Abdullatif Al Smoudi: The Creative Artist By Dr. Abdul Karim Al Sayyed Needless to present him as an artist, today I am writing on the subject of Abdullatif Al Smoudi, as a man and a great friend. Abdullatif Al Smoudi graduated with honors from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Syria. Then he worked in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. And after a short period, he moved to the UAE for personal reasons. He settled down in Sharjah where he worked in providing art guidance to the Ministry of Interior in the mid-seventies of the last century. I met Al Smoudi shortly after his arrival to the UAE and it was not long until we built a strong relationship. Not only is he an outstanding, fine artist, but he is also a good, generous person who has a tremendous amount of knowledge in cultural matters, not to mention his devotion to his art When he spoke of theatre, or of a novel or literature in general, you would mistake him for a literary man. He used to write modern poetry and has a large repertoire of prose thoughts. He published many of these poems and thoughts in local and Arab newspapers and magazines, which earned the admiration of all. After quitting his job at the Ministry of Interior, he moved to the Department of Culture and Information in Sharjah. He was bubbling with energy while performing all the activities of the department, whether in terms of organization or participation in the activities through his artworks. Here, I would like to point out his outstanding participation, along with Mr. Ahmed Hayluz, in the Child Festival organized by the Department of Culture and Information in Sharjah, through the design of carnival cars participating in the festival. He was also generous in providing services to his friends and sharing his knowledge with them. He had a library, which contained a large number of valuable books and sources of knowledge in all fields. This library was open to all those who visited him in his workshop, who were able to borrow the books they want right away. But no one, including myself, would return what they have borrowed. One day he was even surprised to learn that he lost more than half of the books. So he decided to jot down the name of whoever borrows a book, as well as the name of the book on a paper to be hung on the door of the library. But, unfortunately nothing has really changed. Also, he used to travel to Damascus in his car (that he used to call “haberdashery”) and return with his car full of books and magazines published there during that period. He also used to distribute these books and magazines among his friends free of charge. I recall that I obtained all the issues of “Al Hayat Al Tashkiliya”. Sometimes, he could only receive one copy of an important book. So he used to photocopy the book at his own expense and distribute it to us. I also received a wide collection of videos on the fine art movement in Syria and its pioneers. He copied them and distributed them to us for free. And, he never asked us to come to receive them, but he always delivered them to us personally. May God’s mercy be upon my dear loyal friend Abdullatif, who is a great loss to us all.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 12:47:00 +0000
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