The exhibition Modernism and Iraq is meant to create a forum for exploring and contesting no-

tions of Modernism as it is most commonly defined in Western art-historical, teleological

thought. Dating from the 1940S to the present, the exhibited works provide a point of departure
for analysis and discussion of intellectual negotiations of sociopolitical and cultural changes
in Iraq. Cultural identity constructions, negotiations, contestations, and displacements are
among the areas being investigated here. The works in the exhibition are by key Iraqi artists and
represent valuable contributions to the formation of a discourse of modern art in Iraq.
My intention in this essay is not to argue for the validity of Modernism in Iraq or to give a
full historical narrative of its development, but to open a new discourse for viewing it in the
context of formation and negotiation by its practitioners. While I remain convinced that
Modernity as generally accepted today-a superior Western construct that enforces a binary of
"self' and "other"-should be reevaluated and examined within the paradigms of imperialism
and colonialism, I equally reject notions of alternative (never equal) modernities, which rein-
force exclusion and separation. Most problematic is leaving the question ofModernityunre-
solved, which further deprives the "other" from a Postmodernity predicated fully on an
achievement of Modernity in the Western sense. Instead, we need to evaluate the twentieth
centUlYin Iraq holistically, within its own sociopolitical frame of references.
Many Western critics perceive Modern.ism in the Arab world as a necessary evil. They see it,
on one hand, as an unnatural and alien act of violence that severed ties with local histOly and
tradition and, on the other, as an indispensable means of "civilizing" the Arabs. Nevertheless,
the consensus has been that Arabs have not been able to attain Modernism, which is consid-
ered to be the cause of their incompatibility with the West. Similarly, when modem art in Iraq
is discussed in the literature of art cliticism, it is seen as a sudden occurrence without roots.
Among Iraqi artists and intellectuals today there are two contrasting views. One group
claims continuity with the histOly ofIraqi art, while the other considers modem Iraqi art to be
a new entity, unrelated to Iraq's artistic traditions. Significantly, the second position is a later
FIG.2 Jawad Salim, Bagdadiat, 1956. Mixed media on hardboard, 36'/8 x 64% FIG.3 Equestrian statue of General
in. Collection ofQfltar Foundation, Arab Museum of Modern Art Maude, 1923. Formerly Baghdad;
destroyed in 1958

development and not a factor in the discourse that surrounded the beginnings of modern art in
Iraq. Iraqi artists of the early and mid twentieth century perceived the notion of Moden1.ity as a
"progressive human inclination" and not a specific period development. 1
They understood that
moden1. art in Europe represented a rupture in its histOly of art and announced a new approach
to life, but they did not believe that a radical discontinuity was necessarily the only way to ne-
gotiate Modernity. This attitude is clearly expressed by two ofIraq's most influential artists in
the modern age, J awad Salim and Shakir Hassan Al Said, the co-founders of] ama't Baghdad lil
Fan al-Hadith, the Baghdad Group of Modern Art.
Salim (see fig. 2) emphasized continuity: "Art in Mesopotamia has always been like its peo-
ple, who have been the product of the land and the climate. Neither ever reached dissolution
or perfection; technical perfection to him [the Mesopotamian artist] limits self-expression. The
work of ancient Iraqi artists was rough but rich with innovations. It possessed dynamic and dar-
ing qualities that would not be realized by technical precision."2 His own style, as Salim de-
scribed it-"lines, forms, and softly muted colors"-had its roots in the art of his ancestors going
back to 2000 BCE.3His belief in the possibility of continuity based on selective appropriation
and interpretation ofhistOlywas part of the ideals of the Baghdad Group of Modern Art. Nev- 25

ertheless, Salim considered himself a man of his age and found no conflict between being a
Modernist and being an Iraqi, with all the history that identity carries. "To the moderns, I am an
Iraqi but I am also a man of the twentieth centUlY," he said. "I could wear an abbayyah but it
wouldn't make me an Abassid, would it?"4
While also searching for continuity, Al Said, however, believed that the year 1922marked
the official interest of the British in Iraq's "history of cultural thought,"S that Modernism as
defined by the West was ushered in at that time. He cites two reasons for this change. The first
was the Suq Ukadh Festival of Poetry, which was inaugurated in a temporary structure erected
in the square where the Iraqi National Museum stands today. Included in the festival was an ex-
hibition of fine arts and crafts. Gertrude Bell, the British intelligence officer who played an in-
strumental role in the establishment ofIraq as a state and the founding of the Iraqi National
Museum, described the festival as "a tent full of pictures by local artists, quite incredibly bad.
The subjects chosen were mostly allegoric representing the spirit of the Iraqi, in various forms
of dislocation, rising from ashes where, if she looks like that, it would be more discreet of her to
remain. Ijudge that it will be some time before we produce our Michael Angelo.u6 The interest
of the colonial British in Iraq's cultural scene was political, but Miss Bell's subsequent remarks
disregarded any possibility of art-historical continuity or progressive development. And it was
she who set the standard for the West's evaluation of modern art in Iraq.
The second reason, Al Said suggested, was the commissioning of a statue of the British gen-
eral Frederick Stanley Maude, commemorating his victOly against the Ottomans and declaring
him the liberator ofIraq. The statue, unveiled on 4 Decemberl923,7 was the first public monu-
ment to be erected in the city of Baghdad (fig.3).The art scene in Iraq would remain quiet for
about a decade, until the year 1932,which Al Said designated as an important turning point for
the arts toward professionalism, marked by the art wing in the Iraqi Industrial and Agricultural
Exhibition, inaugurated by King Faisal 1.
With this background in mind, the artist Nouri al Rawi (see p. 54) sums up the beginnings of
modern Iraqi art:
 When Baghdad lived in the shadows of the Ottomans, no one knew what a paint tube was,
or even colored pencils, with which [Baghdad's] students play today. Nevertheless, this was
not an absolute, as there were among the Iraqi officers [trained in Istanbul at military acade-
mies] those who had learned painting and brought this hobby and its colors back to Bagh-
dad. In that foggy period, however, the style of the famous Baghdad School [the thirteenth-
century Abbasid school of painting] had vanished without a trace, except for what a re-
searcher might find in books and manuscripts that had made their way to the libraries of
London, Paris, and Berlin. The full story was not known to our generation of artists but no
one wanted to write it. We learned the names of a few Beik [a title of esteem], found as signa-
tures on canvases oflandscapes, pictures of nature, stilllifes, and portraits, [indicating] that
the artists had abandoned the traditional style and painted as [in] the West. ... [But] their
names were only a memory. What reached us were the classical canvases of Abd al Qadir al
Rassam [1882-1952],which attested to his achievements.s

Al Rawi's statement not only speaks of rupture but also points to an absence of an art-histor-
ical record that could contextualize later artistic experiments. This statement became a point of
departure for subsequent scholarship on modern Iraqi art. Nevertheless, today the discourse on
the discontinuity and foreignness of modern art is largely centered on the novelty of easel paint-
ing in local Iraqi tradition and the Western education ofIraqi artists (who then mimicked the
modem styles they learned). This approach completely disregards historical, cultural, and tech-
nological exchanges among the different peoples of the world. The fact is that Modernism and
easel painting would have found their way to Iraq,just as every new invention by a more indus-
trialized society did-a reversal of the time when Baghdad, the glorious Abbasid capital, was the
center of new technologies that were disseminated around the world. What is important is how
this new technology was processed, not how it was obtained or its foreignness.
I argue instead that Iraqi artists who were studying in European academies during the first
half of the twentieth century were participants in the discourse of modem Western art rather
than imitators of Modernism. The poet Fadhil al Azzawi attributes Iraq's engagement in Mod-
ernism to a "historic confluence of global and local conditions. It was a confluence that would be
very difficult to locate in any other Arab counny."9 When reading statements advanced by Iraqi
artists from the 1940Sto the 1960s and the few memoirs they left behind, one is immediately
struck by the distinct comfort they felt in moving across and within various cultures. Operating 27
within truly global parameters, artists aimed at bridging the gap between self and other. Baghdad
was a cosmopolitan city. Reading Hegel and listening to Puccini, Iraqi intellectuals equally en-
joyed listening to Iraqi maqam and Urn Kulthum and reading Taha Hussein. Indeed, it is narrow-
minded to dismiss modern Iraqi art as a Eurocentric, Weste1TI imitation and to ask it to display
its "Iraqiness" when American, English, or French art is accepted as pure and universal.
Today, art in Iraq, as in the rest of the Arab region, is faced with two crippling challenges. On
the one hand, traditional art forms-painting and sculpture-are considered backward and are
dismissed by Westen1 curators. On the other, diaspora artists are accepted as global artists most-
lywhen they employ digital and new media techniques. There is, however, a wide gap, even re-
sentment, between diaspora artists and established artists who remained in the counny. Work
produced by Iraqi artists, both those living inside and outside the counny, is inevitably com-
pared to that by Western artists as a measure of its worth. Experimental art in Iraq, although en-
gaged with the international intellectual milieu, is considered imitative and unoriginal by East
and West alike. Subsequently, cliched tourist scenery or Orientalistworks are encouraged, and
cheaply bought, by the West. Within Iraq the discrepancy between the two productions has in-
hibited the development of serious artistic standards. Particularly after 2003, when Iraqi art en-
tered the politico-cultural discourse sUlTounding the invasion, all art produced by Iraqis is cele-
brated as a sign of civility and presented to the world irrespective of its artistic merit.

In the twentieth centUlY, art has been explicitly and implicitly connected to the rhetoric of na-
tional identity. For any nation, art facilitates and shapes new spaces within which new identi-
ties are negotiated and contested, and new and renewed visual cultural icons are formed. In the
Arab world, Iraq included, politics have played a major role in determining the directions for
the progression of art.]awad Salim, best known for his Monument of Freedom (fig. 1), believed
that Iraqi art after the 1958 revolution, which overthrew the monarchy and formed the Republic
ofIraq, was an "explosive continuation" of the past insofar as it represented an art-historical
COntinuation charged with creative experiments.
28 Iraqi writers in discussing the developmen t of modern Iraqi art have always situated it with-
in a discourse on nationhood. ModenI Iraqi artists perceived theirjourney as discovering both
the self and nationality while connecting the two. Silvia Naef, a noted Geneva-based scholar of
Islam and Islamic art and the first to publish on modern Arab art, argues that, unlike artists in
Lebanon and Egypt, Iraqi artists during the twentieth centmy did not face an identity crisis.1O
They clung from the beginning to deep roots of Arabism and were the least influenced by the
West. National thought, infused with Arabism and socialist ideology, was dominant and was
the artists' most influential motivation for creativity.
As a basic historical framework, one that I shall follow and expand on here, Neafloosely
identifies four broad and overlapping pe1iods of development in twentieth-centmy Iraqi art.
The first period starts in the late nineteenth centmy and extends to World War 1. Very little is
known about art in Iraq during the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, works of this period
seem to have continued many of the local traditions, with little innovation. An exception is the
ll
work of the calligrapher Niazi Mawlawi, who also painted miniatures in watercolor and oil. Al
Said has noted a confluence and synthesis in Mawlawi's work between text, ornamentation, and
12
painting that resulted in something akin to Op Art.
Paralleling the turbulence of the political milieu before the 1958revolution, the second
phase was a period of change and growth, characterized by the strength of artists groups. Two
of the most significant early accomplishments were the localization of the techniques and con-
cepts of modern art and the initiation of an interest in art as a proD ssional vocation. This im-
portant phase can be further divided into two parts. The 1930Sand 1940Swas a period of sim-
plicity and adaptation, as can be seen in the paintings of Abd al Qftdir al Rassam (p. 42),Atta
Sabri (fig.4), Khalid al]adir (for a later example of his work, see fig. 5),and Hafidh al Droubi (p.
51).The decade of the 1950Swas one of maturity.
The Pioneers is the name given to artists working in the 1940Sand 1950S.They constituted
the first generation of professional and established artists in the modern sense, and their con-
tribution to the development of modern Iraqi art cannot be overstated. They were instrumental
in setting the standards and establishing the foundations for the various experiments and de-
v lopments that followed. Bygoing back to the roots of modem art with its emphasis on ab-
straction and two-dimensionality, Iraqi artists found approaches that were indigenous to their 29
own culture. They were thus able to absorb and understand modernism epistemologically,
intuitively, and intellectually, as opposed to borrowing or learning a European style. Moreover,
the conscious desire of the Pioneers to take part in building the new nation as a coherent whole
resulted in the creation of an iconography that continues to be recognized as distinctly Iraqi, in
both form and content. Their visual language, in accordance with the philosophy and spirit of
modernity and the concept of the nation-state, was based on the selection and synthesis of
what they believed constituted the "Iraqiness" of the various and multiple factions of society,
which were then merged into a single identity representative of a pluralistic whole. Theirs was
an age of optimism and seemingly endless possibilities.
The Pioneers were followed by a third phase, an intense period of search and experimenta-
tion during the 1960s and 1970S.The artists known as the 1960s generation were taught by the Pio-

FIG. 4 Atta Sabri, Portrait of n Girl, 1944. Oil on FIG.5 Khalid ai-Jacler, Grieved Woman, 1976. Oil on canvas, 16'/4 x
canvas, 21 % X 18% in. Collection of the Qptar 19 in. Collection oftbe Qptar Foundation, Arab Museum of
Foundation, Arab Museum of Modem Art MociemAn
neers and thus nourished by the same principles that focused on issues of identity and aesthetic
experimentation. Their work was characterized by tumultuous change. Five of the artists present-
ed in this exhibition were founding members of al-Ru'yya al-]adidah, the New Vision Group: Dia
Azzawi, Mohammed Muhraldin, Rafa al Nasiri, Saleh al]umaie, and Ismail Fattah (see pp. 48,74,
79,83; 60; 88; 57;47).This gathering of artists was united on intellectual and cultural, rather than
stylistic, grounds.'3 They came together following the defeat of the Arabs in the 1967Arab-Israeli
war and were thus influenced by the same sentiments of denial and defiance expressed by all
Arab peoples. The New Vision artists were also affected by the fever of pan-Arabism and the de-
sire for Arab unity. They expressed manifest differences with other artists of the 1960s and those
who preceded them, as determined by turbulent political realities. Further, the Iraqi artists of the
1960s were an important link between the Pioneers and the generations that followed.
In the fourth phase of Modernism we see the lise of a revolutionalY and ideological trend.
Beginning around 1968,art reflects intense Arabism and anti-imperialism; during the 1980s na-
tionalism was to become even stronger. Following the revolution of 1958,state-sponsored scholar-
ships in the arts shifted from sending students to Western Europe to countries in the Socialist
block. Poster art became popular and a strong interest in printmaking techniques emerged. This
peliod is characterized by direct state involvement and by exhibitions organized by the Baath
Party. The responsibility of the artist shifted from educating the public and shaping public taste to
engaging with state policy and expressing people's needs. The 1970Swas also a decade of height-
ened inter-Arab activities including state-organized festivals, like al-Wassiti festival in Iraq, which
facilitated the launch of the Union of Arab Plastic Artists and the Arab Biennial. Nevertheless, the
increased ideological bent and state control does not necessarily support the popular rhetoric that
most art of the 1980s is simply Baathist propaganda art. Admittedly, some of it was. But a perceived
weakening in the level of free expelimentation in the arts can be attributed in large part to the gen-
erally repressive mood, not to direct intervention by the government. This period, however, has
not received in-depth study and requires reevaluation and closer analyses of the works produced.
Also much in need of investigation are two additional phases that followed the 1980s.
Significantly, there was no apparent transi tion in Iraqi art between Modernism and Postmod-
ernism, such as occurred in the West. Rather, a smooth progression took place, following
distinctly different dynamics, which cannot be situated within the Western discourse of Post- 31
modernism. The fifth period was one of increasing isolation and introspection during the eco-
nomic sanctions of the 1990S.With all travel and study abroad suspended, a generation ofIraqi
artists was trained and nurtured largely in seclusion from the developments taking place in the
rest of the world. An internal dialogue resulted in a new dYIlamic that reinvigorated artists' rela-
tion to Iraq's histOly. It also instigated a wave of migration of artists, particularly to neighboring
Jordan. Many of the younger artists left Iraq temporarily in search of better opportunities, with
some resettling in Europe. Conversely, a new art market in the form of private art galleries de-
veloped in Baghdad as the state's control loosened.
The sixth phase, which followed the U.S.-led invasion of2003, has been marked by mass
displacement of artists and dislocation ofIraq's art center. Not only did state patronage vanish
along with state control, but the infrastructure of the art world in Iraq was completely shat-
tered. Most art galleries closed, and artists found it increasingly difficult to produce any work,
given the security conditions and the lack of support. Large numbers ofIraqi artists started new
art communities inJordan and Syria while awaiting permanent resettlement to different parts
of the world. The end of isolation brought a new interaction with a decidedly hegemonic and
technologically advanced United States.
A much broader interest in Iraqi art arose as the world recognized the existence of contem-
poraly Iraqi artists. This interest, however, is very conditioned by the politics of a victimized
people or a new "liberated" nation. Abroad, two types ofIraqi art exhibitions emerged, parallel-
ing the two opposing trends in Iraqi art today. Some well-meaning nonprofit organizations or-
ganized exhibitions and sales of art by artists working inside Iraq, but indiscriminately accept-
ed anyone claiming to be an artist. At the same time, official bodies in various countries organ-
ized exhibitions ofIraqi art-also arbitrarily chosen-in celebration ofIraqi creativity or as a
means of showing Iraq's "humane" face. In both cases, Iraqi art is exploited by politics and the
media but remains excluded from the global art scene. Only recently, after a new generation of
Iraqi artists who settled and trained in the West reached artistic maturity, did the work of sever-
al of them, such as Adel Abidin (p. 81)and Wafaa Bilal, provoke the attention of the main-
stream art establishment and the media in the West. Politics again is the main motivation for
such interest, as this work not only presents commentalY on the state ofIraq but also the
artists' comfort in using the new-media language of "globalized"art.

Identity Constructions and Negotiations

By all measures, the 1950Sis an important decade in Iraq's histOly. Particularly in view ofBagh-
dad's utter destruction today, both physically and metaphorically, the period stands out,
specifically for the visual arts. The work of the 1950Spresents the maturity ofIraqi visual experi-
ments, which had started in the 1940S.It also highlights the stark difference in thought and ap-
proach between the period around midcentury and that of the end of the century. A compari-
son between two cultural publications, Modern Thought, published in the late 1940S,and al-Was-
siti, published in the 1990S,is velY telling of the intellectual regression that Iraq has experienced
in the last two decades. Significantly, the titles of these two magazines encapsulate the philo-
sophical forces of their times: Modern Thought with its thrust for progress looks fOlvvard,while
al-Wassiti (its name a reference to the Abassid artist Yahya al-Wassiti) with its nostalgic lamenta-
tion looks backward.
Juxtaposing covers of the two publications further emphasizes the point (figs. 6-7). Modern
Thought, launched and edited by the artistJameel Hamoudi, covered all aspects of international
contemporalY arts, both visual and literary. The image on the cover of the fourth issue (undated,
but published aften948) is by Iraq's most famous artist,]awad Salim. It is a sketch of the statue,
commissioned by the Baghdad Municipality, that Salim designed and built for the Directorate of
Public Transportations. Salim's intention was to "convey the concept of transportation through
his design which clearly exhibits elements of the Assyrian tradition."14 According to the Clitique,
probably written by Hamoudi himself, the masculine hun1.an form signifies strength and balance.
The wing signifies speed, while the Assyrian-looking wheel suggests its origin in Mesopotamia.
Thus, the statue, combining sp ed, power, fOlvvardmotion, and the histOlY of transportation, em-
bodies Salim's "efforts to construct a modern Spilit in the renewal of the Iraqi taste."15
AI-Wassiti also covered the arts. It was published by Da'irat al-Funun, at the Minisny ofCul-
ture and Information, and edited by Sa'ad ai-Kassab, a well-known artist who was also the direc-
tor of the Saddam Center for the Arts. The narrower scope of topics covered in the issue from
February 1996 (first issue from its fourth year of publication) makes evident the effects of the 33
sanctions. On the cover is a photograph ofJawad Salim himself in front of two of his works.
The issue saluted Salim as the pioneer ofIraqi visual arts.
The subjects of works of art created before the 1950S directly appealed to Iraqis: images of the
desert by Faiq Hassan, working people and peasants by Jawad Salim (fig. 8), and nature and por-
traits in Atta Sabri's work (fig.4). Nevertheless, in the absence of a tradition of representation,
Iraqis were shocked to see familiar aspects of their lives on canvas. At the same time, artists awak-
ened to realize that they were still following nineteenth-centmy European styles. Ironically, the

,..~.:.u..w:.:..
~JIJ!<"",,I ~\l,J1u,,:,L:.iJ\ •
,",

J~~ ~1~1.i..lljJJlJJ~I~1 •
••.•.•••
~~J;lJ ~I..,.,Yl?9J•
,:,,"-:Ul~ J~Jf"'"",}Il""'""I¥ •
JgUI "..dl
4JJIJLo ••.1.:..tl u.,l.ll,~y."~.r,o.~,JI
t~.LII~t.....
• ~IJIOi.WI
JJWI~~L...:':' .,....~~~,U..

FIG. 6 COy r, AI-Fikr al-Hadith: Mnjalla Shnhriya iii
Fan wa al-Thnqafah ai-Hum (Modem Thought:
Monthly Joumal for the Free Arts and Culture),
distributed by al-Maktabah al-Asriyah fi Baghdad,
issue 4, 1styear, ca. 1949.Courtesy Nada Shabollt
FIG. 7 Cover, AI-Wassiti, issue 1,4th year (Da'irat al-
Funun, Ministry of Culture and Information),
February 1996.Courtesy Nada Shabout
 awakening came to three or four Iraqi artists from Polish
artists who had sought refuge in Baghdad during World War
II and participated in the exhibition of the Society ofFriends
of Art in 1941.16Their work motivated the Iraqi artists to rebel
against the academic style; more importantly, it helped to
lead them to artistic matmity. The irony is that artists like
J awad Salim and Shakir Hassan Al Said had spent years
studying art in European cities such as Paris, where presum-
ably they were exposed to the various modern experiments
taking place. Perhaps they had been ove1whelmed by the his-
" tory of art in Europe, orperhaps the confidence of physically
and emotionally being back in their familiar sunoundings
allowed them to question traditional approaches.
Of the 1940SSalim wrote: "During these four years
FIG. 8 Jawad Salim, Needlewoman, [refening to World War IIJ, Paris and Europe stopped pro-
undated. Mixed media 011 paper, 25% x ducing beautiful work but Baghdad did not. It worked slow-
18'/8 in. Collection of the Qf\tar Founda-
ly and quietly. It was poor and uneducated but it worked
tion, Arab Museum of Modern Art
hard during these four to five years. The first art institute
7
was established [in 1940J,1 as well as the first official atelier and the first strong movement in
the theater and music. They [artistsJ were few who faced challenges from all sides, from their
creative work to preparing the public to appreciate and understand art."18
The 1950Sthus represent the period of maturity for Iraqi art. Independence from the British
and the formation of the Iraqi nation allowed artists the freedom to create a new art tradition.
After long years of cultural stagnation and discontinuity, Iraqi artists felt the need to invent a
tradition that expressed the countly's new aspirations. Thus, during the 1950S,visual artists em-
barked on the task of constructing and performing a modern Iraqi culture. The significance of
the 1950Sgeneration, however, extends beyond the decade itself. These artists came to be con-
sidered the nucleus of modern Iraqi art, having initiated a new tradition and way of thinking as
well as establishing new boundalies for Iraq's visual development.
 ]abra Ibrahim]abra (1919-1994), Iraq's preeminent art critic, wrote that "from the beginnings 35
of the 1950S, Iraqi art achieved a unique status in a velY challenging field." 19 While acknowledg-
ing the numerous creative directions into which European art was continuously heading and
the strong relation between its formal and technological developments,]abra placed Iraqi art
on the same level as that of any developed counny on the basis of the essential relations be-
tween an individual and his/her creativity and the materiality of the art work. This, he pointed
out, was no simple task given what he described as Iraq's long centuries of "dark ages." More-
over,]abra noted that, aside from providing young artists with art scholarships to study abroad,
Iraq as a state officially began to acknowledge and value its artists only during the 1950S, when it
organized the first comprehensive exhibition ofIraqi art at aI-Mansur Club in February 1956.
He argued that the sweeping success of the exhibition, during which the government bestowed
awards for excellence, motivated the establishment of the Association ofIraqi Artists.
When the Ministry of Culture and COlnmunications was formed after the 1958 revolution,
first under the name Minisny of Guidance, artists and their exhibitions became part of its re-
sponsibilities. Collaborations between the Ministry and the Association facilitated low-cost ex-
hibitions for artists. At the same time, the Minisny focused on building the collection of the
Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, which it operated, guaranteeing through this patronage
financial support for artists, a necessity given that a private art market did not exist in Iraq.
The Minisny also played a role in bridging the gap between artists and the people.]awad
Salim, in a speech delivered at the opening of the first exhibition of his Baghdad Modern Art
Group, in April 1951, stated that ajournalist of his acquaintance had called him and his col-
leagues "enemies of the people."20 Salim forgave him, however, as he knew that at least ninety-
seven percent of the people would no doubt oppose what members of the group were trying to
express and the modern styles that they used. Nevertheless, he anticipated that a time would
come when the people ofIraq would appreciate and support their artists. The 1951 exhibition in
effect launched a series of debates among artists themselves that, through successive exhibi-
tions, centered on their objectives. The discussion was taken up by students as well, and articles
frequently appeared in Iraqi newspapers. As in other international modern movements, Iraqi
artists articulated their ideas in passionate statements and manifestos.
 During the 1950S,three main and extremely active art groups were formed, each by a noted
artist.21 They embodied the artists' struggles to carve a socially accepted space for their local and
world vision: Societe Primitif (SP)in 1941and renamed al-Ruwad in 1950, led by Faiq Hassan; the
Baghdad Group of Modem Art in 1951,led by Jawad Salim and Shakir Hassa Al Said; and the Im-
pressionists (most of whom experimented with Postimpressionist and Cubist styles) in 1954,
led by Hafidh al Droubi.22 The three groups together consisted of about fifty painters and sculp-
tors who, while sometimes acting collectively, remained very active individually. With the re-
turn of students from abroad and the increasing number of graduates from the Fine Arts Insti-
tute (Ma'had aI-Fun un al-Jamilah) and the Art Academy (Academiyat al-Funun al-Jamilah), art
groups multiplied during the 1960s.
While the artists were revolutionary and ambitious, the Spilit of turath (tradition) remained
constant. Thus, their understanding of"intemational" art was rooted in their notion of "identi-
ty,"which they believed was their only claim for distinc-
tive creativity. This notion in particular connects them di-
rectly to Iraqi society; it also keeps their experiments rele-
vant today. They were not, however, equally successful in
achieving an Iraqi identity through art. For instance, the
two most popular and influential artists in modem Iraq
were Faiq Hassan andJawad Salim. As models for artists
that followed, their works exemplified the anxious search
for form that could express content without contradic-
tion. It is, in fact, this tension between form and content
(ironically always present in Islamic miniatures) that gives
their work its creative rhythm. Al Rawi contends that Has-
san's subdued studies of blunt facial expressions (studies
of physiognomy), which interestingly were dynamically
opposed to his vibrant oil portraits (fig.9),were attempts
FIG. 9 Faig Hassan, Kurd, 1950S. Oil on
canvas. Baghdad, Iragi Museum of Modern to construct new features for the "Iraqi individual." The
Art; present whereabouts unknown notion of certain features as being "Iraqi" in character, as
the scholar and critic Muhsin al-Musawi reminds us, was widespread in Iraqi literature of the 37
1950S.23 Yet the result of Hassan's and Salim's search was manifest in distinct ways. While Hassan
was not as daring stylistically, his work came to embody what could be termed an "Iraqi spirit."
Salim, however, was not satisfied with expressing the spirit but wanted passionately to forge a vo-
cabulmy capable of visually interpreting this spirit.
A number of other artists affected by the fervor of the age contributed to the search, some
directly and others indirectly. A good example is Madiha Omar, whose experiments with Ara-
bic letters became the basis for a theOlY of Arab identity art throughout the Arab world. Anoth-
er example is Ismail al Shaikhly (see p. 65). One of the founders of al-Ruwad group, he was faced
upon his return from France in 1952 with the same dilemma confronting all other Iraqi artists at
the time: attaining a balance between an individualism that incorporated European influences
and a nationalism that shared Arab intellectual, social, and political concerns. Al Shaikhly cites
two specific exhibitions he considered important, one ofIndian art, in 1948, and the other of
Mexican art, in 1950. Both were accessible to 'Third World" artists and, with their emphasis on
national being, had a direct impact on Iraqi artists.24 These exhibitions offered an alternative to
the styles and subjects that they studied in Europe. Of great significance is that Iraqi artists did
not simply imitate what they saw in these exhibitions anymore than they had directly copied
what they had seen in Europe. Instead, they reevaluated the perceived universality of European
moden'l art. They began to see European works as products of change in European societies,
based on events directly related to specific developments-industrial, intellectual, and politi-
cal-events that in turn allowed Europe hegemony over Third World countries. The efforts of
Iraqi artists to create a national art were predicated on visual correspondence to Iraq's realities:
geography, environment, and intellectual histOly. The artists aimed to achieve this without
abandoning what they perceived as being art's most noble covenants: aesthetics and humanity.
Addressing that goal was the specific strength of the Baghdad Group of Modern Art. Byas-
sessing and assimilating various chapters ofIraq's visual heritage, these artists forged a new na-
tional iconography predicated on the rhetoric of national histOly. Their visual experiments
aimed at synthesizing "high" and "low" forms of na tional art. This is evident in works of] awad
Salim, Shakir Hassan Al Said, and others, who intellectualized folk themes into high art. But
38 they sought to achieve more than a historical continuity by appropriating folk and popular cul-
ture. They hoped to reach a broad audience, which they saw as a means of democra tizing visual
production and of ensuring the dissemination of a visual character that was identifiably Iraqi.
Al Shaikhly even argued that artists' work should parallel the economic and social progress
that Iraq was undergoing in the 1950S.To achieve an Iraqi character, he believed art should re-
connect with the daily life of citizens and urban life rather than focusing only on peasants.
A discussion of a major exhibition in Baghdad in 1965by the artist Sadoun Fadhil rev als
the role, and strength, of art criticism in Iraq in the 1960s.25 His review also reveals the way that
art was received by society. For example, Fadhil asserted that the bent toward abstraction was
prominent in the work of all participating artists, and justified it as a natural stylistic progres-
sion. His analysis was based on what h perceived as the maturity of the work and the strength
of the artists in mastering techniques (indeed, he insisted on the masteIY of techniqu s as an
important factor in separating good from bad art).
The experiments by these early twentieth-centUlY Iraqi artists resulted in a visualization of
a modern national culture that even today remains the basis of all new visualizations ofIraq.
Perhaps more significantly, their work aimed at a true globalization that would encompass self
and other, thus shattering the binaly observed in the West, but without losing local and na-
tional distinctions. In the inaugural speech delivered at their first collective exhibition, the
Baghdad Group of Modern Art declared: 'We dream that there is a dream that connects us with
all the beings that simply dream. A dr am we call Baghdad." 26

1] Assim Abd al-Amir, AI-Rasm ai-Iraq: Hadathat Takyeef(Iraqi Painting: Modernity of Adaptability) (Baghdad:
Dar al-Shu'oon alThaqafiyah aI-Amah, 20 4),5.

2] Jawad Salim, as quoted inJabra I.Jabra,Juthur ai-Fan ai-Iraq a/-Hadith (The Roots of Modem Iraqi Art)
(Baghdad: Dar al-Nashr al-Arabiyah, 1986), 5.
 5] Shakir Hassan Ai Said, AI-Fan al-Tashkeeli ai-Iraqi al-Mu'asir (ContempOralj Iraqi Plastic Art) (Baghdad: al-Mu- 39
nadhima' al-Arabiyyah lil Tarbiyyah was al-Thaqaffah wa al-Ulum, 1992).

6] Bell, letter to her father, 26 February 1922, Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) Archive, The Robinson Libral)', Newcas-
tle University, http://www.gerty.ncl.ac.uk/.

7] Bell, letter to her father, 5 December 1923,ibid. The statue was pulled down on 14July 1958.

8] Nouri al Rawi, Ta'amulat fi ai-Fan al Iraqi al Hadith (Contemplation on Modern Iraqi Art) (Baghdad: Muderiat
al Funun wa al-Thaqafa al-Sha'biya, Minisn)' of Guidance, 1962),4.

9] Fadhil al Azzawi, 'The Sixties Generation in Iraq: The Arab Cultural Manifestation of a Worldwide Move-
ment," Fiknm wa Fann (Arts and Thought), (April-July 2008), 65.

10] Silvia Naef, A la recherche d'une modernite arabe: L'evolution des arts plastiques en Egypte, au Liban et en lrak, Arabiyya
no. 13(Geneva: Slatkine, 1996).

n] There is much uncertainty surrounding this artist and his work, including a possible error of merging two
separate people in one person. He is known to have been active around the middle of the nineteenth century.

14]Jameel Hamoudi, ed. AI-Fikr al-Hadith: Majalla Shahriya iii Fan wa al-Thaqafah al-Hura (Monthly Journal for the
Free Arts and Culture) (distributed by al-Maktabah al-Asriyah fi Baghdad), no. 4, 1st year, ca. 1949, 4.

16] There is very little information about the Polish artists, who are always referred to in the writings ofIraqi
artists of the period as the Poles. Naef (A la recherche d'une modernite arabe), however, identified three of them:
Joseph Czapski, Topolski Felix,JesefJarema.

17] In 1952, the Institute of Fine Arts devised a three-year art education program for training art teachers, and in
1957 evening classes were offered for art enthusiasts. The Academy of Fine Arts at Baghdad University was
established in 1967.

18] As quoted in Shakir Hassan Ai Said, Fussul min Tarikh al-Haraka al-Tashkiliyyah fil Iraq (Chapters from the Histo-
ry of the Plastic Art Movement in Iraq), part 1 (Baghdad: Ministry of Culture and Information, Dar al-Hur-
riyah lil Tibaa, 1983),100.

19] Ibid. Also a poet, novelist, translator, and literary critic,Jabra was of Palestinian origin and settled in Iraq af-
ten948.
40 20] Quoted in Khalid ai-Kassab, Khalid ai-Kassab: Thikrayat Faniyah (Khalid ai-Kassab: An Memories), ed. May
Muzaffar (London: Dar al-Hikmah, 2007), 83.

21] Friends 0 f An was the first group to be formed in 1941. They organized three exhibitions: in 1941, 1943, and
the last in 1946. Abd al Qadir al Rassam was an honorary member of the group. They also organized a num-
ber of cultural lectures.

22] Members of the Baghdad Group of Modern Art included in this exhibition are Jawad Salim, Shakir Hassan
Al Said, Khalid al Rahhal, Lorna Salim, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, and Naziha Salim. The Impr ssionists
group consisted mainly of al Droubi's College of Humanities students, among them Dia Azzawi.

24] Ismail al Sheikely, 'The Pioneer Artists," in al-Wassiti, issue 1, year 4 (Da'irat ai-Fun un, Minisny ofCultur
and Information, FebrualY 1996).

25] Sadoun Fadhil, 'The Last Art Season in Baghdad," al-Aamiloun fi al-Naft (Workers in Oil) no. 41 Guly 1965),
8-13·

26] Saad ai-Kassab, "Seasons ofPaintinganc1 Imagination," in al-Wassiti, 10-11. Nine artists participated in the first
exhibition of the Baghdad Group of Modern Art:Jawad Salim (8 paintings), Shakir Hassan Al Said (24 paint-
ings), Lorna Salim (7 paintings), Mohammed Housni (14 paintings), Qahtan ani (3paintings), Nazar AliJaw-
dat (two drawings), Richard Ghanada (4 paintings), Mahmoud Sabri (n paintings), andJabra IbrahimJabra (6
paintings).Jabra IbrahimJabra,Jawad Salim wa Nasb al-Hurriyah (Jawad Salim and the Monument of Freedom)
(Baghdad: Wizarat al-Iilam, Mucliriat al-Thagafa al-Ama [Minisny ofInformation, Directorate of Public Cul-
ture], 1974), 47·