform

University of Damascus professor was behind a number of powerful works and exhibitions

Syrian artist Buthayna Ali, who has died at the age of 51, launched Madad Art Foundation in 2023. Photo: Hasan Belal

Syria’s tightly woven art community is in mourning as it bids farewell to Buthayna Ali, an artistic powerhouse who redefined the country’s creative landscape.

Her death at the age of 51 was announced by the Madad Art Foundation, founded by Ali, in an Instagram post in the early hours of October 18.

“With hearts filled with sorrow and acceptance, we mourn the mother, sister, teacher and pioneer artist, Dr Buthayna Ali, founder and chairperson of the board of trustees of the Madad Art Foundation,” the statement reads. “Our beloved departed leaves an indelible mark on our lives and the artistic world.”

In response to her death, the University of Damascus's faculty of fine arts and the ministry of culture have published obituaries highlighting her significant role in shaping the Syrian art scene.

Ali died following an undisclosed illness. She dedicated years to Syria’s growing cultural scene amid challenging times, inspiring a wave of emerging talent. Ali's legacy includes a celebrated body of creative work in the visual arts, as well as the Madad Art Foundation, which she launched in 2023, and 23 years spent working as a professor of fine arts at the University of Damascus.

One of her main aims was to make Syrian art accessible in public spaces by uplifting new talents. That resulted in Ali publicly presenting works that were previously absent from the country. One example is the 2022 open-air exhibition titled Once upon a time, a window, which was conceptualised by Ali and curated by 16 students from the university, featuring 15,000 ceramic white doves, displayed in various shapes and forms in the narrow streets of Bab Sharqi in old Damascus.

“I have so much faith in this current crop of creatives and I’m increasingly confident that they will build the country again in their unique way,” Ali said at the time. “The last exhibition I did in Syria was in 2006. I had the idea in 2010 and ordered the doves before the war, but we had to stop.”

Her death has shocked the Syrian art community and tributes have been pouring in. Syrian artist Sara Shamma, a trailblazer in her own right, told The National: “Buthayna was a close friend, more like a sister in fact. Her absence will leave a huge void for me and so many others. She renewed and created a growth in the Syrian art sphere. Newer generations must continue what she started. She presented something new in her work. Her fine art was something different and fresh. She did so many installations.

“We are going to miss her. Within years she would have taken the Syrian art scene to pastures unknown. We have to stick by that memory and vision. To go to an important place, we must preserve what she made and continue her journey, as artists, students and individuals.”

One of Ali’s best-known initial installations was We in 2006, which featured several children’s swings suspended in a room. Spotlights illuminated each, highlighting specific words taken from a survey of people who were asked what words describe the meaning of life.

She described the installation as “war versus peace, love versus hate, we are here and there, we are alive, we are humans”.

Ali was a strong figure promoting Syrian feminism. One of her powerful solo exhibitions, Don't Listen! She's Only a Woman! (2010), featured two large steel lockers placed in a hammam. Inside each unit, there were bags containing personal items belonging to different women as a female gym locker. Her artist statement read: “I am a Syrian female artist. This is my everlasting statement.”

Rising Syrian artist Majd Henawi, who was tutored by Ali, told The National, “Buthayna Ali did not just speak art, her message was far more widespread, for love, peace, and togetherness, as artists it was Buthayna that joined us all together.”

Exhibitions such as The Cirque in 2023 and Written Eye in 2024 both drew significant public crowds and increased Madad Art Foundation's popularity in addition to Ali’s reputation for thinking out of the box. Through the foundation's exhibitions, hundreds of artists have been given a platform to showcase their works.

Dalaa Jalanbo, an emerging artist and masters student at University of Damascus, participated in Ali's group exhibition, The Cirque, with an installation called Blooming. Jalanbo told The National: “The sun has departed. After Dr Buthayna, there is no more light. She pushed me to pursue art. She taught us to love our profession, our art, ourselves, her faith in the Syrian woman. As a female Syrian artist, she inspired this generation of Syrian females. I was lucky to have worked with her.

“Indeed, she didn't have children. She had hundreds of children. All our work is for her now, to make her proud. Her message to all of us was to work and express and create, and we will do that for her.”

Echoing the point, Henawi said: “She was a mother in every way, through her work. She didn’t call us her students, she called us her children. It’s a painful loss for the country and for everyone who knew her. I hope she’ll always be proud. She always created a love for the country and we have to continue her message.”

Leading curator Nour Salman, who runs Art Vision gallery in Damascus, was familiar with Ali and her work. “She’s a big loss for us, for Syria,” Salman said. “She was a role model, giving her students the space to think and be real artists. That's a message they will carry. Madad Art Foundation is a hugely important community for Syrian art and everyone will remember her by the work she did. Her legacy will be with us: the exhibitions, the ideas, everything she showed us.”

The last exhibition managed by the late creative was Watermark, which was held this month in the garden of the National Museum of Damascus and organised by Madad Art Foundation and finished on the day she passed away.