Born in Aleppo, Syria in 1934, Kayyali studied decoration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome from 1956-61. He served as a teacher in Syria High
School before becoming a professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at Damascus University. The first exhibition of his paintings was held in his hometown
of Aleppo in 1952. In 1967 his controversial exhibition “fi Sabil al-Qadiyyah” (for the Sake of The [Arab] Cause) including thirty black and white works
in charcoal, criticized by many artists and journalists as being very pessimistic. After Israel’s victory in the Six-Day war and the occupation of Arab
territories, Kayyali went into such a deep depression that he destroyed all the works from the show. He died in 1978, alleged to have committed
suicide. Many of his works are now kept at the National Museum of Damascus and in private collections across the Arab world. Kayyali’s canvases
depict popular subjects in a style that is a mixture of both Realism and Expressionism.