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Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Wrong Target image 1
Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Wrong Target image 2
Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Wrong Target image 3
Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Wrong Target image 4
Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939) Wrong Target image 5
Works from the AbdulMagid Breish Collection
Lot 25AR

Dia Al-Azzawi
(Iraq, born 1939)
Wrong Target

13 November 2024, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £51,200 inc. premium

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Dia Al-Azzawi (Iraq, born 1939)

Wrong Target
acrylic on canvas
signed "Azzawi" and dated "04" (lower left), further signed, dated and titled on the verso, executed in 2004
198 x 138cm (77 15/16 x 54 5/16in).

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from the collection of AbdulMagid Breish, London

Published:
Louisa Macmillan, Mysa Kafil-Hussain et others, In Vested Interests: from Passion to Patronage, The AbdulMagid Breish Collection of Arab Art, Skira, Milan, 2020

This large painting from Dia Al-Azzawi's Land of Darkness series, a painful portrait of the human cost of war, is a bleak, beautifully simple and almost silent ode to the fallen. Wrong Target shows a bicycle, overlaid with young legs still in position to ride away, at the moment of being attacked by occupying forces: mere collateral damage. The strike causes an explosion, marked with roaring shapes and overwhelming energy, enveloping the child on their bicycle. Even if they have somehow survived this onslaught, they will be scarred by the destruction of their childhood, lost to the legacy of war. Despite the limitations of the monochrome palette, the pain, shock and solemn emptiness can be felt through the black, white and grey, in a time when it truly felt like Iraq was stripped of its colour.
- Mysa Kafil-Hussain

Additional information

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