Rafa al-Nasiri (b.1940 Tikrit, Iraq -7 December 2013 Amman, Jordan) was an Iraqi painter, draughtsman, print-maker, educator and author whose works with a social and political message resonated with the Iraqi public in the mid-20th century. He was also very influential in encouraging young artists to take up print-making.

Life and career

Born in Tikrit, Iraq, Rafa al-Nasiri received his early art education at Baghdad’s Institute of Fine Arts, attaining a Diploma in Painting in 1959. He then pursued his training in print-making by attending Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in China (1959-1963). The artist described how he became attached to Chinese art: While studying in China, under the guidance of Huang Yu Yi (b. 1927), al-Nasiri developed a passion for calligraphy, and began to devise ways to include Arabic letters in his paintings and prints. In this way, al-Nasiri became a very early practitioner of an art form that became known as hurufiyya. In 1965, after returning to Baghdad from China, he and two of his brothers, went on a road trip travelling through twenty-four Arab and European countries. During this time, he came into contact with Western art. Visiting prestigious museums such as the

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from th ...

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British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

, Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art and

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the Sted ...

in Amsterdam, he was introduced to the works of

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Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 174616 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. His paintings, drawings, and e ...

and

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El ...

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amongst others and was deeply impressed by the

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. Later, in 1967, he received a Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship to study print-making at the Gravura in Lisbon, Portugal. There he was exposed to a variety of techniques used by contemporary European artists and was especially influenced by the work of the French artist,

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(b. 1921) who used calligraphy in his artwork. This consolidated his interest in the use of Arabic letters in his own artwork. Along with other eminent Iraqi artists including: Dia al-Azzawi,

Shakir Hassan Al Said Shakir Hassan Al Said ( ar, شاكر حسن ال سعيد) (1925–2004), an Iraqi painter, sculptor and writer, is considered one of Iraq's most innovative and influential artists. An artist, philosopher, art critic and art historian, he was act ...

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and

Kadhim Hayder Kadhim Haydar (alternative: Kazem Haider) (1932–1985) was a highly respected Iraqi artist, poet, author, stage-set designer and educator who, as part of the first generation of modern Iraqi artists, had a major influence on the direction of m ...

, Al-Nasiri was a major proponent of the pan-Arab modern art movement that gained momentum during the 1970s. At that time, Baghdad was the centre of contemporary art and culture in the Arab world, and spawned many organised art groups, many of which had deep philosophical underpinnings enshrined in published manifestoes. Al-Nasiri became actively involved in a number of these groups. He was a founding member of the Baghdad's New Vision Group, formed during the 1960s; an art collective that formed after the July Revolution of 1958, with the aim of encouraging artists to exercise greater freedom and experimentation by searching for inspiration in a variety of sources, but within a framework of heritage. He was also a founding member of the influential

One Dimension Group The One Dimension Group ( ''Al Bu'd al Wahad'') was a modern art collective founded in Iraq, by Shakir Hassan Al Said in 1971 which attempted to combine medieval Sufi traditions with contemporary, abstract art. Although the One Dimension Group was ...

founded in 1971 by

. He taught at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad (from 1964), Yarmouk University in Jordan (1974-1989), and the University of Bahrain (1997-2003), and played an instrumental role in founding the print-making studio at Jordan’s Darat al Funun during the early 1990s where he set up the studio, ran courses and also organised exhibitions and was its inaugural Director. He held that post from 1993-1995. He also authored a number of articles and books on the subject of graphic engraving and print-making. Through his teaching, active involvement in art groups and his writing, al-Nasiri "influenced the subsequent generations and played an instrumental role in the development of a strong tradition of Iraqi print-making." In the 1990s, he settled in Jordan and died in Amman on 7 December 2013. He was survived by his widow; the poet and artist May Muzaffar.

Work

In addition to his paintings and prints, Al Nasiri was interested in book art and produced a number of limited edition works, some of which detailed his experiences living in war-torn Baghdad (e.g., ''Al Mutanabi Street''). He also expressed his admiration for Iraq's 13th-century poets by producing art books art featuring Arabic calligraphy and with compilations of verse by renowned classical and contemporary Arab poets such as al-Mutannabi and

Mahmoud Darwish Mahmoud Darwish ( ar, محمود درويش, Maḥmūd Darwīsh, 13 March 1941 – 9 August 2008) was a Palestinian poet and author who was regarded as the Palestinian national poet. He won numerous awards for his works. Darwish used Palestine ...

. He also authored several books and a number of journal articles on the history of graphic art. His work is held in the permanent collections of a number of prestigious art museums in the Middle East, Asia and Europe, including: the Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad; Museum of Modern Art, Damascus; Jordan National Museum of Fine Arts, Amman; Darat Al Funun, Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman; Mathaf Museum of Arab Art, Qatar; Barjeel Foundation, Al Sharja, UAE; Institute Du Monde Arabe, Paris;

Modern Art Museum Museums of modern art listed alphabetically by country. Argentina * Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires (MALBA) * Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art (MAMBA) Australia *Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney ...

, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Graphic Art, Norway; Collection of the International Academy, Salzburg; Collection of the

Central Academy of Fine Arts The Central Academy of Fine Arts or CAFA is an art academy under the direct charge of the Ministry of Education of China. The Manila Bulletin calls the school "China’s most prestigious and renowned art academy". It is one of the most selectiv ...

, Beijing; Gravura, Lisbon, (

Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One o ...

); The

, London and the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and ...

, London. Select list of paintings and prints * ''Al Ahwar Girl,'' he Girl from the Marshes 1965 * ''From That Distant Land,'' collection of poetry by Mayy Muzaffar (limited edition art book) * ''Seven Days in Baghdad'' art book, mixed media on paper, 2007 * ''Al Mutanabi Street'' mixed media on hinged wood, 2007 Select list of exhibitions * ''Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art'' touring exhibition, opened in London, 2000 * ''Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art,'' touring exhibition, opened University of North Texas, USA, 2005 * ''Word into Art: Artists of the Modern Middle East,'' 18 May- 26 September 2006, curated by the British Museum, London; travelling exhibition also at the Dubai Financial Centre, 7 February – 30 April 2008 Select list of publications His key writings include: * ''Contemporary Graphic Art,'' (in Arabic), Beirut, Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 1997 * ''Horizons and Mirrors: Essays on Plastic Art,'' (in Arabic), Beirut, Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 2005 * ''My Journey to China,'' Beirut, Arab Institute for Research and Publishing, 2012, * "Arab Graphics," ''Ur,'' vol. 1, 1983, pp 12–17 * "Contemporary Iraqi Poster," ''Gilgamesh: A Journal of Modern Art,'' vol. 3, 1982, pp 6–12 * "Modern Iraqi Graphic Art," ''Gilgamesh: A Journal of Modern Art,'' vol. 1, 1987, pp 13–17 * "Survival through Art and the Art of Survival," ''International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies,'' vol. 3, no. 3, 2009, pp 259–175

Prizes and awards

Al Nasiri was awarded a number of prestigious art prizes:Nabad Art Gallery
Online:
/ref> * The Honors Prize at the 4th International Graphics Biennale, Fredrickstad (Norway) 1978 * The Jury Prize at the International Painting Exhibition, Cagnes-sur-mer (France) 1977 * The Honors Prize at the International Summer Academy, Salzburg (Austria) 1974 * First Prize at the Baghdad International Festival of Art, Baghdad (Iraq) 1986

References

External links

Modern Art Archive
- Digital resource developed and maintained by Iraqi artists and includes reproductions of artworks, many of which were looted from the Museum of Modern Art in 2003 and remain missing. These works are not accessible in any other reliable public source.

Life and career

Work

Prizes and awards

See also

References

External links

Further reading