Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 21*

Madiha Umar
(Syria, 1908-2005)
Arabesques II

24 October 2018, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£3,000 - £5,000

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Modern & Contemporary Middle Eastern Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

Madiha Umar (Syria, 1908-2005)

Arabesques II
mixed media on paper, framed
signed "Madiha Umar", dated "1985" and inscribed "N.Y" (lower right), executed in 1985
35 x 30cm (13 3/4 x 11 13/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, Amman

The first Iraqi woman to receive a scholarship from the government to study in Europe, Madiha Omar officially studied education but also pursued lessons in art. In 1933, she graduated from the Maria Grey Training College, London. Returning to Baghdad, Omar taught painting at the Teachers Training School for Women and later became head of the arts department. In 1942, she relocated to Washington, DC, where she received an MFA from the Corcoran School of Art in 1959 and studied art education at George Washington University. She held her first exhibition in Georgetown's public library, Washington, DC, in 1949.

Upon her return to Iraq, she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad, and became a member of the One Dimension Group of 1971. From 1950–80 she held eighteen solo exhibitions. She also participated in numerous international art conferences and group exhibitions and her work has featured in modern Middle Eastern and Iraqi group shows such as Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art, Brunei Gallery, London, travelling exhibition, 2000–02; Word into Art, British Museum, London, 2006; and Modernism and Iraq, Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, New York, 2009.

Omar's work is regarded as the precursor to Hurufiyah (a trend that was particularly popular amongst Arab artists during the 1960s and 1970s), as she was one of the first artists to explore the formal qualities of the Arabic letter in contemporary art in 1944. Her work is held in collections including Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, and Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman

Additional information

Bid now on these items

Omar El-Nagdi(Egypt, 1931-2019)Acqua Della Vita (The Water of Life)

Louay Kayyali(Syria, 1934-1978)The Young Lovers (Al Ashiqan Al Saghiran)

Naim Ismail(Syria, 1930-1979)Hayy ibn Yaqzan (Alive, son of Awake)

Saliba Douaihy(Lebanon, 1915-1994)Mar Gerges Church, Ehden

Jewad Selim(Iraq, 1919-1961)Still life with Statuette

Mamdouh Kashlan(Syria, 1929-2022)Before The Light Fades (Kabl An Yazoul Al Djaw)

Mahmoud Sabri(Iraq, 1927-2012)H20 + AG + AiR (From the Quantum Realism Series)

Sliman Mansour(Palestine, born 1947)Woman From Bethlehem

Etel Adnan(Lebanon, 1925-2021)Belles Creatures

Saloua Raouda Choucair(Lebanon, 1916-2017)Untitled (from the Repetitive Dual series)

Chaouki Choukini(Lebanon, born 1946)Equation Existentielle

Dia Al-Azzawi(Iraq, born 1939)Al Shamr