Dia Al-Azzawi

(Iraq, born 1939)

Al Shamr

Footnotes

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, London
Skinner Auctions, Boston, May 15th 2009, Lot 396
Formerly in the collection of Louis Albert McMillen

Exhibited:
Baghdad, Al-Wasiti Gallery, The First Exhibition of Paintings by Dia Azzawi, 1965

A highly significant painting exhibited at the Artist's first solo exhibition at Baghdad's Al Wasiti Gallery in 1965

"After 1963 it became clear for many artists that one-man shows were more important than group exhibitions with others, which had been the norm in the fifties.

What was it like to work during that period? It wasn't really that easy because of the chaos and the politics and the uncertainty for most artists and writers. Some of them left Baghdad to work in Beirut, others left to different parts of the world.

For me, when I had my own first one-man show, in 1965 at Al-Wasiti Gallery, it was there that I met Kadhim Haider, Ismail Fattah and other artists, it was obvious that I was an artist who tried to be involved in the identity question which had been raised by the Baghdad Group of Modern Art"

- Dia Al-Azzawi

The present work is one of Dia Azzawi's most significant works to come to auction and participated in his maiden solo exhibition at Baghdad's Al-Wasiti Gallery in 1965. Replete with rich symbolism, it is from one of the artists earliest bodies of work exploring the role and significance of folkloric, popular religious and cultural iconography in modern painting.

As Saleem Al-Baholy notes, "stylistically, Azzawi's work of the early 1960s remained more figurative with stronger ties to mythology and history, which was the thread that maintained his connection to the Baghdad Group of Modern Art as their anticipated inheritor who could further their goals. Equally, Azzawi's use of colour reflected the inspiration of his teacher Faeq Hassan. He was thus able to negotiate two distinct strands of development in modern Iraqi art: the philosophical abstractions of Iraqi Signs and symbols by the Baghdad Group of Modern Art and Faeq Hassan's mastery of technique.

In the present work the artist abstracts cultural iconography mixing Islamic and pre-Islamic motifs found in ancient rock reliefs, Islamic manuscripts, metalwork and creates a rich tapestry of varied meaning as a result.

Azzawi's abiding love and respect for the tonal characteristics of the natural world and for ancient Iraqi imagery shines through in this important early work, which echoes the formal approach and inimitable style of the 'New Vision' school of painting he would come to found in 1969. Azzawi typically incorporates structures and visual symbolism harking back millennia in his paintings, which is evident here in the pseudo-figurative form depicted in the composition, which recalls ancient Mesopotamian bass-reliefs and their mythological imagery.

Azzawi started his artistic career in 1964, after graduating from the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and completing a degree in archaeology from Baghdad University in 1962. His studies of ancient civilizations and Iraqi heritage had a profound impact on his art, and a key objective in the early formation of his artistic style was to link the visual culture of the past to the present.

In 1969, Azzawi formed the New Vision Group (al-Ru'yya al-Jadidah), uniting fellow artists ideologically and culturally as opposed to stylistically. The group's manifesto, Towards a New Vision, highlighted an association between art and revolution, and sought to transcend the notion of a 'local style'—coined by the Baghdad Modern Art Group—by broadening the parameters of local culture to include the entire Arab world.

With exhibitions of his work held worldwide, including a landmark retrospective in 2017 at Qatar's MATHAF, his art features in the collections of some of the world's most prestigious museums and institutions. He is also regarded, in the tumultuous post-conflict climate of 2000s Iraq, considered to be the ultimate authority on modernist and contemporary art from the region.