At the time, there were very few contemporary galleries to be found in Jordan and artists were largely dependent on their own personal efforts and contacts to promote their work. There was a vacuum that needed to be filled and a public demanding to see contemporary art and get to know the artists. The aim of 4 Walls was to promote the artists by exhibiting their works and helping to sell them. Throughout that period, Majida Mouasher consistently bought work from these artists. What makes this collection so unique is its astonishing diversity, despite the fact that the Levant is so heavily represented. The artists all have deep cultural roots in whatever the source of their inspiration might be, whether that is China, Russia, the West, or their own country of origin. Though many of them are now living in the diaspora, they all have in common an honest reaction to their environment, their cultural and social or historical backgrounds, their ethnic origins or political upheavals. The wars and instabilities in the Middle East have forced people to move across continents and to the shorelines of Europe, bringing with them new and different cultural ways. Now that the Middle East is so much in the spotlight, an urgency exists to show its contemporary art to the Western public. Art is able to bypass conflicts, to enhance and promote understanding between cultures. With texts by Majida Mouasher; HRH Princess Wijdan al-Hashemi PhD (painter and founder and president of the Royal Society of Fine Arts, Amman, Jordan); Nada Shabout PhD (Professor of Art History and Director of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Studies Institute at the University of North Texas) and Dr. Luitgard Mols.
www.schiltpublishing.com
Shafic Abboud Nasr Abdul Aziz Nawal Abdullah Adonis Himat Mohammed Ali Rajwa Ali Hani Alqam Mohammad Al-Ameri Jamal Ashour Dia Azzawi Khaled Barakeh Kamal Boullata Ghada Dahdaleh Mohanna Durra Ismail Fattah Riham Ghassib Ghassan Ghayeb Samia Halaby Wijdan Al-Hashemi Samer Usama Hatam Saadi Al-Kaabi Halim Al-Karim Farouk Kaspaules Ammar Khammash Khalid Khreis Sadik Kwaish Alfraji Houssein Madi Fouad Mimi Rafa Al-Nasiri Mohammad Nasrallah Juman Nimri Said Nuseibeh Mahmoud Obaidi Nuha Al-Radi Khalil Raian Kareem Risan Shaker Hassan Al-Said Diana Shamounki Nabil Shehadeh Rula Shukairy Samer Tabbaa Mahmoud Taha Madiha Umar Nazar Yahya
Modern and Contemporary Arab Art from the Levant The Majida Mouasher Collection
Majida Mouasher was the owner of the 4 Walls Art gallery in Amman, Jordan between 2000 and 2006. During that time, she worked with more than ninety artists, forty-four of whom form the nucleus of her stunning and vital private collection comprised of modern and contemporary Arab art from the Middle East in general and the Levant in particular, and spanning over sixty years of outstanding quality art.
Modern and Contemporary Arab Art from the Levant The Majida Mouasher Collection
Foreword
As a Dutch citizen of Jordanian origin living in Europe during these turbulent times, I am driven by the need for cultural understanding and appreciation across cultures, especially in view of the tragic wars and upheavals in the Middle East that have now touched Europe and the rest of the world. During my active years in the 4 Walls art gallery in Amman, Jordan (2000-2006), my team and I worked with more than ninety different artists from that region and beyond. Our aim was to promote art and artists as well as increase public awareness and appreciation of art. A dynamic collection, that is constantly growing, was compiled from those artists, spanning more than 60 years of modern and contemporary Arab art from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, in other words the Levant. When I finally closed down the gallery, I moved out of Jordan with my husband, eventually settling down in Europe in 2009. Little did I know then that I would end up living permanently in Europe and I never envisaged the crisis that is unfolding now in the Middle East only a few years after my departure. Due to the wars and upheavals in that region, people are moving across countries to the shorelines of Europe seeking shelter and bringing with them new and different ways of living.
honest reaction to their environment, be it their cultural, social, ethnic backgrounds, or the historical and political upheavals. At first glance, the viewer will be struck by the diversity of the artworks due to the numerous different artists represented. However, the emotions, colours and warmth of that region, as well as the sense of belonging, emerge as prevalent common factors that bind them together and reflect their heritage. They all have a story to tell. I hope that together we can make surprising discoveries through art, in an atmosphere of freedom leading to better understanding between cultures. In the words of Kasper Holten, Director of Opera, Royal Opera House in London: “We need art more than ever before. We live in a time when we try to deal with our problems and try to describe our world through words, figures and logic. But to understand humans and to look at the bigger shifts – the tectonic plate shifts in the human condition, so to speak – we need to rise above, or go below, the 24/7 news cycle, and we need art to give us a different language to understand the human condition.” Therefore I decided to make this book and organize alongside an exhibition, starting at Pulchri Studio in The Hague. I am certain that both book and exhibition demonstrate the enorAll the artists represented in the collection have deep cultural mously rich cultural modern and contemporary heritage of roots whatever the origin of their inspiration, be it China, Ja- Arab art from the Levant. pan, Russia, the West or their country of origin. Although many of them are now living in the diaspora, what they all share is an Majida van der Meulen-Mouasher
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Foreword
As a Dutch citizen of Jordanian origin living in Europe during these turbulent times, I am driven by the need for cultural understanding and appreciation across cultures, especially in view of the tragic wars and upheavals in the Middle East that have now touched Europe and the rest of the world. During my active years in the 4 Walls art gallery in Amman, Jordan (2000-2006), my team and I worked with more than ninety different artists from that region and beyond. Our aim was to promote art and artists as well as increase public awareness and appreciation of art. A dynamic collection, that is constantly growing, was compiled from those artists, spanning more than 60 years of modern and contemporary Arab art from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, in other words the Levant. When I finally closed down the gallery, I moved out of Jordan with my husband, eventually settling down in Europe in 2009. Little did I know then that I would end up living permanently in Europe and I never envisaged the crisis that is unfolding now in the Middle East only a few years after my departure. Due to the wars and upheavals in that region, people are moving across countries to the shorelines of Europe seeking shelter and bringing with them new and different ways of living.
honest reaction to their environment, be it their cultural, social, ethnic backgrounds, or the historical and political upheavals. At first glance, the viewer will be struck by the diversity of the artworks due to the numerous different artists represented. However, the emotions, colours and warmth of that region, as well as the sense of belonging, emerge as prevalent common factors that bind them together and reflect their heritage. They all have a story to tell. I hope that together we can make surprising discoveries through art, in an atmosphere of freedom leading to better understanding between cultures. In the words of Kasper Holten, Director of Opera, Royal Opera House in London: “We need art more than ever before. We live in a time when we try to deal with our problems and try to describe our world through words, figures and logic. But to understand humans and to look at the bigger shifts – the tectonic plate shifts in the human condition, so to speak – we need to rise above, or go below, the 24/7 news cycle, and we need art to give us a different language to understand the human condition.” Therefore I decided to make this book and organize alongside an exhibition, starting at Pulchri Studio in The Hague. I am certain that both book and exhibition demonstrate the enorAll the artists represented in the collection have deep cultural mously rich cultural modern and contemporary heritage of roots whatever the origin of their inspiration, be it China, Ja- Arab art from the Levant. pan, Russia, the West or their country of origin. Although many of them are now living in the diaspora, what they all share is an Majida van der Meulen-Mouasher
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Nawal Abdullah born in Amman, Jordan (1951)
Nawal Abdullah got her early art training with the Jordanian painter Muhanna Durra in Amman before going to the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, where she graduated in 1980. Since 1974, she has been exhibiting her works in solo and group shows in Amman and has participated in collective exhibitions in the Arab world, as well as in Europe, the u.k. and Canada. Abdullah’s landscapes are full of spectacular movement with surprising spontaneity, balanced shapes, with dramatic treatment of both vibrant and cold colours and built-in spirituality reflecting a constant journey of selfdiscovery. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum, Jordan Chapter, and an active member of the International Forum for a Culture of Peace by Mediterranean Women Creators. Nawal Abdullah lives and works in Amman, Jordan.
Body Moods 1, 2016 Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
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Nawal Abdullah born in Amman, Jordan (1951)
Nawal Abdullah got her early art training with the Jordanian painter Muhanna Durra in Amman before going to the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, where she graduated in 1980. Since 1974, she has been exhibiting her works in solo and group shows in Amman and has participated in collective exhibitions in the Arab world, as well as in Europe, the u.k. and Canada. Abdullah’s landscapes are full of spectacular movement with surprising spontaneity, balanced shapes, with dramatic treatment of both vibrant and cold colours and built-in spirituality reflecting a constant journey of selfdiscovery. She is a member of the International Women’s Forum, Jordan Chapter, and an active member of the International Forum for a Culture of Peace by Mediterranean Women Creators. Nawal Abdullah lives and works in Amman, Jordan.
Body Moods 1, 2016 Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 cm
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Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Asbar) Born in Al-Qassabain, Syria (1930)
Arab poet, translator, editor, and theorist Ali Ahmad Said Asbar was the eldest of six children born to a family of farmers in Syria’s Al-Qassabain village. Though they could not afford the cost of formal education, Adonis’s father taught his son to read and helped him memorise poems while he worked on the family farm. At fourteen, Adonis recited a poem to the president of Syria during his visit to a neighbouring town, after which the president offered to grant the boy’s request to attend school. With the president’s support, Adonis enrolled in a French high school and then at Damascus University, where he earned a ba in philosophy. In his late teens, he began writing under the name Adonis, after the Greek god of fertility. After a year in prison as a result of his political activity, Adonis moved to Beirut, where he found a rich community of expatriate writers and artists. There he co-founded and edited two progressive literary journals, Sh’ir and Mawaqif and earned a PhD at St. Joseph University in Beirut.
This work by Adonis consists of a section of a poem by a 7thcentury Arabian poet called Ka’b bin Zuhayr. It is handwritten in black ink on white paper with a collaged figure made from different textured materials, like fabric, paper and carton, that Adonis found and collected wherever he went.
Adonis has won the first ever International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award; the Norwegian Academy for Literature and Freedom of Expression’s Bjørnson Prize; the Highest Award of the International Poem Biennial in Brussels; and the Syria-Lebanon Best Poet Award. In 1983 he was elected into the Stéphané Mallarmé Academy in Paris. He has taught at the Sorbonne, Damascus University and the Lebanese University. Adonis lives in Paris.
Untitled, 2002 Ink and mixed media on paper, 40.5 x 30.5
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Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Asbar) Born in Al-Qassabain, Syria (1930)
Arab poet, translator, editor, and theorist Ali Ahmad Said Asbar was the eldest of six children born to a family of farmers in Syria’s Al-Qassabain village. Though they could not afford the cost of formal education, Adonis’s father taught his son to read and helped him memorise poems while he worked on the family farm. At fourteen, Adonis recited a poem to the president of Syria during his visit to a neighbouring town, after which the president offered to grant the boy’s request to attend school. With the president’s support, Adonis enrolled in a French high school and then at Damascus University, where he earned a ba in philosophy. In his late teens, he began writing under the name Adonis, after the Greek god of fertility. After a year in prison as a result of his political activity, Adonis moved to Beirut, where he found a rich community of expatriate writers and artists. There he co-founded and edited two progressive literary journals, Sh’ir and Mawaqif and earned a PhD at St. Joseph University in Beirut.
This work by Adonis consists of a section of a poem by a 7thcentury Arabian poet called Ka’b bin Zuhayr. It is handwritten in black ink on white paper with a collaged figure made from different textured materials, like fabric, paper and carton, that Adonis found and collected wherever he went.
Adonis has won the first ever International Nâzim Hikmet Poetry Award; the Norwegian Academy for Literature and Freedom of Expression’s Bjørnson Prize; the Highest Award of the International Poem Biennial in Brussels; and the Syria-Lebanon Best Poet Award. In 1983 he was elected into the Stéphané Mallarmé Academy in Paris. He has taught at the Sorbonne, Damascus University and the Lebanese University. Adonis lives in Paris.
Untitled, 2002 Ink and mixed media on paper, 40.5 x 30.5
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Untitled (17x), 2005 Acrylic and crayon on paper, 27.5 x 27.5 cm
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Untitled (17x), 2005 Acrylic and crayon on paper, 27.5 x 27.5 cm
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Ismail Fattah Born in Basra, Iraq (1934-2004)
Ismail Fattah studied under Jewad Selim at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, receiving a diploma in painting in 1956, and in sculpture in 1958. He later moved to Rome, Italy to study sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and ceramics at the Academia San Giacomo, in 1963. Returning to Baghdad in 1965, Fattah taught ceramics and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts until the late 1990s. He was president of the Society of Iraqi Artists for Abstract Art from 1971-1978 and a founding member of the influential New Vision and the Baghdad Modern Art Group. Fattah created numerous public sculptures in Baghdad, the most prominent being The Monument of the Martyr to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the 1979-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Fattah held numerous solo and group exhibitions displaying both sculptures and paintings in Rome, Baghdad, London and Beirut, and participated in the Venice Biennial in 1976. His work is held in private and public collections, including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Kinda Foundation, Saudi Arabia; Darat alFunun, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; and the Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad. Towards the end of his life Fattah lived and worked in Qatar. He died in Baghdad on 22 July 2004.
Untitled, 2003 Acrylic on paper, 66.5 x 54 cm
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Ismail Fattah Born in Basra, Iraq (1934-2004)
Ismail Fattah studied under Jewad Selim at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad, receiving a diploma in painting in 1956, and in sculpture in 1958. He later moved to Rome, Italy to study sculpture at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and ceramics at the Academia San Giacomo, in 1963. Returning to Baghdad in 1965, Fattah taught ceramics and sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts until the late 1990s. He was president of the Society of Iraqi Artists for Abstract Art from 1971-1978 and a founding member of the influential New Vision and the Baghdad Modern Art Group. Fattah created numerous public sculptures in Baghdad, the most prominent being The Monument of the Martyr to commemorate the fallen soldiers of the 1979-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Fattah held numerous solo and group exhibitions displaying both sculptures and paintings in Rome, Baghdad, London and Beirut, and participated in the Venice Biennial in 1976. His work is held in private and public collections, including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Kinda Foundation, Saudi Arabia; Darat alFunun, the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; and the Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad. Towards the end of his life Fattah lived and worked in Qatar. He died in Baghdad on 22 July 2004.
Untitled, 2003 Acrylic on paper, 66.5 x 54 cm
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Samia Halaby Born in Jerusalem, Palestine (1936)
Samia Halaby is a painter, writer and activist for Palestine. Halaby was twelve when her family was driven out of their home in Jaffa. As refugees, her family sought asylum in Lebanon, and then Cincinnati. After pursuing her mfa at Indiana University in Bloomington, u.s.a., Halaby became the first full-time female professor at the Yale School of Art. Now in the middle of her sixth decade as an active painter exploring abstraction and its relationship to reality, she relies more on intuition than on planning. Her central medium during the first three decades was oil and later acrylic. Within the parameters of her ideas, Halaby explored the digital medium by programming kinetic abstractions with sound beginning in the mid-1980s. Her work is displayed in museums and private collections internationally, among others: the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, u.s.a.; the British Museum, London, u.k.; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, u.s.a.; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; the National Gallery of Art, Washington d.c., u.s.a.; the National Museum of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington d.c., u.s.a.; Yale University Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, u.s.a. Halaby has had solo exhibitions in Arab, European and American galleries. She independently published Liberation Art of Palestine, for which she interviewed forty-six artists. Her latest book, Drawing the Kafr Qasem Massacre, was published in October 2016 (Schilt Publishing). In it she explains the drawings she made on the subject and includes the dozens of witness interviews she conducted and translated and on which she based her drawings. Samia Halaby lives and works in New York, u.s.a.
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No. 593, 2004 Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 30 cm
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Samia Halaby Born in Jerusalem, Palestine (1936)
Samia Halaby is a painter, writer and activist for Palestine. Halaby was twelve when her family was driven out of their home in Jaffa. As refugees, her family sought asylum in Lebanon, and then Cincinnati. After pursuing her mfa at Indiana University in Bloomington, u.s.a., Halaby became the first full-time female professor at the Yale School of Art. Now in the middle of her sixth decade as an active painter exploring abstraction and its relationship to reality, she relies more on intuition than on planning. Her central medium during the first three decades was oil and later acrylic. Within the parameters of her ideas, Halaby explored the digital medium by programming kinetic abstractions with sound beginning in the mid-1980s. Her work is displayed in museums and private collections internationally, among others: the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, u.s.a.; the British Museum, London, u.k.; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, u.s.a.; Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; the National Gallery of Art, Washington d.c., u.s.a.; the National Museum of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington d.c., u.s.a.; Yale University Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, u.s.a. Halaby has had solo exhibitions in Arab, European and American galleries. She independently published Liberation Art of Palestine, for which she interviewed forty-six artists. Her latest book, Drawing the Kafr Qasem Massacre, was published in October 2016 (Schilt Publishing). In it she explains the drawings she made on the subject and includes the dozens of witness interviews she conducted and translated and on which she based her drawings. Samia Halaby lives and works in New York, u.s.a.
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No. 593, 2004 Acrylic on canvas, 70 x 30 cm
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Wijdan Al-Hashemi Born in Amman, Jordan (1939)
Her Royal Highness Princess Wijdan al-Hashemi is an art historian, a painter, an art curator and a former diplomat. She holds a PhD in Islamic Art from soas University of London, and is the author of eight books and numerous articles on traditional and contemporary art. Wijdan is the founder of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in 1979 and the National Gallery of Fine Arts 1980 in Jordan, as well as founder and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan 2001-2005. hrh Princess Wijdan al-Hashemi has held thirty solo exhibitions and her artworks have been shown in a large number of group exhibitions in different parts of the world. Wijdan’s works can be found in several public collections, including the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in the u.k.; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, d.c.; the International Museum of Twenty-First Century Arts (timotca) in California; the National Art Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan; the Asilah Museum in Morocco; and the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, among others. Her artworks have been acquired by private collectors in Asia, Africa, Europe, the u.s.a. and various countries in the Arab world. She has received a number of awards and honours from Jordan, France and Belgium for her artistic and cultural achievements. Wijdan al-Hashemi lives and works in Amman, Jordan.
Accounting (Poem by Charbel Dagher), 2003 Mixed media on paper, 51 x 51 cm
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Wijdan Al-Hashemi Born in Amman, Jordan (1939)
Her Royal Highness Princess Wijdan al-Hashemi is an art historian, a painter, an art curator and a former diplomat. She holds a PhD in Islamic Art from soas University of London, and is the author of eight books and numerous articles on traditional and contemporary art. Wijdan is the founder of the Royal Society of Fine Arts in 1979 and the National Gallery of Fine Arts 1980 in Jordan, as well as founder and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Design at the University of Jordan 2001-2005. hrh Princess Wijdan al-Hashemi has held thirty solo exhibitions and her artworks have been shown in a large number of group exhibitions in different parts of the world. Wijdan’s works can be found in several public collections, including the British Museum and the Ashmolean Museum in the u.k.; the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, d.c.; the International Museum of Twenty-First Century Arts (timotca) in California; the National Art Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan; the Asilah Museum in Morocco; and the Arab Museum of Modern Art in Qatar, among others. Her artworks have been acquired by private collectors in Asia, Africa, Europe, the u.s.a. and various countries in the Arab world. She has received a number of awards and honours from Jordan, France and Belgium for her artistic and cultural achievements. Wijdan al-Hashemi lives and works in Amman, Jordan.
Accounting (Poem by Charbel Dagher), 2003 Mixed media on paper, 51 x 51 cm
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Ammar Khammash Born in Amman, Jordan (1960)
Ammar Khammash is a multi-talented Jordanian who has made his mark in several disciplines. In addition to being an established painter, he has held eighteen solo exhibitions and participated in over twenty group exhibitions since 1978. Khammash is one of Jordan’s foremost architects, known especially for his extensive work in the field of historical preservation. Furthermore, his contributions in the areas of the environment and community development can be seen in several projects across Jordan. His interest in photography, coupled with an interest in Jordan’s architecture, anthropology, archaeology, and nature have resulted in a large archive of images. Khammash holds a ba in Architecture from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (1986) and has done graduate work in ethno archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University in Jordan (1987-88). His publications include Jordan, A Timeless Land, with Christa Paul and David Saunders (I. B. Tauris, 2005) and Notes on Village Architecture in Jordan (University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1986). Ammar Khammash lives and works in Amman.
Untitled, 2003 Oil on Canvas, 120 x 92 cm
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Ammar Khammash Born in Amman, Jordan (1960)
Ammar Khammash is a multi-talented Jordanian who has made his mark in several disciplines. In addition to being an established painter, he has held eighteen solo exhibitions and participated in over twenty group exhibitions since 1978. Khammash is one of Jordan’s foremost architects, known especially for his extensive work in the field of historical preservation. Furthermore, his contributions in the areas of the environment and community development can be seen in several projects across Jordan. His interest in photography, coupled with an interest in Jordan’s architecture, anthropology, archaeology, and nature have resulted in a large archive of images. Khammash holds a ba in Architecture from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (1986) and has done graduate work in ethno archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University in Jordan (1987-88). His publications include Jordan, A Timeless Land, with Christa Paul and David Saunders (I. B. Tauris, 2005) and Notes on Village Architecture in Jordan (University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1986). Ammar Khammash lives and works in Amman.
Untitled, 2003 Oil on Canvas, 120 x 92 cm
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Sadik Kwaish Alfraji Born in Baghdad, Iraq (1960)
Sadik Alfraji received a bfa in Painting and Plastic Art from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad in 1987 and a Higher Diploma in Graphic Design from chk Constantijn Huygens, the Netherlands in 2000. He is one of the most prominent Iraqi artists currently working in the diaspora. Alfraji is a very versatile artist and works in numerous mediums including drawings, paintings, video animations, art books, graphic art, and installations. Alfraji has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Netherlands, Jordan, the u.s.a. and the u.k. Alfraji’s works are housed in private and public collections including the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad; the Art Center, Baghdad; the National Gallery of Fine Arts Amman; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia; the Los Angeles Country Museum, u.s.a.; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, u.s.a. He was named Artist of the Year at the Esquire Middle East Awards in 2012. In 2015 his monography Sadik Kwaish Alfraji was published by Schilt Publishing. Sadik Kwaish Alfraji lives and works in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
Choose Your Mask, 2005 Mixed media on board, 100 x 100 cm
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Sadik Kwaish Alfraji Born in Baghdad, Iraq (1960)
Sadik Alfraji received a bfa in Painting and Plastic Art from the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad in 1987 and a Higher Diploma in Graphic Design from chk Constantijn Huygens, the Netherlands in 2000. He is one of the most prominent Iraqi artists currently working in the diaspora. Alfraji is a very versatile artist and works in numerous mediums including drawings, paintings, video animations, art books, graphic art, and installations. Alfraji has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the Netherlands, Jordan, the u.s.a. and the u.k. Alfraji’s works are housed in private and public collections including the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad; the Art Center, Baghdad; the National Gallery of Fine Arts Amman; Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Russia; the Los Angeles Country Museum, u.s.a.; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, u.s.a. He was named Artist of the Year at the Esquire Middle East Awards in 2012. In 2015 his monography Sadik Kwaish Alfraji was published by Schilt Publishing. Sadik Kwaish Alfraji lives and works in Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
Choose Your Mask, 2005 Mixed media on board, 100 x 100 cm
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