Born in 1938 in Amman, then part of the Emirate of Transjordan (later Jordan). His family was of mixed heritage: his mother was Turkish, his father Lebanese. From a very young age, Durra showed passion for drawing. By nine, his father arranged for him to study with George Allief (also spelled Aleef), a former Russian officer in the Tsarist army, who was living in Amman. Allief’s tutoring introduced him to fundamentals: watercolour, oil painting, drawing, and especially perspective.
As a youth, Durra also studied under the Dutch artist William Hallowin, who was living in Amman. Hallowin showed him works of the Dutch masters, introducing a sensitivity to light and shadow, form, and texture that would stay with Durra. 1 In 1954, Durra traveled to Rome to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts, where he undertook formal training, graduating in 1958.
Artistic Awakening & Teaching (Late 1950s-1960s)
Upon his return to Amman in 1958, Durra began teaching history of art and engaging with the emerging art community in Jordan. He taught at the Teachers’ Training College and later helped establish the Fine Arts Section at the Department of Culture and Art in Amman. In 1970, he founded the Jordan Institute of Arts and Music, serving as its director until about 1980.
During the 1960s, Durra also began to expand his artistic style beyond more classical, representational work. He experimented with Cubism, abstraction, and expressionism. These shifts were not sudden breaks but rather a gradual evolution, integrating influence from his studies in Rome, lessons from Dutch light-techniques, and a personal sensibility rooted in Jordanian scenery, faces, and emotions.
Signature Style & Key Themes
Durra’s artwork is often divided into two broad strands: portraiture/figurative work (e.g. local people, Bedouin, clowns) and abstract compositions.
- Portraits & Faces: Durra painted many portraits. Early on they included character studies of peasants, Bedouins, Ammani society figures. Later, a recurring theme was the figure of the clown—not in a frivolous sense, but as a character that often masks deeper emotions, exploring irony, sadness, joy, expression.
- Abstract & Cubist Work: Beginning in the early 1960s, Durra produced abstract compositions, sometimes heavily geometric, sometimes fluid, often with strong attention to light, dynamic movement, texture, and color interplay. He experimented with both monochromatic palettes and vibrant colors. Sometimes layering transparent colour planes, sometimes exploring strong diagonals, texture, and abstraction from form.
Selected Key Works
Some of the works often cited as particularly emblematic of his range:
- Old Salti Woman (1964) — a portrait that became widely known.
- Blue Man Arabe (1966) — showing more expressive color and modern style.
- Cubista Paisaje Urbano (1966) — a cityscape with cubist influence.
- Composition No. 3 (1977) — abstract composition exploring form/color relationships.
- Transparency (1970) — an abstract work held in Barjeel Art Foundation collection.
Institutional Roles & Legacy Projects (1970s-2000s)
Durra’s influence extended beyond his canvases. Alongside painting, teaching, and exhibitions, he served in cultural positions:
- He held posts in the Jordanian cultural bureaucracy, including Director-General of the Department of Culture and Art in Amman (about 1977-1983).
- He also served internationally—for example, in roles with the League of Arab States in Tunis.
- Many solo and group exhibitions both in Jordan and abroad, including in Europe, Russia, Arab capitals, and the United States. His works are in major collections: Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Barjeel Art Foundation, collections in the Vatican, in Japan, universities internationally.
Durra was also recognized by various awards: the Order of the Star of Jordan, gold medals from Italian cultural institutions, among others.
Later Years & Final Reflections
In his later work, Durra continued to oscillate between abstraction and figuration. He pushed more deeply into abstract works with texture and large canvases, exploring color, transparency, and form in bold ways. Even into his older age, he remained active, painting, exhibiting, mentoring.
Mohanna Durra passed away on 24 January 2021 in Amman. His legacy continues through his art (in public collections and private), through the students he taught, and through his role in creating Jordan’s institutional art infrastructure. He remains widely considered a founding father of modern art in Jordan.
Cultural and Historical Context
To fully appreciate Durra’s life and art, here are some contextual points:
- Jordan in the mid-20th century was a place where formal visual arts were only beginning to develop institutional support. Early art was often representational, sometimes decorative, often tied to local culture, folk art, or traditional motifs. Durra’s early studies (with Allief, etc.) reflect that tradition.
- Exposure to European modernism—Cubism, abstraction, expressionism—was still rare in Jordan in early days. Artists like Durra who studied abroad brought back influences and helped establish new visual vocabularies.
- The tension between tradition (portraiture, faces, recognition, local subjects) and modernism (abstraction, experimentation, form over subject) is central in many Arab modern artists. Durra’s work often dialogues with both: recognizable subjects and local character; but also explorations of form, color, light, mood.
Why Mohanna Durra Matters
- He was among the first generation of Jordanian artists with formal art-school training abroad, bringing modern art styles into the Jordanian scene.
- His art bridges emotional resonance (faces, portraits, clowns) with formal experimentation (abstraction, color, texture), which gives it both local and universal appeal.
- He built institutions (art departments, teaching roles) which helped nurture later artists. His impact is not only via works but via education and infrastructure.
- His works are still exhibited, collected, celebrated—not just locally but internationally. His influence is seen in how modern art in Jordan evolved.
Conclusion
Mohanna Durra (1938-2021) stands as a central figure in Jordanian modern art. From a childhood in Amman with early lessons in drawing and perspective, through formal study in Rome, to decades of creation, teaching, public service, and exhibition, he helped shape what artistic modernism could look like in Jordan. His portraits—of local people, Bedouins, clowns—as well as his abstract pieces, exemplify a commitment to express human emotion, light, color, and form in ways that both respect tradition and push boundaries. His work remains a bridge between the past and the future of art in his country—and beyond.
Reliable Sources
- Mathaf Encyclopedia of Modern Art and the Modern World: “Mohanna Durra” Mathaf Encyclopedia
- Dalloul Art Foundation: Mohanna Durra profile Dalloul Art Foundation
- Barjeel Art Foundation: “Transparency (1970)” and related artist profile Barjeel Art Foundation
- “Mohanna Durra in Retrospect”, artmejo artmejo
