"Modernism and Iraq" Exhibition
Miriam & Ira D Wallach Art Gallery
This event has ended.
In the mid twentieth century, artists in the newly independent nation of Iraq experimented with a form of Modernism that they saw as a new and revolutionary artistic idiom for a secular national state. Combining ancient and Islamic forms and genres of art and with Western Modernist influences, these artists set out to create an art for the people. At the same time, they participated in what they saw of Western Modernism by bringing to it older forms of Islamic abstraction. In this way, they challenged both traditional indigenous forms and what they learned from modern art in Europe. Today these works continue to challenge the pervasive image of Iraq as a country with no modern artistic past. When the museums and libraries were plundered in April of 2003, the museum of modern art in Baghdad was destroyed, its collections looted. Securing intact works of art for this exhibition was severely limited by that destruction. This exhibition is therefore a testament to the artistic and intellectual achievements of a Modernism that has been mostly erased.
Media
Schedule
from January 28, 2009 to March 28, 2009