Iraqi-Syrian painter.  

Madiha Umar was born in 1908 in Aleppo, Syria; and passed away in 2005 in Amman, Jordan. Often considered a precursor to the Hurufiyya art movement – the style of visual manipulation of the Arabic letter – Umar pioneered the use of Arabic letter in modern abstract painting. 

Born to a Circassian father and a Syrian mother, she moved to Iraq at an early age and was raised there to become a naturalised citizen. Although Baghdad was conceived as her home growing up, she obtained her secondary education in Beirut, Lebanon, and Istanbul, Turkey. The first female to earn a scholarship from the Iraqi government to study abroad, Umar relocated to London, where she was trained as an art teacher at the Maria Grey Training College for teachers. After graduating with first-class honours in Art and Crafts in 1933, she returned to Baghdad and worked as a teacher and a head of department at the Teachers’ Training School for Women until 1942. 

In 1939, Umar married an Iraqi diplomat, Yasin Umar, with whom she moved to Washington, DC., in 1942. There, she developed an interest in the Arabic letter, which also became her research subject. Between 1944 and 1945, Umar came across a book titled Arabic Paleography by Iraqi-American scholar of Islam, papyrologist, and paleographer, Nabia Abbott. Inspired by the book, she quickly realised the graphic possibilities of the Arabic letter and its abstractness as a form. Thus, Umar explored how to integrate elements of Arabic calligraphy into abstraction. While she was still experimenting, Umar approached Islamic art historian Richard Ettinghausen to show him some of her work. He was impressed by the originality of her early experimentations and encouraged Umar saying “Continue in this direction. No one has done it before you.” After nine years of investigation, she held her first solo exhibition in 1949, where she displayed for the first time a series of twenty-two hurufist-inspired paintings at the Peabody Library at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. In tandem with the exhibition, Umar authored and published one of the earliest artists’ statements defining an artistic approach to the Arabic letter as a form and an element in modern art. Titled Arabic Calligraphy: An Inspiring Element in Abstract Art, the text was published between 1949 and 1950 as an exhibition booklet. In 1952, she participated in the Ibn Sina group exhibition at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, where she showed forty-eight paintings introducing and contextualising the use of the Arabic letter in modern Iraqi art. 

Umar went on to complete her studies at the George Washington University, where she obtained a BA in Art Education in 1952, followed by an MFA in 1959 from the Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC. Soon after, she returned to Baghdad in 1966, where she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad. Similarly, she joined the One Dimension group founded by Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925-2004, Samawah) in 1971. Before leaving Iraq in the 1980s, Umar engaged with the art scene and established herself as one of the leading Iraqi artists in Baghdad. 

Her artistic practice is often characterised as an attempt to liberate the Arabic letter from its sacred connection to the Qur’an and the calligraphic rules, unlocking the potentials of its plastic qualities. She considered the individuality and different characteristics of each Arabic letter as a source of inspiration, fulfilling different meanings to an abstract image. Take for example the letter ya, “Y”, which she describes as a letter with a domineering personality capable of great expressions. The letter ayn, bearing a double meaning in the Arabic language; eye and spring of water. The letter lam, “L”, expresses delicate and rhythmic movements. In her paintings, she employs the Arabic letters individually detached from words. As such, the letters swirl, twirl, and curl to form an expressive, dynamic, and rhythmic effect that is stimulating and lasting for both the artist and the viewer. 

Umar’s work has been exhibited regionally and internationally. Between 1949 and 1980, Umar had eighteen solo exhibitions in Washington, Maryland, San Francisco, Istanbul, Beirut, and Baghdad. She also participated in several group exhibitions in London, New York, Beirut, Baghdad, and Washington. Her work nests in private and public collections, including the National Museum of Baghdad, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts (Amman), the Ibrahimi Collection (Amman, Baghdad, and Paris), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), and Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah). 

References

Ali, W. (1997). Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity. University Press of Florida. 

Lenssen, A., Rogers, S., & Shabout, N. M. (2018). Modern Art in the Arab World: Primary Documents. The Museum of Modern Art. 

Madiha Umar: Biography. (n.d.). Retrieved January 16, 2022, from https://www.madihaumar.com/biography 

Oweis, F. S. (2008). Encyclopedia of Arab American Artists. Greenwood Press. 

Shabout, N.  (2015). Modern Arab Art: Formation of Arab Aesthetics. University Press of Florida. 

Takesh, S., & Gumpert, L. (2020). Taking Shape: Abstraction from the Arab World, 1950s-1980s. Grey Art Gallery, New York University.