In our reading list on Modern and Contemporary Art in Iraq, we present readers introduction to present and past articulations of modern art in Iraq. The reading list’s featured books outline challenges, obstacles, and hurdles that were lost, at times won during the formation of a distinctly Iraqi or Arab modernism through an array of texts, visuals and contemporary exhibitions created by Iraqi artists of the mid-to-late twentieth century to the present. 

 

Bahrani, Z. and Shabout, N.M., 2009. Modernism and Iraq. Miriam & IRA D. Wallach Art Gallery.

Modernism and Iraq by Zainab Bahrani and Nada Shabout chart the history of Iraqi artistic experimentations and with Modernism in a time when modernism was regarded as a revolutionary artistic idiom for a freed national state. The catalogue accentuates and challenges the portrayal of Iraq as a country void of a modern artistic past, a deliberated erasure that feeds into a narrative of repression that is contrary to the historical evidence of Iraq’s rich history as a country that was once a regional epicentre of cultural and artistic production. The catalogue offers an unprecedented recapitulation of the works of forty-five Iraqi artists spanning several generations, including paintings, sculpture, book arts, and videos by Jawad Salim, Dia Azzawi, Hana Malallah, Nazar Yahya, Kareem Risan, Ghassan Gha’eb, Rafa al Nasiri, and Mohammed al Shammarey.

 

Azzawi, D. and Pocock, C., 2012. Art In Iraq Today. Skira Editore 

Art In Iraq Today highlights the practices and work methodologies of contemporary Iraqi artists who intersect in their varied experiences of exile. The publication is Inspired by the pre-imminent art critic Jabra Ibrahim Al Jabra’s seminal essays Art in Iraq Today’ (1961) and (1972), and reflects on the nature of contemporary Iraqi art today. The book highlights the enduring efforts of Iraqi artists to create regardless of the trials of exile and dispossession. The book documents these artists’ formative years in the Iraqi art scene before their exile as well as the new generation of Iraqi artists who are part of the diaspora. The book features essays by Dia Al-Azzawi, Nada Sahbout, Charles Pocock, May Muzaffar, Farouq Yousif, Samar Faruqi, Georges H. Rabbath and profiles the works of various contemporary and modern Iraqi artists, such as Modhir Ahmed, Himat M. Ali, Dia Al-Azzawi, Ahmed Al-Bahrani, Amar Dawod, Ghassan Ghaib, Ali Jabbar, Halim Al-Karim, Nedim Kufi, Hanaa Malallah, Rafa Al-Nasiri, Mahmoud Obaidi, Kareem Risan, Delair Shaker, Ali Talib and Nazar Yahya, Janane Al-Ani and Halim Al Karim. 

 

Lequesne, M., Pieri, C., Blanchard, P. (2003). Bagdad Renaissance: art contemporain en Irak. France: Galerie M.

The culmination of a trip made in June-July 2003, this book accompanies the first exhibition of some 70 works by Iraqi artists organized in France since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

 

Naji, A., 2019. Under the Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jawad Selim. Mondadori Electa

Under the Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jawad Selim delves into twentieth-century Iraqi art through the pioneering architect Mohamed Makiya’s art collection. Through the carefully assembled collection, an idea is constructed of what vision Makiya upheld for the future of Iraq, a vision that encompassed both country’s past and its future, one that “ “transcend all prejudices and misconceptions.” – directing a vision that comes within Iraq’s heritage and reality. This collection highlights Mohamed Makiya’s collaboration with Iraqi artists of his period, including works by Jawad Selim, the Baghdad Modern Art Group, and Iraqi artists in exile from 1980 to the present. The book richly illustrates how arctics and artists, in response to modernism, helped shape society at the time. 

 

Schroth, M.A. et al, 2014. Longing for Eternity: One Century of Modern and Contemporary Iraqi Art: From the Hussain Ali Harba Family Collection. Skira Editore 

Longing for Eternity explores the dominant trends of modern and contemporary art in Iraq through the private collection of the architect and designer Hussian Ali Harba, an avid collector of Iraqi art who is considered to be one of the most impassioned collectors of Iraqi art in the world. Harba’s acquisition of the collection began with paintings executed in the 1970s by Faiq Hassan, one of the founding members of the Baghdad based Pioneers group. His collection does not only limit itself to Iraqi modern art but also includes experimental contemporary artists like Adel Abedin amongst others. 

 

Mejcher-Atassi, S. and Nasiri, R., 2021. Rafa Nasiri: Artist Books. Skira.

An extensive monologue on the life and art of Rafa Nasiri, one of the most significant Arab artists of our time. The form of the “artists book” allows for a plethora of interactions over enormous temporal and geographical areas, as well as between the book and the reader. The book offers a comprehensive study of Nasiri’s life, inspirations and work. It includes a map of Nasiri’s artistic trajectory and 120 colour images of his work.

 

Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art. (2001). United Kingdom: Saqi Books.

Maysaloun Faraj‘s edited volume provides an extensive overview of modern and contemporary Iraqi art. The book contextualises the trajectory of contemporary art in Iraq. Strokes of Genius offers a wide list of artist biographies and examines specific artworks, with contributions from historians such as Wijdan Ali and Ulrike al-Khamis. Its encyclopedic approach operates as an expanding archive that foregrounds primary sources and information about modern Iraqi art for enthusiasts and researchers alike.  

 

Dia Al-Azzawi: A Retrospective, from 1963 Until Tomorrow. (2017). Italy: Silvana.

Dia Azzawi’s art, long admired for its vivid 13-colour palette and lively manner, emerged in the aftermath of Iraq’s early Pioneers movement, which began in the mid-twentieth century and flourished in the 1940s and 1960s.  This catalogue, with texts written by Azzawi, Zainab Bahrani and Nada Shabout accompanies the first major retrospective of the London based artist. This book offers immense insight into Azzawi’s mural-like political paintings and assemblage works. 

 

Videos: 

Nada Shabout – “A New School of Painting:” The Baghdad Group for Modern Art