Yearning and Meeting (2007) شوق و لقاء
Iraqi Artist WASSMA ALAGHA وسماء الأغا
Iraqi artist Wassma’ Alagha has passed away today in Amman, where she has been residing for the past several years. Under such heartbreak we cannot condole ourselves but through commemorating her memory in artwork.
Sada was founded nearly five years ago to support young, college-level art students in Baghdad. This generation of artists is living in a city that has been, and continues to be, an epicenter for international violence through division of its citizenry and destruction of infrastructure by the Iraqi government, the United States, and their allies. With the ravaging of the city’s arts and education systems, it was Sada’s aim simply to connect artists to resources. We did this through online lectures with Arabic-speaking artists and professors, intensive workshops, one-on-one advisement, advocacy, and small production and exhibition grants.
Sada will be suspending its work as a formal project. Traveling to Iraq has become too dangerous, proper oversight has become increasingly difficult and obtaining the kind of security needed for Sada’s activities would require working with members of the government and their supporters. This would be anathema to our mission considering the reality of corruption and context of warmongering. Those who are responsible for and profit from a country’s undoing also sponsor, applaud and exhibit works produced from the wretched conditions they themselves have helped sow. These endeavors are supported by an array of curators, arts writers, and financial and public relations systems that comprise the arts industrial complex..
جلسة نسائية و جلسة شبابية Women and Men Get-Together/Session (1960s)
Iraqi Artist FARAJ ABBO
Nationalization of Oil (1972-1976) - Iraqi Artist FARAJ ABBO
This painting was in celebration of the nationalization of the oil industry that occurred in Iraq under the government of Ahmad Hassan al Bakr in 1972. The nationalization of oil movement started under Abdul Kareem Qasim’s government when he issued laws that limited the operations of foreign oil corporations in 1961 to only those fields that have already started working, and disallowing any form of expansion. Between 1964-1966, Abdul Salam Aref’s government formed the “Iraq National Oil Company” which overtook all the operations of Iraq’s Petroleum Company (IPC); a foreign corporation despite the name, owned by Shell, Exxon, Total, BP, and Partex.
عمال سحب السفن Harbour Workers (1950) - Iraqi Artist FARAJ ABBO
This project was part of several paintings for his Masters degree in Cairo, and this painting itself went through several edits in the years to follow. The section on the right in the bottom row was printed on a series of stamps issued by the Iraqi government in the 1970s.
Probably one of the few painters who is always seen wearing a suit in every photograph taken in his studios while painting, Faraj Abbo (1921-1984) was an Iraqi painter who was born in Mosul in 1921 and passed away in Baghdad in 1984. Abbo’s artistic talents began to become evident at the young age of 13 when he was commissioned to produce paintings for local churches in Mosul; such as the one seen in Mar Eshai Church. Four years following the completion of secondary school education in 1939 Baghdad, Abbo joined the Friends of Art Society, and was an instrumental teaching member at multiple Teachers Centres across Iraq. The Friends of Art Society was first established by Iraqi painter Akram Shukri as a collective that paralleled the European art societies he was directly involved with in England, and indirectly by the major influence of Polish artists in Baghdad during the WWII period (x). Faraj Abbo then travelled to Cairo where completed a BFA in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in 1950, which was then followed by a period in Rome, Italy where he received an Honors Diploma in Fine Arts with highest distinction in 1954. Upon his return to Baghdad, Faraj started teaching at the Institute of Fine Arts and became the head of the Department of Plastic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad University. He also spent a few years teaching free-hand sketching at the Engineering College at Baghdad University. The 1950s period was marked by the formation of Al Rowad Arts Collective; an artistically distinctive collective that included figures like Jawad Salem and Faiq Hassan, which one could argue came as a response to the Friends of Art Society, with which Jawad Salem was in constant rift according to some sources (x)
Faraj’s artistic style is one with a fluctuating nature due to his exposure to different movements across the globe, particularly in Russia, to which he had travelled to on his motorbike from Iraq. As mentioned earlier, prior to his travels to Russia, he first joined the Friends of Art Society in 1944, whose members were highly influenced by Russian painters at that period, adhering to a characteristic figurative and symbolist approach. During the 1970s, Faraj Abbo’s art began to depart from realism and instead adopted a very abstract approach, one that was very foreign to his previous work. The first exhibition of such work was held in 1971 in Gulbenkian Hall, Baghdad; here is an excerpt of what Palestinian author and art critic Jabra Ibrahim Jabra wrote about this transformation:
Faraj Abbo’s work can be see across Iraq in places like Baghdad Airport and Ministries across the region. Shatha, one of Faraj Abbo’s daughters also took the artistic path and is now an established painter residing in Qatar.
Dr. Naziha al-Dulaimi (1923-2007) was an Iraqi feminist leader who served as Iraq’s Minister of Municipalities in 1959 under the government of Abdul Kareem Qassem, making her the first female minister not only in Iraq’s modern history, but as well as the first female minister across the Arab world. Dr. Naziha attended and graduated from the Royal College of Medicine at the University of Baghdad in 1948, and in that same year she became a full and instrumental member of the Iraqi Communist Party.
In 1952, al Dulaimi cofounded the Iraqi Women’s League and become its first president. With the support of her organization, she was instrumental in the formulation and implementation of the Personal Status Law #188, which is considered one of the most progressive women right laws in the middle east. Personal Status Law #188 is the same law the Iraqi government has been trying to eradicate and instead replace with a religiously conservative, sectarian, and reactionary bill. Al Dulaimi was also an active member of the Iraqi Peace Movement and the World Peace Council.
At the time of the assassination of Abdul Kareem Qassem in 1963, Naziha was travelling between Moscow and Prague, and following the assassination she became an instrumental critic of the new government by joining the Council for Iraq’s Defence that was headed by Iraqi poet Mahmoud Mahdi Al Jawahiri. She returned to Iraq however in 1968, during a period that saw the Ba’athist government trying to reconcile with previous members of the ICP, only to later implement more control over the organization and its eventual banning. Since then, the ICP became a relatively secret organization in which Naziha was also a member. In 1979 she decided to leave Iraq and reside in Europe until the 9th of October 2007, when she passed away in Germany.
Here it is important to note that the ICP went through a massive split after the Ba’athist government took control according to Haifa Zangana, and the communist ideals that they once upheld were completely disregarded, which saw many members abandon the organization, including Zangana herself. This can also be seen in recent post-2003 history with the involvement of the ICP leader in the Interim government installed by the American Occupiers (Paul Bremer), and the organization’s later involvement in the political process of Iraq’s new governmental institutions, which highlights more than anything its abandonment for the revolutionary ideals they once fought for.
As the sun meets the Mediterranean sea on the horizon of the besieged Gaza Strip, the people of Gaza City like to take strolls to the end of the port, enjoying candy floss and other street food sold along the way.
In recent years, Gaza has seen three major Israeli offensives, the latest of which, Operation Protective Edge, killed over 2,000 Palestinians, including approximately 500 children. The residents of the embargoed coastal enclave are prohibited from leaving by Israel and the al-Sisi regime in Egypt, which recently labelled Hamas a terrorist organisation.
“It’s as far as we can go,” Jehad, a Gazan teenager told Middle East Eye, while walking on the pavement that leads to the end of the blockaded port. “It’s something to do.”
The port has been closed by an Israeli blockade for more than seven years. The blockade reverberates throughout Gaza, causing problems for those who need medical care outside, the students who have been accepted to study at universities abroad, and any resident who has a sense of wanderlust.
Until recently, the dull grey of hundreds of concrete slabs mixed with the more colourful boats used by Gaza’s fishermen to create a scene that was not entirely pleasing to the eye. Now, after an initiative led by the Tamer Institute for Community Education, the concrete outshines the boats.
In January, Tamer began work on a plan to paint the walkway of the port, inviting local artists and youth to work together on the project. Initially, Tamer was only prepared to paint half of the walkway.
“We only bought enough paint - which isn’t cheap - to halfway complete the project,” Ahmed Ashour, the Tamer Institute’s office coordinator in the Gaza Strip, admitted in an interview with MEE. “But the response from the community, youth in particular, was so strong, we knew we had to complete the project.”
In those hasty last moments, there’s no time to thougtfully pack a suitcase and get your house in order. In most cases, these refugees could grab only a few small items, which grow heavy with nostalgia the longer these people are displaced from their homes.
Anwar Nassir: The drum maker said he had to leave most of the musical instruments he handcrafts behind when ISIS militants advanced on his town; after he ensured his family had safely departed, he was left with just a small motorbike to carry his belongings, including one handmade instrument. “They can take whatever they want, but I pray that they will have left my instruments,” he said
Fatin Atheer: The 6-year-old schoolgirl left her home with nothing but the clothes she was wearing. But, she asked her father every day for a replacement junior laptop like the one she was forced to leave behind. In December, her dad managed to find the same model for sale in a market in Erbil and purchased it for her.
Rafo Polis: The retired teacher said besides his family, he brought nothing but his faith — his most treasured possession
Name unknown: A crucifix was most important to this widowed housewife from Qaraqosh.
