All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group

Curated by Nada Shabout of NYUAD’s al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art, this exhibition investigates and celebrates the work and influence of one of the most important art movement of the mid-Century Middle East. Dr Shabout brings together work by the artists from the Baghdad Modern Art Group, as well as those who the group influenced both at the time and in later generations.

Established in 1951 by two of Iraq’s most influential artists, Jewad Selim (1919–1961) and Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925–2004), the Baghdad Modern Art Group grew to engage many of Iraq’s leading artists, architects, poets, and more; together, they sought to develop a new art form that reflected the secularised, modern society emerging from the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire. Says the gallery: “Artists questioned the ability of traditional ‘Islamic art’ practices to present their contemporary realities, searching for a more effective visual language. In this context, modern art provided a conduit for exploration and was perceived by Iraqi artists as a global space of shared humanity …”

At the same time, those artists were conscious of their role in developing a sense of identity for their newly formed nation, alongside broader decolonization processes. “This set the stage for Iraq’s so-called golden age of the 1950s: a time of maturation for a generation of artists pivotal in initiating rigorous standards of art theory and practice, thus charting new possibilities for future generations.”

Artists included in the show: Faraj Abbo, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Himat Mohammad Ali, Rasoul Alwan, Suad al-Attar, Qahtan Awni, Dia al-Azzawi, Bogus Bablanian, Amar Dawod, Ghassan Ghaib, Faiq (Faeq) Hassan, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Fouad Jihad, Saadi Al Kaabi, Ardash Kakafian, Salma Khoury, Hanaa Malallah, Mahmoud Obaidi, Widad al-Orfali, Khalid al-Rahal, Kareem Risan, Miran al-Saadi, Mahmoud Sabri, Naziha Salim, Nizar (Nazar) Salim, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Delair Shaker, Jewad Selim, Lorna Selim, Walid Siti, Ismail Fattah (Al-Turk), Madiha Umar, Khalil al-Ward, Nazar Yahya

To 7 June.