Footnotes

Exhibited:
Venice, 57th Venice Biennale, National Pavilion of Iraq, "Archaic", May 2017

Published:
The Makiya Collection of Modern Arab Art, London, 2014
Tamara Chalabi and Paolo Colombo, Archaic – The Pavilion of Iraq, Mousse Publishing, 2017
Ahmed Naji, Under the Palm Trees, Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jewad Selim, 2019, Rizzoli International
Nima Sagharchi and Zaineb Jewad Selim, Jewad Selim: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings and Sculptures, 2025, Skira Editore (maquette of the present sculpture)

"Pastorale" – A spectacular bronze sculpture by Jewad Selim from the collection of the late Dr Mohammed Makiya, exhibited in the Iraqi pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale

"For his experimental modern artworks Jewad adopted the crescent, bull, and mother and child as motifs, clearly displayed in many of his sculptures."
-Lorna Selim

Note:
The present sculpture was cast by the late Dr Mohammed Makiya in consultation with the artist's wife Lorna Selim and in keeping with the artists wishes

From Relief to Monument: Jewad Selim's Enduring Legacy
Dr Ahmed Naji
Independent Researcher and Author

"In 1955, [Jewad] made another relief, rather large this time, of a bull and a woman farmer, charging the relief with abstracted crescent-like figures and his folk symbols in such a way that made this artwork a conclusion of his 'crescentic period' representing much of what was on his mind about artistic style, be it Arab, Iraqi and modern altogether, as well as the association of this unmistakable style with the character of the artist in question"
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (Bethlehem 1919 – Baghdad 1994) [1]

Jewad Selim (Ankara 1919 – Baghdad 1961), renowned for his iconic public monument in Baghdad, the "Freedom Monument", faced a unique challenge. As he articulated on August 5, 1959: [2]
"I had immense problems facing me. My style of art, which is a modern kind of art, might not appeal to ordinary people in the street. I was considered a rebel, and there was always interference from those if shown a political form of art and the silent attacks which I had to face. I am a modernist, or I should say I feel the contemporary desire of International Art. I was considered, before the Revolution, to be a capitalist by the communists and a communist by the Government. In any case, all these problems were for me interesting in a new era facing the country. I took the challenge with real enthusiasm and confidence as this event is rare in the life of any artist who wishes to impart vitality and power in the creation of fresh and new forms of art."
Selim's challenge lay in balancing his principles as a modernist artist and educator with his engagement with the new political landscape following the coup d'état or the revolution of 14 July 1958, as the monument was intended to commemorate the revolution. The new scholarship and archives by his daughter Zaineb Jewad Selim reveal this challenge, in which Selim acknowledged that: [3] "This work is a commission with a definite subject, so it must be a compromise. It must conform to certain outside requirements yet keep its integrity as art."
With this in mind, a key question emerges: How did Selim succeed in creating his enduring legacy, especially given his untimely death at the age of 42?
To attempt answering this question, the Pastorale relief sculpture (1955) is a benchmark for appreciating Selim's legacy and understanding his most notable contribution to Iraqi art, namely the creation of Iraqi symbols, as was highlighted by the late prominent Iraqi artist Ismael Fattah (1934-2004) who titled his teacher Jewad Selim as "The Maker of Iraqi Symbols", the most important of which is the crescent. As a temporal marker, Pastorale (1955) was produced by Selim during his second artistic phase (1950-1957), [4] a period in which he was the leading figure of the Baghdad Modern Art Group (founded in 1951). Pastorale was acquired by the acclaimed architect Dr Mohamed Makiya who later became the first president of the Society of Iraqi Artists in 1956, coinciding with Selim's third artistic phase (1957-1961) of collaboration with the architects namely Rifat Chadirji, Dr Makiya, Said Ali Mathloum, Midhat Ali Mathloum and Jafar Alawi amongst others. In fact, in the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Iraqi Artists at the Royal Sports Club (11-20 May 1957), Pastorale was one of only two artworks exhibited by Selim in that landmark exhibition which included 190 artworks of paintings, sculptures and architectural models. This historic exhibition was inaugurated by King Faisal II of Iraq and was coincidentally visited by Frank Lloyd Wright during his visit to Baghdad to present his proposal for the Plan for Greater Baghdad (1957-1958) for a cultural centre, opera house and university on the outskirts of Baghdad.
Pastorale belongs to a lineage of bas-relief sculptures by Selim commissioned by institutions such as Transport (1945) for the Transport Building in Baghdad, Oil of Iraq (1956) for the Iraq Petroleum Company, and Man and Earth (1953) for a project with Chadirji for the Agricultural Bank that rejected the artwork. The relief sculptures were modern and drew inspiration from Assyrian relief sculptures which Selim studied and restored at the Iraqi Museum during the 1940s. Pastorale is distinguished by a significant development in figurative deconstruction and abstraction, influenced by the Baghdad Modern Art Group's modus operandi of appropriating the artistic heritage of Baghdad's 13th-century artist Yahya al-Wasiti and Mesopotamian art. As Jabra described Selim's Pastorale as "a conclusion of his crescentic period" given the frequent and varied rendering of the different animal and human figures in crescent-like shapes in a bold experiment by Selim to elevate the figures above the background as a constellation of icons or Iraqi symbols.
The agricultural subject matter featuring human figures, flora and the bull was negotiated in 1953 in Man and Earth where the figures emerged from the background with a tension between the theme of motherhood and the theme of the struggle of man with nature. Two years later, Pastorale revisited the same subject but with a stronger sense of iconography and symbolism that is unique in its aged permanence of appearing as a relic akin to cylindrical seals impressions in clay tablets such as those from the Ur Royal Cemetery in the Iraq Museum. Crescents and opposing triangle motifs dominated Pastorale, as was the case with Selim's Baghdadiat paintings of the same period. In fact, Selim's painting titled Serrifa Dwellers (1953) is the decipher key for Pastorale as it features the bull, the goat, the woman and child, the cockerel and hen in crescent-style Baghdadiat. It was common practice for him to revisit the Baghdadiat compositions in different iterations, except that whenever the subject was presented in sculpture, it was highly abstracted and iconographic (see Bull 1953, Mother and Child 1953). [5]
Technically, Selim experimented [6] in Pastorale by making each of the figures in metal wire-re-enforced plaster casted in plasticine or clay moulds and then assembled them on a wooden board by creating a raised abutment attachment form metal pegs and plaster to hold the figures above the surface in a way that they appear hovering in front of the surface. This experiment yielded undeniable success as not only are the figures more dynamic and iconic, but also, more practically, it would facilitate reducing the overall volume of the eventual bronze casts if done without casting the background. Selim was progressing in releasing his Iraqi symbols from the background perhaps drawing comparison between the heavy and large Assyrian wall reliefs at the Iraq Museum and displays for the numerous varied objects from the Sumerian Ur Royal Cemetery, both of which Selim had first-hand experience in namely the Copy of Campaigns of Tiglath-Pileser III (1941) bas-relief that was exhibited at the Friends of Art inaugural exhibition in 1941, and the Bust of a Female Courtier at Ur (1942) plaster sculpture, both of which were for the Iraq Museum.
According to Kanan Makiya [7], Pastorale was a dress rehearsal for a public monument where the relief sculptures can be assembled on a building façade. For instance, Dr Mohamed Makiya was reported to include three outward panels for the Institute of Motherhood and Childhood in Baghdad to include public sculptures by Selim, but the project was never realised [8]. Therefore, when in 1959 Chadirji commissioned Selim for the Monument of the 14 of July Revolution, now widely known as the Freedom Monument, Chadirji proposed a raised marble-clad concrete panel that Selim can fill with sculptures. Selim applied Pastorale's technique of raised suspended figures to the monument's sculptures [9]. Pastorale's bull also re-appeared in the Freedom Monument in a non-abstract style to symbolise agriculture and nature.
Pastorale demonstrates Selim's innovation and enduring legacy in both painting and sculpture, drawing on Islamic and Mesopotamian as well as folk heritage, while negotiating modern international art. Amongst his sculptural works, Pastorale exudes Selim's modern and unrestricted/uncompromised style that was his challenge when he was commissioned to make his last artwork and Iraq's first public monument by an Iraqi artist. In admiring Mesopotamian art, Selim said [10]:
"Art in Mesopotamia has always been liked by its people, who have been the product of the land and climate. They have never reached decadence and never achieved perfection; for them perfection of craftmanship has been a limitation on their self-expression. Their work has been crude but inventive, has had a vigour and boldness which would not have been possible with a more refined technique. The artist has always been free to express himself, even amid the state art of Assyria, where the true artist speaks through the drama of the wounded beast."

Pastorale is a rare example of Selim's Mesopotamian "crude but inventive" artwork and it certainly has "a vigour and boldness which would not have been possible with a more refined technique." Selim is a monument to freedom as he was uncompromising in expressing himself and being true to his people, country and time.

Dr Ahmed Naji is an independent researcher and author of Under the Palm Trees: Modern Iraqi Art with Mohamed Makiya and Jewad Selim, Rizzoli New York, 2019.

[1] Jabra, J. I. (1974). Jewad Selim wa Nasb il-Hurriyya. Baghdad: Ministry of Information.
[2] Selim, Z. J., & Sagharchi, N. (2024). Jewad Selim. Skira Editore. P. 42.
[3] Ibid, pages 46.
[4] Ibid, pages 23-53. According to the most recent historiography by Zaineb Jewad Selim, in which she detailed his artistic oeuvre in three phases: Phase 1 (1930s-1950s) – Conventional modern art based on Ottoman and European techniques, Phase 2 (1950-1957) – Combining the modern with the traditional and Phase 3 (1957-1961) – Collaboration with the architects.
[5] Ibid, page 366 JSS.37, JSS.40.
[6] Lorna Selim in email correspondence with Kanan Makiya on 24 May 2011 explained that Pastorale was an experimental piece made by Selim in the sculpture department at the Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad.
[7] Naji, A. (2013). Interview of Kanan Makiya with the author on 14 September 2013, unpublished.
[8] Kachachi, A. (1998). Lorna wa sanawatuha ma Jawad Salim (Lorna and her years with Jewad Selim). Beirut: Dar Al-Jadeed.
[9] For a detailed description supported by new archives, please see Selim, Z. J., & Sagharchi, N. (2024). Jewad Selim. Skira Editore. P. 46-47.
[10] Jabra, J.I. (1983). The Grass Roots of Iraqi Art,. Wasit Graphic and Publishing Limited.