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CONTENTS
SCIENTIFIC ETHICS STATEMENT ..................................................................... İ
TEZ KABUL VE ONAY .......................................................................................... İİ
FOREWORD ........................................................................................................... İİİ
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. İV
ÖZET .......................................................................................................................... V
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... Vİ
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... Vİİ
CHAPTER ONE ........................................................................................................ 1
1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1
1.1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .......................................................... 3
1.2. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH ............................................................................. 3
1.3. PROBLEMS OF THE RESEARCH .................................................................. 3
1.4. METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................ 4
1.5. LITRATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 4
CHAPTER TWO ....................................................................................................... 6
2. MODERN IRAQI PLASTIC ART BETWEEN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND FOLKLORE ..................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................. 29
3. METHOD ............................................................................................................. 29
3.1. RESEARCH MODEL ........................................................................................... 29
3.2. RESEARCH DATA ........................................................................................ 29
3.3. THE STUDY SAMPLES ................................................................................ 36
3.4. DATA COLLECTION .................................................................................... 36
3.5. THE ANALYSIS TOOL ................................................................................. 36
3.6. TOOL’S STABILITY ..................................................................................... 38
3.7. STATISTICAL MEANS ................................................................................. 39
CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................................... 40
4. FINDINGS ............................................................................................................ 40
4.1. THE LANGUAGE OF ART BETWEEN SUBJECTIVITY AND OBJECTIVITY IN THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE ARTIST JAWAD SELIM ... 40
4.2. ANALYTICAL STUDY OF PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE .................... 61
4.2.1. Painting of Two Boys and a Watermelon ................................................ 61
4.2.2. Painting of Street Wedding ...................................................................... 62
4.2.3. Painting of Young Man and His Wife ..................................................... 64
4.2.4. Freedom Monument Analysis .................................................................. 65
CHAPTER FIVE ...................................................................................................... 74
5. RESULTS ............................................................................................................. 74
5.1. CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................. 74
5.2. SUGGESTIONS .............................................................................................. 75
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 76
CURRICULUM VITAE .......................................................................................... 83
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SCIENTIFIC ETHICS STATEMENT
I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work.
23 / 11/ 2022
Hanaa Abdulrazzaq Ghdhaib AL-ABEDI
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Hanaa Abdulrazzaq Ghdhaib AL-ABEDI tarafından hazırlanan The Esthetic Discourse of the Artist Jawad Saleem's Works başlıklı bu çalışma, 23/11/2022 tarihinde yapılan Tez Savunma Sınavı sonucunda oybirliğiyle/oyçokluğuyla başarılı bulunarak jürimiz tarafından Sanat ve Tasarım Anabilim ayılı oturumunda belirlenen jüri tarafından kabul edilmiştir.

Praise be to God, in whose hand is all good and in whom all good deeds are accomplished, and after, I present to you today this research titled The Esthetic Discourse of the Artist Jawad Saleem's Works. I hope and aspire that it will be liked by all of you, and I hope that May God grant me success in presenting and writing this humble research. This research includes nearly all the information that you aspire to find in any research specialized in this topic. I promise that I will take into account all your directives and comments about my gratitude research, I mention the attention and follow-up to the supervising professor, Dr. Tuğba Çağlak Eker, and for the great trust, he gave to the researcher. I also extend my thanks and gratitude to the virtuousProfessor, Dr. Majid Nafeah Al - Kinani . for adopting the task of the second supervisor of this thesis, and for the guidance, direction, knowledge, and ability he showed in his patience and endurance in following the steps first and straightening him. This support motivated me to make more effort to provide the best. I also extend my thanks and appreciation to the directorship of the Institute of Fine Arts at Çankırı Karatekin University, represented by Professor Dr. Muhammad Emin Soydaş, for his assistance regarding academic and artistic matters. I also extend my thanks and gratitude to my husband and my mother for what they gave me all the support. I also thank all those who stood with me whom I did not mention.
23 / 11 / 2022
Hanaa Abdulrazzaq Ghdhaib AL-ABEDI
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ABSTRACT
Thesis Title: The Esthetic Discourse of the Artist Jawad Saleem's Works
Author: Hanaa Abdulrazzaq Ghdhaib AL-ABEDI
Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Tuğba ÇAĞLAK EKER
Thesis Type: Master’s
The purpose of this study is to determine the aesthetic discourse of the painting and sculpture works of the artist Jawad Selim. In the research, all the works of Jawad Selim, a innovative modern plastic artist, were examined, and three paintings and one sculpture were analyzed. The sample models were assessed using a tool developed for this purpose and presented to a panel of arbitrators to determine the validity coefficient. In line with the findings obtained as a result of the analysis, it has been evaluated that the works of the artist are defined by realism, abstraction and symbolism, as demonstrated by his popular paintings and the Freedom Monument. As a result, it has been determined that the artist Jawad Selim created an illumination that sheds light on innovative modern Iraqi plastic art, thanks to this generation who established their artistic identity with the awakening of Baghdad, whose memory was almost erased after being obliterated by the dust of events.
Keywords: discourse, esthetic, art, painting, sculpture.
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ÖZET
Tezin Başlığı : Sanatçı Jawad Saleem'in Eserlerinin Estetik Söylemi
TezinYazarı : Hanaa Abdulrazzaq Ghdhaib AL-ABEDI
Danışman : Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Tuğba ÇAĞLAK EKER
Tezin Türü : Yüksek Lisans
Bu çalışmanın amacı sanatçı Jawad Selim'in resim ve heykel eserlerinin estetik söylemini belirlemektir. Araştırmada çağdaş plastik sanatçısı olan Jawad Selim'in tüm yapıtları incelenmiş, üç resim ve bir heykel çalışması analiz edilmiştir. Örnek modeller bu amaçla geliştirilen bir araç kullanılarak değerlendirilmiş ve geçerlik katsayısının belirlenmesi için uzman görüşüne sunulmuştur. Analiz sonucunda elde edilen bulgular doğrultusunda sanatçının popüler resimlerinin ve Özgürlük Anıtı'nın gösterdiği gibi gerçekçilik, soyutlama ve sembolizm ile tanımlandığı değerlendirilmiştir. Sonuç olarak sanatçı Jawad Selim’in, yaşanan olayların tozu silindikten sonra hafızası neredeyse silinen Bağdat’ın uyanışı ile sanatsal kimliğini kuran bu nesil sayesinde, çağdaş Irak plastik sanatına ışık tutan bir aydınlatma yarattığı tespit edilmiştir.
Anahtar Kelimeler: söylem, estetik, sanat, resim, heykel.
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1. Analytical tools used in the study. ............................................................ 38
Table 3.2. Expert opinions which the Holesti equation was used for the agreement between analysts......................................................................................................... 38
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1. The Good Nights, 1950. .......................................................................... 14
Figure 2. 2. People, oil on canvas, 1952 .................................................................... 15
Figure 2.3. Al-Samoor, oil on canvas, 1970 .............................................................. 15
Figure 2.4. Untitled, oil on canvas. ............................................................................ 16
Figure 2.5. Bedouins, by Faeq Hassan, 1960. ............................................................ 16
Figure 2.6. The visit. .................................................................................................. 17
Figure 2.7. Untitled, oil on Canvas, by Faraj Abbou, 1977. ...................................... 17
Figure 2.8. Untitled, oil on Canvas, by Naziha Salim................................................ 18
Figure 2.9. Untitled, oil on canvas. ............................................................................ 19
Figure 2.10. The Dialectic of Darkness and Light. .................................................... 19
Figure 2.11. Untitled, oil on canvas, by Muhammad Ali Shaker............................... 20
Figure 2.12. Untitled, gouache on paper. ................................................................... 20
Figure 2.13. Untitled, oil on canvas. .......................................................................... 21
Figure 2.14. Two women, oil on canvas, 2012 .......................................................... 21
Figure 2.15. Untitled, 1999, by Nizar Hindawi ......................................................... 22
Figure 2.16. Untitled, oil on canvas. .......................................................................... 22
Figure 2.17. Untitled, oil on canvas. .......................................................................... 23
Figure 2.18. Untitled, oil on canvas. .......................................................................... 23
Figure 2.19. Obelisks of Clay, oil on canvas, by Hashem Hanoun, 2004.................. 24
Figure 2.20. Untitled, oil painting .............................................................................. 25
Figure 2.21. Untitled, oil on canvas. .......................................................................... 25
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Figure 2.22. Untitled, acrylic on paper, by Souad al-Attar. ....................................... 26
Figure 2.23. Untitled, acrylic on canvas. ................................................................... 27
Figure 2.24. Untitled, oil on canvas, 2009 ................................................................. 27
Figure 2.25. Untitled, Mix of original media on paper. ............................................. 28
Figure 3.26. Salome, sold at Bonhams for 66,980$, signed "Jewad Selim 1938" in Arabic (lower middle), 40 x 30cm (15 3/4 x 11 13/16in). ......................................... 29
Figure 3.27. Untitled, sold at Bonhams for $5,880. ................................................... 30
Figure 3.28. Women waiting, executed in 1943, 45 x 35cm (17 11/16 x 13 3/4in), sold for (202,184 $) inc. Premium. ............................................................................ 30
Figure 3.29. Back Gardens - Camden Town, signed and dated 'JEWAD SELIM 1947' (lower right), oil on board, 21 5/8 x 15¾in. (55 x 40cm.). ........................................ 30
Figure 3.30. Lamea, auctioned in 2015 for 225,181$, oil on canvas 61 x 46cm (24 x 18 1/8in). .................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 3.31. Nalini, an unfinished work, executed in 1949, oil on canvas 56 x 46cm, 22 x 18in.. ................................................................................................................... 31
Figure 3.32. Portrait of a girl, executed circa 1950, oil on canvas 69.2 by 50cm.; 27 1/4 by 19 3/4 in.. ........................................................................................................ 31
Figure 3.33. The farmer, 1950. .................................................................................. 32
Figure 3.34. Haider Khana Mosque, executed circa 1950s. On display at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts ..................................................................................... 32
Figure 3.35. The nap, executed circa 1950s ............................................................... 32
Figure 3.36. Two Girls, 1951, Barjeel Art Foundation. ............................................. 33
Figure 3.37. Woman Selling Goods, 1953, Barjeel Art Foundation. ......................... 33
Figure 3.38. The Melon Seller, 1953. Auctioned at Christie's for $873,454. ............ 33
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Figure 3.39. Young Man and Wife, 1953, oil on canvas 51,0 x 79,0 cm., auctioned at Bonhams for $336,000. .............................................................................................. 34
Figure 3.40. Portrait of Lorna Selim, pencil on paper, 1955, 27 x 21cm (10 5/8 x 8 1/4in). ......................................................................................................................... 34
Figure 3.41. Untitled, oil on canvas, 50,0 cm x 70,0 cm. .......................................... 34
Figure 3.42. The Lady and the Farmer's Son, 1958. .................................................. 35
Figure 3.43. Motherhood, Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad. ....................................... 35
Figure 3.44. Freedom Monument ‘Baghdad,’ established in 1961. ........................... 35
Figure 4.45. The Freedom Monument, established in 1961 by Jawad Salim, Baghdad. .................................................................................................................................... 66
Figure 4.46. Horse symbol on the Freedom Monument. .......................................... 66
Figure 4.47. The man and the woman, where they represent strength, reason, and wisdom in the freedom monument. ............................................................................ 67
Figure 4.48. A child evokes the picture of Jesus or the angels in Freedom Monument. .................................................................................................................................... 68
Figure 4.49. The symbol of a furious woman in the freedom monument. ................. 68
Figure 4.50. A woman weeps for the freedom martyr in the freedom monument. .... 69
Figure 4.51. The symbol of youth and revolution in the Freedom Monument. ......... 69
Figure 4.52. A Prisoner and freedom symbol at the Freedom Monument. ................ 68
Figure 4.53. Breaking prison bars and sunrise of freedom over the soldier. ............. 69
Figure 4.54. A woman holding a torch at the freedom monument. ........................... 69
Figure 4.55. A woman who represents peace and meditates with a forward-facing gaze after victory. ....................................................................................................... 70
Figure 4.56. The three women's symbols and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. ......... 72
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Figure 4.57. A symbol of strength and fertility in Mesopotamia. .............................. 73
Figure 4.58. Painting of two boys eating watermelon, oil on canvas, 1958, Baghdad Art Center. .................................................................................................................. 72
Figure 4.59. Painting of Street wedding, oil on fabric, 1957, the Arts Center in Baghdad...................................................................................................................... 72
Figure 4.60. Young Man and Wife, 1953, oil on canvas 51,0 x 79,0 cm. Auctioned at Bonhams for $336,000. .............................................................................................. 73
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CHAPTER ONE
1. INTRODUCTION
Art is considered a historical, humanitarian, and cultural phenomenon that may be shaped, debated, and promoted by legislation.
Arts are also a distinct aspect of human behavior, and knowledge can indeed be obtained through communicative means and interfered operations within a movable series conducted by an organized conscious that fits the final point and is capable of directing this particular course in its specialized texture regarding the two related mechanisms of thought and brain via a group of mutualism relationships (Al-Zamili, 2014, p. 133).
Accordingly, Abdul-Hameed stated that “accumulation of creative information is impossible without acknowledgment and remark on its creativity” (1987, p. 129), as well as its accuracy, which is often directed toward unveiling the unique and novel. Additionally, it can be characterized as profundity, completeness, and the capacity to select and choose among cumulative positions, experiences, and information that the creator may disclose to exert control over the cumulative knowledge and capacity to distinguish. They have performed operations on the entire image and are capable of distinguishing between what occurs on the outside, what occurs on the inside, and the intervening reactions. According to Herbert Read, an artist is just a human person who aspires and possesses the ability to translate sight recognition into a material figure, and the first component of his work is cognitive, while the second is expressive, and it is difficult to divorce the two operations.
Furthermore, Al-Mokaddam noted that human beings, and artists, have conducted their artistic endeavors within the community's broader cultural and social framework. He established all of his interests to please the public taste through its aesthetic experience, which may be expressed in its private products related to the artistic component through the use of many modes of expression in the accomplished artistic work.
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The artist is typically defined by talent and the ability to transform the raw materials he uses to express his thoughts and transform them into an innovative image with a high aesthetic feature. This image can have a variety of meanings and intellectual contents, and can occasionally be transformed into industrial products with a beneficial purpose (Al-Muqaddam, 1996, p.52).
The soul implies aesthetics and a desire to acquire it, avoiding the ugly. In addition, the poet's aesthetic sense, care for it, and selection of suitable items will refine his behavior and enhance his taste. Creative creativity and aesthetic ideals have a political component in humanitarian civilization. Any civilization devoid of aesthetic values and artistic expression is uninformed, unresponsive to the human senses, unsatisfied psychologically, and lacking in humanity. Thus, aesthetics and its principles are considered one of the complex and various forms centered on philosophers' and thinkers' ideas and thoughts. Humans exhibit their innate sense through imitation of creativity and new subjects' invention, according to Al-Khwaldah and Al-Tartoori. Esthetic listening meets a physical need (Al-Khawaldeh & Al-Tarturi, 2006, p. 45).
The researcher believes that artists can develop an aesthetic discourse by using one of the formative systems that comprise aspects linked with diverse relationships. Because art is a form of communication, three things must be investigated: the aesthetic status, the creator, and the recipient. Aesthetic discourse is used in painting and sculpture based on the same psychological, cognitive, and analytic system. Symbolism can be evident in artworks about freedom, womanhood, horses, and others. He drew on his excellent performing talents to create an original and local art developed from referential heritage and social beginnings. Words, conversations, or textual processing represent a subject's or artist's concept expression signal. For example, De Saussure used it to communicate concepts about the linguistic extension as a whole logic. Then philosophers like Roland Barthes used this phrase or language to name a finished field. Michel Foucault, a thinker and cultural historian developed the term speech to define each age's expression method (Michel, 2007, pp. 18-37).
The researcher had several questions concerning this artistic phenomenon: In painting and sculpture, what is the aesthetic discourse of Jawad Saleem?
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1.1. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The artist Jawad Saleem in Modern Iraqi art, especially for his artistic ability and superior skills, accomplished remarkable artistic achievements, which are worthy of being examined, evaluated, and criticized objectively using the scientific and academic methodology. His achievements aided the Modern Art Rules in Iraq. The current research tries to identify Jawad Saleem's aesthetic discourse in painting and sculpture.
1.2. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
The current research aims to identify the aesthetic discourse of the artist Jawad Selim's works in painting and sculpture.
1.3. PROBLEMS OF THE RESEARCH
The current research problem is based on the aesthetic discourse of the works of the artist Jawad Selim, characterized by artistic creativity, which constituted a critical factor that produced, according to jurisprudence, images bearing an aesthetic discourse in the field of painting and sculpture. These works were carried out according to an interconnected system of perceptual mental processes that explain the general order that bestowed on the image of the artwork a form and meaning characterized by beauty. Symbolism can be found in those artworks that deal with different themes, such as freedom, women, horses, and others. The artist possesses a creative ability represented by a unique understanding of the artistic process and its interventions and manufacture through the performing skills that formed praise and composition for his artworks based on references. These references the artist was able to draw inspiration from to produce authentic local art derived from heritage and social origins, so the researcher put the following question to answer this artistic phenomenon:
 What is the aesthetic discourse of the artist Jawad Selim's work in painting and sculpture?
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1.4. METHODOLOGY
Since the purpose of this study is to uncover the aesthetic discourse of the paintings and sculptures of artist Jawad Selim, this study focuses on painting and sculpture. In this line, the researcher has constructed her study processes using a descriptive, analytic approach, which is the most appropriate scientific method for achieving the research objective. First of all, the language of art between subjectivity and objectivity in the production of the artist was examined by analyzing the document, then 3 selected paintings and a sculpture were analyzed in the context of aesthetic discourse.
1.5. LITRATURE REVIEW
Since the current study aims to identify the aesthetic discourse of the works of the artist Jawad Selim in the fields of painting and sculpture, so the researcher reviewed a set of previous studies but focused on two studies that were found closest to the current study, namely:
The first study: Hamid Abbas Mikhe'if Khalif Al-Mamouri, (1999), a doctoral dissertation from the University of Baghdad- College of Fine Arts.
The research is entitled ‘Analysis of pictorial relations in the drawings of the artist Jawad Selim’. Al-Mamouri's study aimed to know the pictorial relations, symbols, artistic qualities, symbols, and artistic forms used in the drawings of ‘Al-Baghdadiyat’ by the artist Jawad Selim from the period 1941 to 1961. The number of samples used in the research was 31 artworks. The Analysis is through the Analysis of pictorial relationships. The researcher found that the similarities and inferences between the current study of the researcher and the study of Al-Mamouri are in the selection of samples that contain the drawings of the luncheons. Al-Mamouri's study deals with photography, while the current study deals with painting and sculpture.
Second study: The study of Muhammad Gloub Al-Kinani, (2009) is entitled ‘The formation systems in the drawings of the artist Jawad Selim: An analytical study.’
The study was published in the Academic Journal, (52), 2009, Baghdad. Al-Kinani's study aimed at the composition formulas in the drawings of Jawad Selim, and it
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focused on artworks drawn with oil on canvas and watercolors on paper. Al-Kinani also allocated a group of works according to years and importance from 1951 to 1961, where the researcher took three works from each year representing the research community. Al-Kinani followed the descriptive analytical method in analyzing his research sample. The researcher also found that the similarities and differences between the current study of the researcher and the study of Al-Kinani are in the way the descriptive analytical method is used in the research samples. Al-Kinani also dealt with the study of drawing in the artworks of Jawad Selim, while the current study dealt with drawing and sculpture.
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CHAPTER TWO
2. MODERN IRAQI PLASTIC ART BETWEEN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND FOLKLORE
Art is a phenomenon or type of human activity that has existed throughout the long history of several human civilizations. In addition, its relevance arises from the fact that it is an intrinsic part of the action that determines the entirety of human culture and civilization. And its evolution, despite art's close and direct engagement with the countless active forces in the development of civilization throughout history.
Hence, art is a distinct phenomenon in human behavior. It originated with man's upbringing and evolved throughout human history to embrace the forms and methods imposed by each occupation. These difficulties have changed, driving man to seek answers that are, in fact, a succession of innovations that reflect continuously updated forms, models, and procedures that accompany him at all times (Abu Shaira, 2006). Moreover, Susan Langerstated that art is not a reproduction of reality; rather, it is a universe that exists in and of itself and is strange because it is a symbol that did not previously exist. Conventional influences in a manner that displays their unique significance for emotion and feeling (Sadiq, 1992, p. 16).
According to Emhas, and Mahmod, art is “inextricable from the web of social connections. Even if its approaches and methods of interpretation differ, the artwork is a formative model that clarifies the relationships between these two worlds, between man and the external world”, when viewed as merely a mirror in which the external world is reflected, or as merely contexts that reflect a world in the process of emerging (Amhaz, 2009, p. 7).
Vision and ideas are derived from the modes of expression and presentation approaches (Suef, 1981). From another aspect, art is viewed as a language and a vessel that transports aesthetic content, aesthetic experience, culturally articulated cultural experience, and self-expression in an artistic composition. It also represents a medium of social communication, a form of representation, and a moral tool for reconnaissance, as well as an architectural and building style that reflects the desire to create something beautiful.
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Art is incorrectly attributed to visual, aural, or textual artwork, as well as others, in which aesthetic and artistic traits and values are expressed through form and content. However, art logically symbolizes the internal process of the human being, which results from emotional and mental exchanges that attempt to translate thoughts or feelings into a communicative message that can be communicated to the recipient and affect him. As a result, their responses vary according to the individual's interests and desires, depending on whether he is a connoisseur, viewer, listener, art practitioner, educated student, critic, historian, artist, philosopher, and others. Not everyone responds the same way to works of art due to many factors, including the recipient's culture and the degree of coexistence and sympathy with the work (Ghrab, 1993, pp. 1-3).
Consistent actions with impressions, acquired experiences, psychological state, mental attitudes, and those of others. According to Shawky, the artwork is a "stimulus" or "sensory stimulation" that causes a series of psychological interactions and compels attention and observations when confronted. The artwork, whether it is a painting, a piece of music, a theatrical part, or a film scene, must have a unique arrangement of stimuli or stimuli in place or time, which are stimuli consisting of lines, spaces, areas of color, and textures in the visual field. While they are composed of sounds in audio art or a blend of sounds and images in cinematic art (Shawky, 2000, p. 3).
Moreover, the aesthetic language strongly associated with various social activities is abundant. Moreover, the art form that expresses the particular and the personal is communicative and social, which contributes to the social personality of the artist. He has had experience and was able to control it, change it into memory, the memory into an expression, and matter into a shape.
Art is an explanation of the apparent interest in the artistic movements and their intellectual tendencies that belong to that age or the time during which civilizations passed, or by the artist creating artworks that embodied the reality of man and the occurrences he experienced. Throughout art's lengthy history, its effects have been manifested following the permeation of the means of connection between one age
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and the next, ever since the development of diverse human civilizations in distinct conceptual and structural approaches and techniques. Therefore, new photographs depict the effectiveness of the aesthetic influence (Hadi, 2018).
The ideas of most Iraqi artists, especially Jawad Selim, the subject of the current research, were formed from artistic elements that were derived from the civilization of Mesopotamia, especially the Sumerian arts and the Akkadian arts, which were achieved in his artistic achievements, because there is a specificity that Mesopotamian innovations possessed in terms of influence in various directions, including the methods of plastic arts and arts. The other has achieved permanence and sustainability. Civilization is the fruit of every effort made by man to improve the conditions of his social life, whether intended or not. The social system helps man to increase his cultural production. Civilization consists of four elements: economic resources, political systems, ethical traditions, and the pursuit of sciences and arts.
The Sumerians represent the original inhabitants of Iraq, whose wars were documented in scenes that emerged with the obelisk of eagles or eagles and the obelisk of victory for King Naram Sin. It can also find that the Akkadians triumphed over other peoples. Those victories were documented through prominent wall sculpture, scenes of lion hunting, battles of the Assyrian civilization, and the Assyrian expressive tragedy documented in the art of sculpture. Also, Iraqi plastic art was influenced by the Ottoman Empire that administered Iraq.
Plastic artists were able to draw inspiration from this empire, characterized by its artistic achievements specific to our current time. This artistic inspiration was done by recording the social and political scenes according to the variables and reasons reflected in the artistic reality and borrowing those scenes that left their impact on the fine art product. This artistic embodiment can be seen in the works of most Iraqi artists, including the artist Jawad Selim, who was affected by these changes in the visual art scene and the intellectual discourse that carries expressive and symbolic meanings.
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The innovative modern Iraqi artist was also influenced by European art, especially the Cubist school, which established an artistic direction that took geometric shapes as a basis for building the artwork, which began to be evident in the works of the artist Jawad Selim, especially the subjects that were inspired by the popular arts in a cubist style that represented a basis for building the artwork. This school is based on the theory of plural crystallization, in which geometry is the origins of bodies so; that its art used straight lines and the curved line, so the shapes were either cylindrical or spherical with the appearance of square and flat geometric shapes in the spaces surrounding the subject. These elements can be seen in the diversity of the geometric spaces that Jawad Selim used to implement the shapes according to the diversity of lines and directions, as will be discussed in the coming chapters.
The innovative modern Iraqi plastic art has unquestionably undergone several transformations as its artistic generations presented significant artistic experiences in the fields of vision, technology, and contemporary understanding of the role of art and methods of presenting it to the recipient, regarding the influence of modern European and later American art on Iraq's artistic experiences as a whole. Nonetheless, these endeavors' identity, significance, and actual influence were derived from the vast aesthetic history of Mesopotamian and Islamic art in Iraq. The evidence is that these influences imposed themselves on the diverse experiences of the vast majority of artists from Arab and Islamic countries; however, the Iraqi experience was distinguished by many of these experiences despite the limited institutional capacities of Iraqi media and materialism. Perhaps this is the product of a culture preoccupied with the scourge of war and politics for many painful decades (Al-Sultani & Al-raji, 2022, p. 7).
Thus, the history of modern and contemporary art in Iraq is intertwined with many experiences and influences that led to its growth and development and significantly shaped its direction and pathways. In the 1950s, there was friction between the new Western culture and the indigenous culture infused with Arab Islamic values (Al-Said, 1983, p. 153).
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A question may be raised regarding the extent to which cultural heritage influences the language of the current artist, and to answer this question; it can be stated that there have been requests for defining characteristics of social life and knowledge boundaries, as well as catching up with global civilization; it is vital to identify these components. In contrast to cries for emancipation and a serious search for a distinct national identity that takes its components from heritage, filling the present with past experiences and searching for the origins of old civilizational achievements whose proof is still fresh in minds and realities. From this perspective, Mesopotamian cultural and Islamic history and folklore contributed significantly to the modern and current Iraqi development by providing an inexhaustible pool of intellectual facts and aesthetic experiences and arguments for the relevance of the legacy and the necessity of drawing inspiration from it in artistic work that is appropriate for the times developed (Al-Rubaie, 1972, p. 22).
On the borders of Iraq, plastic art experiments have adopted the processes of the symbol in quest of the gems that determine the visual reality and adhere to spiritual ideals. This causes to observe that the average visual accomplishment does not coincide totally with the data of visible reality nor with its awareness of the boundaries of the symbol. Between them, the Iraqi artist attempted to invoke a more dynamic universe and the dialectic of the world of the self. This subjectivity and the accompanying transformations and intellectual and performance proposals, in addition to the aesthetic, have opened the door to the manifestations of modern thought, beginning with the accomplishments of the artist Jawad Selim celebrating the symbol and symbolism which alters the nature of nature in the direction of different aesthetic values at the expense of functions (Al-Moussawi, 2022, p. 22).
From another side, the Baghdad Modern Art Group raised the issue of modern art's influence on heritage in 1951. It was able to express a vision of the future and orientalism for its founding role in searching for the characteristics of contemporary Iraqi art and adopting the local as a point of departure for the global (Kamel, 1997, p. 27). Due to his alienation from artistic currents, the Iraqi artist's work is based on materialistic, logical grounds that contradict the spiritual core of his artistic legacy.
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Through innovative and original contributions, the challenge of creative originality encountered by the artist in developing his artwork is one of the most critical and intricate philosophical issues. As it relates to the mental and emotional processes of the creative artist, from which his creative work and its link to emotional and aesthetic values derive, it is essential to the creative process. As the artist represented the first philosophical problems, or as Jerome Stolntez notesin his constructivist fallacies: The origin of a thing is one thing, and the thing itself is another thing, as soon as it begins to appear until it acquires a new life with its characteristics and qualities. Others followed in succeeding periods, presenting new interpretations of philosophical, scientific, and aesthetic foundations (Al-Damluji, 2021, p. 11).
The difficulty of creative originality faced by the artist during the development of his artwork is one of the most crucial and complex philosophical topics. It is vital to the creative process because it connects to the mental and emotional processes of the creative artist, from which his creative work and its connection to emotional and aesthetic values arise. As the artist depicted the first philosophical issues, or as Jerome Stolntez states in his constructivist fallacies: “The beginning of a thing is one thing, and the thing itself is another, from the moment it begins to appear until it gets its features and qualities” (Jerome, 1981, p. 124). Others followed in later eras, giving novel interpretations of philosophical, scientific, and artistic foundations via imaginative and original contributions.
As a result of this fallacy, several issues have been raised regarding the artistic creativity of man throughout civilizations in general and the artist in particular. These questions serve as a cover for the gaps in the interpretation of artistic creativity. Among these questions (Abda, 1999, p. 8):
 Does the artist possess knowledge, vision, and will over his creations?
 Is the artist unconscious during the receipt and expression of art?
 Where do the creative inspirations for his artistic creations originate?
 What methods does the artist utilize to exhibit his or her work?
To answer these questions, thus, modern and contemporary Iraqi plastic art has a prominent presence in the artistic and plastic arena, whether at the local or Arab level
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in the domains of arts and literature, particularly in terms of the aesthetics of the symbol of the cultural and widespread legacy. As it turns out, the ancient arts of the East were preoccupied with the mechanisms of the sign and its uses in painting and sculpture. As one of the manifestations of modernization, the visual error within the limits of Iraqi plastic art became interested in creating expressive and aesthetically pleasing forms within the concept of the symbol or the symbol in art, which is dependent on laws and relationships in artistic formation. Thus, modern and contemporary Iraqi plastic art has a prominent presence in the artistic and plastic arena, whether at the local or Arab level in the domains of arts and literature, particularly in terms of the aesthetics of the symbol of the cultural and widespread legacy.
The process of shedding light on the plastic artistic experiences of modern and contemporary Iraqi art and the mechanisms of symbolism or symbolism in the art within the framework of thought and philosophy to provide cognitive precursors and symbolic and aesthetic approaches to this art establishes for others an epistemological reference to the Iraqi formation that celebrates the mechanisms of symbol and coding. In addition to using his memories imbued with the cultural history of the symbolic as a reference point for developing his creative ideas, the artist also draws inspiration from his cultural background. The legitimacy he held in the visual discourse and its symbolism as a result of the multitude of meanings and vocabulary shortened and inspired by the artist's comprehension of societal culture was reflected in his artistic works.
There is another question related to the extent of the artistic ability of the artist, Jawad Selim, and how these capabilities effectively contribute to gaining new abilities in the field of painting and sculpture. The answer to this question is that the Iraqi artist has recognized that the cultural and popular heritage left by the Mesopotamian civilization has qualities that make them an easy-to-use formative vocabulary in modern or contemporary painting. Specifically, the artist Shaker Hassan emphasizes that “Jawad Selim experimented with this as he considered the worth and realism of this work. Faiq Hassan and Ismail Al-Sheikhly are about to
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draw artistic inspiration from the Bedouin lifestyle and their artistic legacy” (Al-Said, 1983, p. 187).
The recommendations of Sati' Al-Hosari also played an active part in directing the artists' attention to heritage and incorporating its features in their works and in establishing a distinct motivation for heritage and heritage. Moreover, to establish contact with his intellectual background and deal with it within the modernism or contemporary milieu in which he resides, as well as to add new aesthetic values (Cholars, 1982, p. 405).
Hence, the Baghdad Modern Art Group acted as a genuine and current Iraqi art that could use its national peculiarity as a gateway to the rest of the world (Al-Rawi, 1962, p. 38). Iraqi art required a more inclusive human nature and a distinct national face to qualify for building, growth, continuity, and development.
Understanding and integrating legacy was a vital necessity that helped bridge the gap between Arab and Islamic aesthetic notions and the predominately European aesthetic concepts to present art acceptable in a society heavily influenced by its heritage. It is impossible to disregard the country's heritage in a country with the world's oldest civilization. Most artists of the 1950s obtained their academic training in European nations, thus keenly aware of these distinctions (Jabra, 1970, p. 4).
A final question arises whether Jawad Selim is a crucial component of his culture and folklore. It was reflected in the viewpoints of some artists in general and the artist Jawad Selimin particularly regarding the issue of heritage inspiration. The return to the ancient, Islamic, and famous past was an indication that rejuvenation should be the product of a thorough inquiry, as it was motivated by a desire to enrich present experiences (Kamel, 1997, p. 27).
Much of the adoption of the modernism project in contemporary Iraqi plastic art, with its abilities, was able to develop an aesthetic composition with history, spirit, and social importance. Jawad Selim was able to integrate the form of artwork that relies on heritage vocabulary with contemporary subject matter about the particulars of social life in the 1950s (Elite group of researchers, 1985, p. 399). In addition, the
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artist's understanding of popular culture led him to create works based on traditional techniques with the limitations of two-dimensional drawing and the avoidance of the third dimension by projecting light equally on all parts of a painting, straightforwardly depicting movement, and coordinating it with the rest of the structural formations (See Figure 1).
Accordingly, Jawad Selim simplified the appearance of his works while filling them with many symbols to make art conscious of its civilized presence in the world's modern currents (Elite group of researchers, 1985, p. 27).
As for Shaker The inheritance of culture and folklore take its rightful place as a science in its own right, the aim of which is to elevate society to a higher level by intensifying art displays according to how they are categorized. Inclusion of the cultural heritage curriculum only within the academic programs offered by colleges and institutes of fine arts. The student then discovers the creative part and the originality of the work, which consists of plastic works that utilized the legacy, followed by an image of the ancient artistic achievement and an attempt to clarify how to apply the legacy. Hassan Al-Saeed, the significant experience of this artist began with the world as a visual experience and switched to his concept of the world as a feeling and thought, and this was a shift filled with grief from the embodied to the abstract, is always the local populace. The artist has transitioned through some genres whose form and content were initially taken from popular motifs (Jabra, p. 85). It combines writing with primitive artwork, focusing its content on folk tales in
Figure 2.1. The Good Nights, 1950, (Al-Rawi, 2016).
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an analytical approach that reduces subjective vocabulary to its most basic and unrestricted forms, with minimal interpretive content, see Figure 2.
As for Nizar Selim, he dealt with the popular Baghdadi themes that were embodied in the large eyes and the superimposed lines of specific flat colors, as well as other local connotations that complemented folklore, as they entered aesthetic and symbolic elements expressive of his subject painting that blended modern technology, see Figure 3.
Kazem Haidar addressed the mythical tendency in the saying of good and evil that was established within a technical building that illustrates the pushing action of the contemporary contents of a design space by expressing the human tragedy (See Figure 4). Approaching abstraction through cubic formal units defined by structural lines for balanced color spaces based on the idea of the contrast between what is known and what is communicated through the painting system (Al-Said, 1983, p. 58.). Figure 2.2. People, oil on canvas, 1952, (Shabout, 2008).
Figure 2.3. Al-Samoor, oil on canvas, 1970, (Salim, n.d.).
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In the 1960s, there was a trend that prioritized content above form. Thus it moved to abstraction from the diagnostic - that is, the form was given with a sense of social meaning and an epic character through popular signs (Al-Said, 1982, pp. 39-43). This demonstrates that art's human and social contents take into account the reality of the environment and surroundings, simulating the visible external world to attain a civilized personality. It permitted each artist to utilize it based on his artistic vision and aesthetic preferences. Faeq Hassan moved to paint rural and Bedouin landscapes with limitations and their relationship to reality; therefore, his artistic experience remained a reflection of social life at its core, see Figure 5. Folk rugs as a vocabulary of local connection found their way into his works, and he deftly managed his performance and developed chromatic sensibility to question its realistic and popular spirit and artistic color values (Al-Rawi, 1962, p. 25).
Figure 2.4. Untitled, oil on canvas, Kadhim Hayder (Wikimedia commons, n.d.).
Figure 2.5. Bedouins, by Faeq Hassan, 1960, (Al-Ansari, 2022).
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While the artist Ismail Al-Sheikhly tends to reflect the characteristics of the Iraqi hamlet and its inhabitants and the tranquil rhythm of village life, he also creates symbolic works inspired by his views. It mobilizes folk heritage language such as domes, minarets, antique windows, the Iraqi woman in her cloak, and the Iraqi man in his keffiyeh to produce a homogeneous unity in all these words (See Figure 6). As well as the rug's inspiration, his decorations have hues distinct from their original hues, as determined by his examination of color, which placed its use within the constraints of the aesthetic experience associated with the setting and the Iraqi environment (Kamel, 1980, p. 146).
As for the artist Faraj Abbou, he selected common themes and Baghdadi features in which the goals of the Baghdad group of contemporary art have inspired his works, confirming his loyalty to the Islamic folk heritage through a simplification of form and color (Selim, 1977, p. 121). He also utilized triangles and suns with bent rays to create a rich folkloric mood until they were reduced to basic fillers located behind a crucial architectural structure, see Figure 7.
Figure 2.6. The visit, Ismail Al-Sheikhly (Al-Sheikhly, 1971).
Figure 2.7. Untitled, oil on Canvas, by Faraj Abbou, 1977, (Al-Nasiri, 2017).
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Integrating folklore in contemporary painting was a significant aesthetic achievement that brought the attention of numerous artists to the value and formal and content richness of this vocabulary. Because it has a spiritual connection to the Iraqi individual, it enhances his sense of belonging to the land and community, as in the works of Nizar Selim, whose creative vision sought to combine prevalent realism and contemporary art with a social commitment (Al-Rubaie, 1986, p. 60).
The artist Naziha Saleem was interested in popular culture and what occurs in Iraqi households, with her distinct passion for depicting the famous. She addressed the essence of Iraqi fashion and human issues while simplifying and enhancing the designs with vivid colors, see Figure 8.
Accordingly, people have utilized folklore by applying the feature of decorating with its exquisite details, as well as the adoption of powerful lines and concepts evocative of Islamic miniatures. The character of the composition and then the nature of the transformation of the forms are visible in the works of the Iraqi artist, as it stimulates the heritage material with folk themes ‘weddings, jinn tales’ in a realistic manner for content folk literature (See Figure 9). Moreover here was a trend that emphasized the union of form and content in artistic works, accompanied by the instability of forms and their tendency toward abstraction, i.e., without a diagnosis. Through popular indicators, the form was presented with a spirit of social content and an epic personality (Al-Said, 1983, p. 58-60). Folklore became a language with exceptional expressive power, allowing each artist to adapt it to his aesthetic vision while retaining its historical roots, the intellectual and technical maturity of the Iraqi artist, and his openness to other cultures (Kamel, 1977, p. 41).
Figure 2.8. Untitled, oil on Canvas, by Naziha Selim (Al-Nasiri, 2017).
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This allowed him to draw subjectively on the civilizational and widespread legacy. In the mythical topics of Dia Azzawi and symbolic of Mahoud Ahmed, as well as trends that adopted their abstract aesthetic value by Rafea Al-Nasiri and Salman Abbas that preserved the Iraqi environment, such as Muhammad Ali Shaker and Khudair Al-Shakurji, symbolic value and moral implications were investigated, see Figures 10 & 11).
Figure 2.9. Untitled, oil on canvas, Fouad Jihad (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-a).
Figure 2.10. The Dialectic of Darkness and Light, Dia Azzawi (Al-Nasiri, 2013).
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The artist's concern in reconciling ideas and application provided a platform for creativity that rescued him from the adverse effects of dividing form and content. They understood heritage as a unit of form and content while clarifying form and technique. The artist Dia Al-Azzawi appreciates his knowledge and bias toward tradition, his primary resource for generating structural forms and contents. His works connect a local psychological and intellectual reality (Al-Said, 1983, p. 67). (See Figure 12).
The lexicon of the Iraqi culture leaves a specific impression. Also, Khudair Al- Shukraji's perspective traces the impact of the interaction between man, civilization, and legacy and attempts to govern their connections. Moreover, his approach to abstraction remains an authentic local approach through the folk arts of rugs, which
Figure 2.11. Untitled, oil on canvas, by Muhammad Ali Shaker.
Figure 2.12. Untitled, gouache on paper, Dia Azzawi (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-e).
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give his works their distinctive character, and the transformation of the form and its unification with a decorative system in which the painting is treated as an integrated unit, distinctly separating the background from the facade, see Figure 13.
The artist's Star Luqman work has an epic, joyous atmosphere that portrays the human condition as an all-encompassing, ongoing struggle. This epic struggle, however, is typically disguised by cosmic symbols, such as the crescent, and frequently coexists with Mesopotamian fertility symbols, such as motherhood and
the sacred bull, see Figure 14.
Figure 2.14. Two women, oil on canvas, Star Luqman (Star Luqman, n.d.).
Figure 2.13. Untitled, oil on canvas, Khudair Al-Shukraji (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-f).
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Nizar Al-Hendawi is a folklore-focused artist. He portrays folk tales in a manner that derives the majority of his techniques, colors and lines, and compositional structures from the manner of the Baghdad School of Islamic Painting (see figure 15). His affinity for folklore and ‘Tales One Thousand and One Nights’ cannot be underestimated (Kame, 2008, pp. 182-183).
Figure 2.15. Untitled, 1999, by Nizar Hindawi, (Nizar Al-Hindawi, 2018).
The artist Salman Abbas employed the forms of domes, minarets, and ancient Shanasheel to enrich the spaces with an internal movement to rhythm the blocks and is subject to an abstract treatment. Each part of the painting maintains its connection with the ocean, despite the presence of sharp cuts sometimes through the line and color (Al-Rubaie, 1972, p. 73).
Many famous Islamic vocabularies are distributed on the surface, such as Arabic letters, swords, the palm of Abbas, and decorative units taken from popular rugs, see Figure 16.
Figure 2.16. Untitled, oil on canvas, Salman Abbas (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-b).
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The works of Amer Al-Obaidi highlight the themes of the Arab horses, which convey the heroism, the French, the revolution, the struggle against the forces of evil, the height of the banners, and the alignment of the horses, and inspire them to engage in combat drugs (Jabra, p. 22) see Figure 17.
Figure 2.17. Untitled, oil on canvas, Amer Al-Obaidi (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-c).
As for Mahmoud Ahmed said, “he derives his artistic topics and terminology from various southern Iraqi customs and traditions, creating between actual form and symbolic content” (Al-Rubaie, 1979, p. 66), see Figure 18.
As it appeared on the surface, the significance of the Iraqi artist in contemporary Arab and worldwide art emerged when the art was liberated from imitation and old molds, and the artist realized the worth of the inheritance resides in applying it with
Figure 2.18. Untitled, oil on canvas, Mahmoud Ahmed (Ibrahimi, n.d.-b).
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modern techniques. Artwork no longer tries to establish a relationship between taste and reality or a social value but rather with the creative forces driving beauty. He grew independent in establishing his posture and standing at the most creative and profound phenomena to fulfill his goal (Kamel, 1997, p. 65).
Experience has prompted the artist to use folklore in painting in a formal approach that achieves aesthetic satisfaction and moves away from ambiguity of vision by creating the artwork's aspects. Hashem Hanoun's work is heavily influenced by old Iraqi art (see figure 19). At that point in his work, he emphasized the importance of content in painting, using famous heritage as symbols and analogies to the real world.
The artist Fakher Muhammad constructed his vision on a formal basis that hides cursive cases and color spaces that do not mirror a particular facilitator. He produces an interior discussion generated by work relationships and spiritual forms, not sensory and unacceptable internal forces of debate (Abdul Amir, 1998), see Figure 20. Figure 2.19. Obelisks of Clay, oil on canvas, Hashem Hanoun, (Hashem Hanoun, n.d.)
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Hassan Abdel Alwan does not describe objective nature or abstract ideas; he depicts his subjective thoughts and expresses them in numerous visible manifestations or distorts them in some areas to get him closer to weirdness (Jabra, p. 24), see Figure 21.
The artist Souad Al-Attar drew inspiration from the folklore on multiple levels of her artistic experience, getting inspiration from the cultural jewel on both formal and content levels. On the first level, it addressed the concept of fecundity by examining heritage forms and interpreting them through a modernist experience of a symbolic
Figure 2.20. Untitled, oil painting, Fakher Muhammad (Al-Dulaimi, 2018)
Figure 2.21. Untitled, oil on canvas, Hassan Abdel Elwan (Ibrahimi Collection, n.d.-d).
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character or direction. A kind determined in most instances by her desire to link the consciousness of time, the forms close to old arts, and her awareness of customs and superficial situations; thus, she devoted her creative propensity to both of them (Kamel, 1981, p. 155), see Figure 22.
Some dealt with the heritage material in a realistic direction and a style 'pictorial, documentary' that aims to archive a subject, a specific event, a popular event, or a festive ritual, recorded through a plastic board bearing apparent academic features, and a study of the painting with its complete formative elements and social implications.
That exerted tremendous pressure on the particular art form. Within the idealism of the familiar and characterized by its fixed and conventional identity, at least in the social issue, it is awe-inspiring for the artist to deal with these components in terms of importance or priority. The situation is that this trend's experiences have adopted a perspective or concept that prioritizes sensory detail over others. In managing and controlling the distinct external appearances, each artist's experiences become apparent in Mayasser Al-Qadi, Nashaat Al-Alusi, and Hussam Abdel-Mohsen (Abdul Amir, 2004, p. 114), see Figures 23 & 24.
Figure 2.22. Untitled, acrylic on paper, Souad al-Attar, (Al-Zaqura, n.d.).
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As for the artist Wedad Orfali, she constantly re-furnishes her paintings in an endless cycle of Fantasia, believing that her units are derived from Arab-Islamic architectural memory and her imagination, therefore she borrows the aesthetics of domes and lighthouses. She used stars and plant floral adornment to integrate her envisaged architectural area with others (Al-Jazaery, 1997, p. 52). A style of abstraction characterizes the mystical trend, which views the sky as an infinite space, see Figure 25. Figure 2.23. Untitled, acrylic on canvas, (Ibrahim, n.d.-a).
Figure 2.24. Untitled, oil on canvas, 2009, (Al-Ansari, 2022)
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Figure 2.25. Untitled, Mix of original media on paper, (Ibrahim, n.d.-b).
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CHAPTER THREE
3. METHOD
In this section, the methods and techniques used in the research are explained.
3.1. RESEARCH MODEL
This research is an example of qualitative research methods and techniques with its descriptive structure. In the descriptive part of the study, first of all, document analysis was carried out to reach the data. Then, the works of the artist were examined, and the works to be analyzed as a result of certain stages were determined and a descriptive work analysis was made.
3.2. RESEARCH DATA
The research data consists of a collection of artworks, paintings, and sculptures created by the artist Jawad Selim between 1931 and 1961, as identified through sources, literature, and the Internet; these artworks can be seen in the following Figures 26 to 44).
Figure 3.26. ‘Salome’, Jawed Selim (Bonhams, n.d.).
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Figure 3.29. Back Gardens - Camden Town, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.27. Untitled, Jawed Selim (Sagharchi, 2014).
Figure 3.28. Women waiting, Jawad Selim (Sagharchi, 2014).
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Figure 3.30. Lamea, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.31. Nalini, an unfinished work, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.32. Portrait of a girl, oil on canvas, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
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Figure 3.33. The farmer, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.34. Haider Khana Mosque, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.35. The nap, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
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Figure 3.36. Two Girls, Barjeel Art Foundation, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.37. Woman Selling Goods, Barjeel Art Foundation, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.38. The Melon Seller, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
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Figure 3.39. Young Man and Wife, oil on canvas, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.40. Portrait of Lorna Selim, pencil on paper, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.41. Untitled, oil on canvas, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
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Figure 3.42. The Lady and the Farmer's Son, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.43. Motherhood, Jawad Selim (Saleem, 2006).
Figure 3.44. Freedom Monument, Baghdad, Jawad Selim (Al-Khalil & Makiya, 1991).
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3.3. THE STUDY SAMPLES
From the research group, a random sample of four models was selected, including three models in the field of painting and one model in the field of sculpture.
3.4. DATA COLLECTION
The study conducted two types of the first survey studies to identify the sources and literature that dealt with the artistic biography of the artist Jawad Salim in particular and the Iraqi plastic art in general, as well as the studies researched in the field of plastic arts, particularly about the art of painting or sculpture. Regarding the second study, the objective was to determine the opinions of writers, critics, and specialists in plastic arts regarding the style, presentation techniques, and raw materials utilized by the artist Jawad Selim in his artistic works.
3.5. THE ANALYSIS TOOL
A suitable tool must be accessible to examine the sample models. It was formed on the optical surface of his works, style, display techniques, elements, and compositional foundations. As an analytical tool, seven secondary axes connected to the visual description and kind of metaphor in the works of artist Jawed Selim were derived from a primary axis. Furthermore, the institutional references upon which he depended on the inspiration of symbols and terminology, see Table 1. The Main axis The Secondary axis The sub-axis achieved by the degree of: large do not come true To some extent
The aesthetic discourse of the productions of the artist Jawad Selim
Visual description of artistic production
Metaphorsfor the symbol
Human
Vegetarian
Geometric
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Animal
Diverse
Institution referencesfor the symbol
Religious
Social
Historical
Environmental
Style and trend
Realistic
Abstract
Expressive
Mental (imaginary)
Materials and display techniques
Oil colors
Waterproof
Collage
pastel colors
Gypsum
Copper
İron
miscellaneous
Mechanisms of symbols working in artistic production
Domes
Minaret
Baghdadi doors
Palm
Seven Eyes Jewelry
crescent moon
Shanasheel
Dove
Horses
Spikes
Elements and foundations of
the shape
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composition
the color
texture
outer space
balance
Harmony and contrast
ratio and proportion
the rhythm
artwork unit
Table 3.1. Analytical tools used in the study.
The initial form was provided to thirteen arbitrators in the fields of plastic arts, drawing, sculpture, art education, measurement, and assessment so that they could voice their scientific views regarding the validity of the form's components in measuring the predetermined goal. The data was then gathered from the arbitrators and reviewed by the supervisor. As the researcher collected these observations, some of them were modified to fit the goals and productions of the artist, Jawad Selim. Then they were returned to Jawad Selim and his team, who were happy that the observations were now suitable for the application. The researcher utilized the Holesti equation to determine the coefficient of agreement between the arbitrators, which was 0.89, a good indicator of the validity of the form's components.
3.6. TOOL’S STABILITY
After the researcher has determined the sincerity of the experts regarding the analysis form, it is necessary to identify the possibility of applying it to sample models, as she did with two models of artistic products ‘painting and sculpture and with the assistance of two analysts to show the stability coefficient in which the Holesti equation was used for the agreement between analysts, see Table 2. Artwork The researcher with Observer 1,2 Average
(M-1)
(M-2)
Paintings
0.88
0.90
0.90
0.89
Sculpture
0.89
0.89
0.88
0.89
Average
0.89
Table 3.2. Expert opinions which the Holesti equation was used for the agreement between analysts.
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The results of the examination of two models according to the form for displaying the stability coefficient are presented in Table 2. The results of this table indicate that the stability percentage of the form used to analyze the artistic products of the artist Jawad Selim was 0.89, which is a positive indicator for the stability coefficient, as this percentage is sufficient to ensure trust in the correction's stability.
3.7. STATISTICAL MEANS
According to Holesti's equation, specialized in content analysis for the social and human sciences, the researcher determined the coefficient of agreement amongst arbitrators or analysts who employed them to determine the coefficient of dependability of the analysis form. This equation was utilized to calculate stability:
Ti = coefficient of stability.
Po = the first ratio who agrees.
Pe = the second different ratio.
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CHAPTER FOUR
4. FINDINGS
In this section of the study, the language of art between subjectivity and objectivity in the productions of artist Jawad Selim is examined and the analysis of 3 paintings and a sculpture in accordance with the purpose of research.
4.1. THE LANGUAGE OF ART BETWEEN SUBJECTIVITY AND OBJECTIVITY IN THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE ARTIST JAWAD SELIM
Language is a collection of acoustic, visual, and aural symbols, as well as others, whose arrangement and a particular system determine formulation. It also contains a social framework so that community members with specific norms, traditions, and cultures are familiar with it and may respond to its connotations to communicate the content of messages exchanged between them. It is the means of collective communication and interaction among humans or animals. It comprises simple components known as signs, symbols, and others. Language creates them as systems derived directly from or inspired by nature and formulates them as a grammatical system present by force in each brain as delimited strings constituting language's individual or communal lexicon.
According to Ahmad, the language includes spoken, auditory, written, visual, and other forms as it supplies individuals with symbols and signals and determines their life, social, and cultural significance. Accordingly, language is one of the most powerful instruments used by humans to communicate with one another and with groups or societies as it enables people to establish a mental, emotional, and skill-based frame of reference that is enhanced by their engagement with others, thereby fostering a degree of communication between them (Ahmed, 2008, p. 17).
Therefore, language consists solely of various types, including verbal, visual, auditory, tactile, and others. It is merely a communication mechanism between two people whose performance varies by language type. Thus, both auditory and verbal language is symbolic and phonetic systems, comparable to the relationship between
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written and spoken language in his cognition, expression, and interactions with others (Mustafa, 1971).
Since verbal language consists of two essential elements, the signifier, expressed in words, and the signifier, represented by ideas and meanings, the ratio produces the correlation coefficient between the expression and its meaning. The researcher found that the readable or the drawn one is sometimes perceived as an independent singularity and sometimes as a group of colors, spaces, textures, and shapes within a particular place. The diversity of these contents and contents makes the time and place differ. There is a meaning or an academic content or another, political, social, psychological, aesthetic or tasteful, and others.
As for the concept of proportion, it represents the relationship between the signifier and the signified, or between the form and the content or the content or the meaning that it denotes. And thus it is the close connection between them so that when the form is known, its meaning can be understood (Hilal, 1996, p. 68).
Given the development of the language of plastic art and society's essential need for it, this language arose as a result of the demands and needs of society members to the process of communication and communication among them. Through the visual vocabulary of art, the verbal vocabulary that was read, and from there, when people came to agree on the form and its social connotations, a connection was created between members of the same society in the form of paintings, sculptures, and symbols of special significance (Al-Muti, 2015, p. 79). Despite differences in the philosophy of interaction between communities, the language of the arts has been distinct. These shapes are similar, yet their applications are distinct (Al-Shadidi, 2022, p. 13).
In the recruitment procedure, artists from diverse cultures employ different forms. France's primitive art differs from Spain's, as does Mesopotamian art from ancient Egyptian and Greek art, which differs from Indian art, etc. It is due to the physical distance that Greek art and Roman art diverge in place and time, whilst societies diverge in their philosophies, goals, and ways of life (Mohsen, 2014, p. 239).
The innovative modern artist uses his or her memory to imbue the surface of the painting with a variety of symbolic and intellectual aspects (Jassam, 2018, p. 9). As a
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result of the change from a visual language to a written language, as in the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations, alphabets evolved. Moreover, in the form of visual drawings and symbols, it became a source from which artists of the plastic arts generated these symbols to be deployed on the surface of the painting so that the visual language became the greatest treasure in the world.
Visual language is a communication between the artist, 'the sender' and the audience, 'the recipient, the viewer or the taster.' The forms appearing on the work's surface represent the language of intellectual discourse and the indirect exchange of points of view. Creative presentation approaches and styles were utilized for the occurrences of action and reaction or effect and influence on the recipient.
The semantic substance of the creative composition of the plastic artist's work may vary among the work's many connoisseurs. A single shape in a work of art is not required to have the same intellectual or psychological meanings that the creator embodied in the recipient. There is a chance of influencing and being influenced by the recipient's answer. It influences the artist's thoughts, and the opposite may occur. Through discussion and the exchange of ideas and emotions arising from a taste for the artwork, a great deal of change occurs in the artist's and recipient's cognition, transforming the visual language into an aesthetic, expressive language subject to self-direction (Jassam, 2018, p. 10).
Every work of art "has a unique language that only it can speak, and it is frequently hard to translate it into any language but it is own. Therefore, whether viewing, reading, or analyzing an image of a work of art, the language of the forms or comprehend their meanings. The emotional significance of art is effective in producing aesthetic values since it is the first step in altering, strengthening, or influencing a situation through artistic taste (Avaya, 1998, p. 166).
Hence, every work of art is fundamentally a type of language. When examining the arts of every society across civilizations to interpret the language of that society's expression of the environment in which it lives, because the language has a historical component, so does art. The position of art in the realm of human civilization is that it is one of the several symbolic languages that man has attempted to invent to
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comprehend the universe. It is more analogous to a symbolic system that he built as a talking person to express his emotions in a broader range than spoken language (Hakim, 1986).
In light of this, the cultural heritage's inherent worth is predetermined. The research entailed revealing it is creative and social 'ritual, magical, and mythical as a reference brought by the contemporary Iraqi artist in his plastic achievements, civilized creativity achieved by the artist's self-mental structure based on the secrets of the civilizational environment of the Mesopotamian society to lead to a value that the artist recalls and interrogates with a contemporary concept, from which his creative abilities and originality emanate.
The contemporary Iraqi artist's perception and recollection of heritage as a cognitive value and its transformation from a past human experience into an effective entity as a creative stimulus through research and investigation of experiences and reversing its results without ruminating or simulating are independent of the modern mental structure of society. Activating heritage value does not require its expert presentation outside this context. It transcended its limitations as a dynamic creative activity because it was imbued with the wisdom of the ancient civilization, and the present, in its output, internalizes the store of the past through living selection and enrichment (Kharrat, 1989, p. 21).
The historical studies that dealt with their proposals of the cultural and religious legacy are human studies that have affected the current Iraqi artist's artistic accomplishments through metaphors, whether in painting, sculpture, or ceramics. By giving and receiving, and harmonizing his aesthetic studies, which are typically infused with European cultural influences, he transcends the depth and vibrancy of his culture. Thus liberating oneself from the confines of singing about the past, neglecting civilizational and popular history, and living only in a spirit-led, evolved, and receptive environment to the experiences of others. Therefore, the original artist is the one who has gone beyond the common in his search for the new, which leads to innovation and the addition of what is new and modern to the inheritance to enhance it and prevent it from faltering (Suleiman, 1987, p. 84).
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By merging cultural and widespread legacy, the contemporary plastic artist has exceeded his responsibilities in developing an analytical mindset for a society that keeps pace with the global cultural movement since the legacy stimulates life in intellectual and aesthetic ways (Nader, 1975, p. 143).
Examining the popular cultural heritage influences the modern Iraqi formation and its link to the social structure, as well as the recipient's perspective, be he an artist or connoisseur. This illustrates the contemporary Iraqi artist's relationships and their effect on his form, content, method, and conceptual metaphor. Jabra suggests that despite the passage of time since the death of the plastic artist Jawad Selim, the artistic movement in Iraq still enjoys the momentum that was one of its initial origins. He was not the only one to provide painting and sculpture with this dynamic drive. However, he exemplifies it via his melding of history and rebirth, the Iraqi and the globe, and his accomplishments in painting and sculpture together. He blended innate skill and profound knowledge, historical awareness, and an open mind, merging in his reflections and works old Iraqi sculptures, Yahya al-drawings, Wasiti's Abbasid brasses, and numerous modern art theories (Jabra, 2000, p. 51).
Al Said further states that the artist Jawad Selim hesitated between keeping his membership in the pioneer group and maintaining his vision, which was evident to him within the setting of the primitive vision of his contemporaries. As a mere scientific and economic simplification of the plastic elements, he builds a new group with a fresh perspective (Al-Said, 1983, p. 67).
Al-Sayyab added that the artist Jawad Selim had a“founding and pioneering role in the plastic movement in Iraq. As he alerted early on to the prevalent European currents and their local adaptation, as well as the cognitive and stylistic characteristics of the Baghdadi school, he was able to interpret the Mesopotamian civilizational achievement in sculpture and reinforce it with Islamic influence. Thus describing him as an artist with a distinctive style, and the least of the artists marked by a style that no one has reproduced or cut him off from here and there and from purposes strange (Al-Sayyab, 1994, p. 6).
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Though Arnold Hottenker, a German author, confirmed this in a magazine article, thought, and Art. Al-Rawi said that “Jawad Selim was one of the few individuals who ruled both the contemporary and eastern worlds. He could merge, live, and create with them....” (Al-Rawi, 1962, p. 120).
That every significant and good artistic effort, regardless of time or place, is a mirror reflecting the reality in which he lives. This is why Jawad Selim highlights the artist's influence on Arab society in one of his essays on the subject. As for how this work feels if it is human and how it is sincere, powerful, and expressive, this relates to the artist's intellectual and economic freedom to express what surrounds him (Al-Said, 1973, p. 10).
Jawad and his colleagues have been working for many years, following in the footsteps of his former instructors by filling the space or covering it with a two-dimensional, stretched canvas. After coming into contact for the first time with the movement of Polish artists who were carried to Iraq by the massive waves of World War II, he quickly realized that he and his colleagues were still working in the nineteenth-century style and were either Impressionists or academic followers of the oldest of those techniques. Therefore, he has pondered altering his approach and conceiving a new technique based on the foundations of the enormous boom represented by those displaced artists (Al-Rawi, 1962).
The bronze Freedom Monument is undoubtedly emblematic of Jawad Selim's heritage-related sculptural works. Selim's work has been highly influenced by cultural and popular heritage. In its sense of shape, the Freedom Monument is closer to the painter's manner than Jawad's drawing, mostly of a static type. It is its general nature. This movement differentiated his style from the ancient Iraqi or oriental sculpture that influenced him, such as Egyptian, urban, or Palmyrasculpture. Jabra confirmed that the movement has become a characteristic of the artist Jawad Selim that distinguishes him from some contemporary sculpture trends, i.e., sculptors such as Jawad whom he influenced (Jabra, 1974, p. 80).
Henry Moore, considered one of the most famous sculptors of the twentieth century, was able to draw characters and add feelings to them professionally through his
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statues. About abstraction, he desired a straightforward human expression of his passionate, dictatorial passion since his issue was not merely aesthetic but a dramatic one with suspense and tragedy whose resolution results in a profound calm.
The plastic artist Ismail Al-Sheikhly commented on the Freedom Monument, stating, It is one of the largest and greatest works in contemporary sculpture, as Jawad achieved in this marvelous accomplishment all the artistic values he aspired to, so the summation of what he wanted to say. He expresses it since he was influenced by Mesopotamian art and his study with teachers in Paris' Juneau'. Furthermore, in his studies in Rome and London, and up until the end of his brief artistic career with this great accomplishment, the return to heritage and national arts appears involuntarily and inadvertently; instead, it is a process of assimilation and subtraction from which the artist does not know when or how to emerge (Jabra, 1974, p. 14).
As the researcher agrees with Al-Sheikhly that the Freedom Monument tends toward a realistic depiction as opposed to Islamic abstraction and hadith. As this monument reflects an actual event in which human nature had a significant role, this monument leans toward a realistic picture. In contrast, the concept of beauty evokes melancholy and tragedy, yet its meaning is transformed from tragedy to peace. Jawad Selim was influenced by European art, old Iraqi and Islamic art, and folklore to arrive at a form of an aesthetic language that reflects his numerous thoughts. He was one of the most daring artists using styles, models, and patterns.
Kamel further verifies that the artist Jawad may be accused of being an empiricist to the extent that he spent a significant portion of his life on research and imitation or by submitting to Western schools or a proper grasp of Islamic art. Such as a reviewer who views all of his experiences as interconnected. Discovering the significant contribution this artist makes to the art industry and the fact that he possesses a solid contemporary artistic language enabled him to create the Freedom Monument, which restored the broken circle of the ancient Iraqi heritage in the spirit that can only be a genuine component of Arab civilization (Kamel, 1980).
Faeq Hassan, a plastic artist, expressed his amazement at the experiences of his subject Jawad Selim. Faeq Hassan was not reluctant to say that Jawad's recent
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experiences in painting put him far ahead and allowed him to make significant progress. As a motivator of this topic between its human and functional aspects, as well as between art as creativity and a spiritual desire, Jawad serves as a bridge between its human and utilitarian dimensions (Amir, 1987, p. 10).
Jawad Selim is multitalented, excelling in the arts of sculpture, painting, and music, among others. Despite the few works of art he made during his lifetime, it appears he found his niche in sculpture rather than painting. The statement is, “Am I thinking that one day I will be free from painting? Because I have the impression that it is not the thing I live for, it does not fully convey myself” (Mustafa, 1971, p. 139).
The artist Jawad suffered from the division of his energies between sculpture and painting and revealed a motive that leaned toward sculpture; despite his early death and his relatively few sculptural productions, he crowded the experiences that surrounded his era and even exerted less influence on them than his contemporaries, steadily rising towards the frontiers of modernity that tends toward abandoning the presumptions of the follower view and constructing solitary structures (Abdul Amir, 1992). The artist Jawad Selim is a quite assured in his sculpture and painting abilities. He considers sculpture to be such a focal point for him that no other interest can supplant it (Abdul Amir, 1992, p. 32).
Fine artistic works by the artist Jawad Selim have been featured in numerous national campaigns, even if they were created in a contemporary style that fosters a freeing aesthetic discourse. The artist Jawad Selim discovered and created his work amid the political upheavals between the royals and republicans, who commissioned him to construct a monument symbolizing freedom in Iraqi society. It was the most significant work depicting the artist's interaction with the events and changes of his country and people's interactions and memorializing it for future generations via sculptural achievement, the Freedom Monument (Hassan, 2021, p. 37).
In 1938, the artist Jawad Selim was dispatched on a mission to Paris, where he studied painting at the Académie Julian. This experience inspired his work Julian Academy. He strengthened the roots of his relationship with the artist Andre Reton. He was also influenced by the work of Henry Moore and the Cubist school,
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particularly by the artist Pablo Picasso. Cubism is the creative movement that utilized geometric forms as the building blocks for artwork. It surrounds the subject so that the shapes of the geometric spaces fluctuate according to the variety of lines, shapes, and orientations.
The artist's Jawad Selim technical practices were intertwined with the aesthetic values of the artwork by creating new relationships and diverse expressive formations through the use of various techniques and their application in the construction of the artwork, as well as the artist's cultural and environmental references (Jabra, 1974, p. 74). As this artist worked to cultivate originality within the visual language, he was born with. Due to personal reasons and a creative visual language that expresses his struggle, he distinguishes his plastic accomplishments in painting and sculpture from others. He tries to elevate the contemporary Iraqi artistic environment.
The same artist was focused on a particular behavior, style, or notion, exploring its potential for creative expression. This trait compels the artist to persevere and research to identify intellectual and formal issues. His persistent concern contributed significantly to the enhancement of his creative endeavor. He was experimental due to the technical variety of his modernized drawings and sculptures, as well as his release of the powers of renewal and invention by applying metaphor and employing it in symbolic and expressive meanings in the famous heritage and Iraqi folklore (Al-Muttalib, 2008). Thus individuals interested in contemporary Iraqi art were presented with a vision of his artistic experience.
Jabra suggests that the artist was also influenced by an old Iraqi art, the art of cylinder seals, concerning the arrangement of carvings over a long frieze. When he rolls the cylinder seal onto a piece of clay, he sequentially engraves his images. It was the defining characteristic of Mesopotamian and major Babylonian and Assyrian sculptures. In contrast to European arts, which strove for rotation and anthropomorphism, the brilliance of Iraqi artists from the earliest periods to the late Abbasid era manifested itself through conspicuous sculpture and flat engraving (Jabra, 1974, p. 76)
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The artist and his contemporaries have contributed to establishing the plastic art movement in Iraq and making it more open and less deflated through the artistic achievements of a group of painters and sculptors who assumed the responsibility of defining the artistic discourse and ensuring that it is always enlightened (Amir, 2019, p. 88).
Hence, the pioneering artists spent considerable effort reconstructing the visual system, resisting harmful beliefs, and operating without social or cultural restraints. They helped liberate contemporary Iraqi art from the constraints of oral speech and collective memory. As a result, the artistic form relies on stylistic variance while allowing the artist autonomy, aspirations, and attitudes toward the primary aims of the collective movement. Contemporary Iraqi art differs from Arab art in a variety of areas, including those listed below:
1. As a front for a deeply embedded and multidisciplinary discourse, contemporary Iraqi art is mythical, heritage-based, ideological, folkloric, and other. It assisted in maintaining national consciousness and was among the goals of the pioneering generation in the 1950s and its aftermath. It dealt with art discourse, not in the form of an abstract aesthetic act or devoid of its semantic, value, and cultural significance.
2- Consolidating an atmosphere that threatened to develop in other Arab cities encouraged a wave of modernists to increase the connections between art and societal dialogue. Therefore, the Iraqi artist possesses a system of cultural values as a symbolic reservoir that provides the contemporary imagination with various experiences that enriches artistic achievement and transforms it into an image of the self attached to rich sources and its intellectual dictionary.
3. The Iraqi artist contributed to eradicating the notion of art's viability in the region while also narrowing the gap with the other and embracing the causes of modernization by recognizing the compatibility between the cultural heritage and the need for the modernist system for which modern art was renowned.
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4- The intrinsic sentiment of not allowing the experiences of Iraqi art to fall below the equation' heritage and originality as a priority through which discourse with the other encourages clinging to Iraqi society's possibilities.
5- Identity with modernity does not imply the dissolution of ties with national constants, even if all this conflict that disrupted its rhythm and pushed it toward what is known as the battle of partial identities and a return to the legendary heritage, blogs, popular expressions, and Arabic lettering, which necessarily reflects human needs and positions.
6- The optimal investment of cultural diversity in Iraq, which represented a vast library that enables the artist to work flexibly, enriching stylistic transitions and the required technical changes.
The artist's works paved the way for modernity in contemporary Iraqi formation, Jawad Selim. Adopting a system that equates talent with the obvious was needless. Modernity was not only going towards the art of inheritance but also the creation of new memory and a real legacy compatible with the historical glory of Arab art and the present-day aspirations of the artist. It conforms to the social and political evolution of reality, and for this reason, Jawad has always emphasized his equation heritage modern (Kamel, 2008, p. 15).
If the allegation is true, Jawad is considered a dialectical sculptor because he is unhappy with the excitement that sensuous or inanimate substance brings him. Thus, he has transformed it into a living being by imbuing it with movement, action, and beauty. It involves rearranging physical facts or interior structures (Abdul Amir, 1989, p. 106).
Likewise, Farouk Youssef argues: “I was Jawad Selim's right-hand man in his belief in the significance of the interaction between local character and modern approaches. It can be believed in the same aims but had different approaches to reconciling the East and West...” (Al-Said, 1998, p. 202).
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As a response to the spirit of art in this century, the artist Jawad Selim thinks for a long time before he paints or sculpts; he then shows his cerebral creation in a modern style in which the spontaneity of drawing is typical of youngsters or folk artists. Jawad Selim presents the notion carried on a line or color that lacks craftsmanship and formality. He gets his ideas from the reality of his historical nation, the eastern crescents, the ceramics of the old Baghdadi mosques, and the arches and brick vaults. As he combines all these images and ideas, he does not neglect to incorporate them into his depictions of the spirit of his people. Jawad wanted to abstractly simplify the forms so that even the most superficial man on the street could understand them. His ear was attuned to popular melodies with smooth syllables (Al-Hadithi, 2008).
The artist Jawad was an economist who possessed proficiency in color, calligraphy, and movement. He was able to express an exotic theme with a modern method, bearing the hallmarks of Islamic art, especially in his Al-Wasiti drawings (Al-Rubaie, 1976, p. 62).
He is an authentic observer of the city's exterior life, mysteries, and social delights. In the spirit of love and appreciation for beauty, Wasiti Newrediscovers modern Baghdad in Al-Wasiti, and Al-Wasiti in contemporary Baghdad, composing his own artistic and literary story (Sami & Al-Said, 1982, p. 68.)
This artist depicted all the forms and symbols he used in his artistic work (painting) in a color that corresponds to the adjacent hue. It means that Al-drawings greatly influenced Jawad, Wasiti's and his drawings reflect this:
Nonetheless, he adopted Al Wasiti's style in a contemporary manner, creating his style and bringing the recipient the spirit of the Arab-Islamic heritage and the characteristics of Al-Wasiti's drawings. Therefore, he contemplated Islamic art (Al-Rubaie, 1976, p. 62).
He then attempted to capture the hues of Abbasid ceramics, the paint of domes, and the embellishment of minarets (Inaam, 1998, p. 65). The form is the primary influence of Jawad Selim on the drawings of Al-Wasiti and Islamic or oriental art in general in his artworks. The decorative content of Feminine wiles dates back to the
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‘One Thousand and One Nights’ era. Therefore, the composition and distribution of masses reveal the influence of Al-Wasiti and the Baghdad School to the extent that the form becomes a formal treatment with no objective equivalent. It indicates that the artist was in the process of seeking meaning and experimenting with forms. Because this artist was more concerned with the form of his painting than with the substance, he referred to it as a fake material that had lost its objective equivalent.
In the thirteenth century the Al-Baghdadi School of Painting was founded, which was later considered a source of inspiration for contemporary Arab artists, especially Jawad Selim. Al-Baghdadi School allowed him to study the value of Arabic calligraphy in the composition of the painting, such as his paintings of musicians in the street, the Caliph's Majlis, the woman, the bird, Feminine wiles, and the dead tree and then used it skillfully in a series of works, which represented a continuum of research and conscious experimentation.
Therefore, the researcher believes that Jawad'sinspiration from the Wasiti's school and Al-Baghdadi's drawings do not negate the significance of the other elements in the paintings of that period, nor does it diminish their plastic significance; rather, it reveals the connection between the Iraqi artistic heritage.
Jawad Salim benefited from the formative and structural elements of Arab-Islamic art by disregarding the third dimension perspective and flattening the shapes, and by utilizing chromatic proximity in organizing their formal relations, as well as by adopting the precision and flexibility of lines as old Iraqi sculptures influenced most of Jawad Selim's drawings. Prominent or anthropomorphic, particularly the Sumerian sculpture, was influenced by the vast almond-shaped eyes and round faces (Al-Qassab, 2008, p. 6).
Jawad Selim and his friends among the Iraqi artists joined a group of Polish painters who arrived in Baghdad with the allies during the war; his interactions with these artists greatly impacted his artistic growth and expanded his use of color (Inaam, 1998, p. 22). Despite being influenced by his oriental ancestry, Jawad Selim learned about European art while visiting abroad. He attempted to profit off Western artists such as Picasso' Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Henry Moore, and Jean Miro. In this
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regard, Jawad Selim encountered a group of Polish immigrants during the Second World War, who played a significant part in reversing his disposition and thoughts. He says:
I appreciate the destinies for connecting me to my new knowledge, and I will begin from it with open eyes and an open heart, for my route is now illuminated, when a year ago it was My path is black and not illuminated by knowledge (Abdul Amir, 1987).
He blended the modern art form with legacy material in his style, as he was heavily influenced by the works and decoration of medical and literary books in the simplicity of animal, plant, and human shapes and the ornamentation of the book footnotes (Al-Rubaie, 1978, pp. 36-39).
Jawad Selim endeavored to be infused with Pentecostal philosophy and to employ Picasso as an artistic example. Other painters eclipsed Picasso's personality to the extent that he became an example. In his hunt for potential materials or techniques, Jawad Selim mostly adhered to Picasso's method material-technical. Picasso's research focused on utilizing all possible means; thus, he did not hesitate to mine all conceivable ores' wood, paper, plastics, clay, copper, aluminum, and leather'. It attempts to modify the human form to liberate it from relativity and to diversify its raw materials for the same aim. Jawad attempted to apply such an approach, but he discovered that he could accomplish humanity through the civilizational pattern, the civilization of ancient Iraq in opposition to the civilization of industrialization, and through the diversity in the application of the arts (Al-Said, 1973).
As the influences of Picasso in his works fit his concern for general defense, "not in the personal defense of specific topics, and even here comes the difference, for example, between Picasso's works and the works of Jawad Selim, who suffered from stylistic anxiety and links that are not yet deeply rooted in problems. The Iraqi reality also demonstrates Paul Klee's formal influence, but Klee's influence was rather fruitful in helping Jawad Selim grasp the Islamic and oriental heritage (Kamel, 1980).
Jawad approached Picasso in his style, particularly the variety of materials utilized in sculpting, such as wood, clay, and others. Jawad Selim also attempted to free the
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human body from relativity and diversify its constituent components. This is readily apparent in the wooden Motherhood Statue and the metal Freedom Monument. In general, Jawad was indeed affected by modern techniques, which may be observed in his later works. However, they inadequately convey the nature of this influence. As he was influenced by, among others, Henry Moore with his peculiar sculptural forms, Henry Matisse with his oriental colors near to ornamentation, and Paul Klee, who reintroduced the colors and geometry of Arab miniatures.
The experiences and artistic obsessions of Jawad Selim were radically distinct from those he impacted. Shaker Hassan Al Said asserts that his choice of a style that blends and reconciles artistic styles from Islamic civilization, old local civilizations, and the modern style was crucial to his artistic vision. Matisse, Picasso, and Jean Miro fuse in the puddle of his enlightened intellect, resulting from his environment and history. To get out of that in a particular manner, he is not happy with interacting with and influencing the external environment from a vital, scientific, or human perspective since nature is life (Al-Rubaie, 1978, p. 253).
Jawad Selim recognizes that modern art is the art of the age and that its complexity s a reflection of the age's complexity. It enhances the current understanding of the nature of the formation structure's factors. Nevertheless, despite his impact on European art and the techniques of European artists, he remained incredibly proud of his Arab-Iraqi identity, which is evident in his paintings ‘Baghdadiyat’ (Abdu Amir, 1993, p. 10).
The series of paintings ‘Al-Baghdadiyats’ regarded as one of his most significant works, not only because it was able to find creative and experimental solutions that echoed the fine scene of its continuity to the present day, but also because it was able to do so without sacrificing its continuity. However, also for raising concerns about the content of the interior experience of art and its assumption in its creation, with direct and indirect local and international references present in these paintings' composition. The Baghdadiyat series of paintings utilized the city as a cultural and expressive signifier, as it mirrored common themes that the artist gained from the
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customs and traditions of his society and era. Instead, it pulled to specific moments and limited and circumscribed events (Al-Hadithi, 2008, pp. 98-99).
The second section of Baghdadi blends rigor with superstition: coffee pots, rose anvils, old boxes, decorative cups, rugs, inscriptions, decorations, and rulings written in naive lines, hanging crescent shapes, and drawings of almond-eyed girls' faces. While the third group is a group of greetings in which children dance alongside their mothers and their toys, and pets such as the horse, a symbol of equestrianism, and the ram and bull represent the sacrifice of Eid al-Adha, and a floor with geometric shapes and abstract formations intertwined with writing in childish lines and bright, stark colors represents the victim of Eid al-Adha (Al-Hadithi, 2008, pp. 98-99).
Jawad Selim considers Al-Baghdadiyat's paintings to reflect the purest and most straightforward forms of hope. These paintings are characterized by their popular subjects, clean, brilliant colors, and simplistic lines. Perhaps this reflects the simple and uncomplicated nature of his personality, as well as the white spaces of his works and their incorporation of Islamic motifs and Arab folk miniatures, which are likewise designed to inspire dreaming, reflection, and hope (Saleh, 1990).
Thus, Al-Said believes that Jawad Selim's role in inspiring the letter through plastic art was a metaphor for the freedom and movement of the art of writing to adapt and harmonize the indicated forms. In contrast, Jawad Selim is mainly successful in transforming linear velocity into diversity. Formal, as he reconciles his aesthetic between the organic evolution and architectural integration of an essential subject in miniature art. Thus, his paintings resemble the pages of a book (Al-Said, 1998).
He also asserts that the art of painting in its many ages and techniques culminating in essential points summed up by the beauty of colors, lines, and shapes is a true expression of one component of the artist's sensitivity to his time (Al-Said, 1973, p. 48).
Jawad has demonstrated that his paintings' Al-Baghdadiyat' and others symbolize the eradication of a comparable vision of reality and its replacement with one that can testify to its depth, as opposed to its normal surface. Upon closer inspection of his
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works' siesta, children playing and the veracity of contact with the surrounding environment will become apparent. In all of his works, he strives not to overlook reality's beauty. Instead, on account of its smoothness and lack of glitz and refinement, the external scene appears capable of bearing all the conditions of temptation and compelling the creator to enter its environment in the sense that the condition of the water was crucial to the development of the artist's experience Jawad Selim (Abdul Amir, 2009).
Nuri Al-Rawi states that Baghdadiyat, famous personalities join in unveiling the secret of their commitment to the nation, land, and idea, as he notes, for instance, that the gardener and the vendor of colorful gypsum birds on Al-Rasheed Street have the same existential status. They are identical twins of the city that this artist cherished with all of his heart. They are also an illustration of its historical progression from the eras of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria to the era of the flourishing Arab civilization, up to own time (Al-Raw, 1962).
A series of ink and watercolor sketches with the title Al-Baghdadiyat (1956-1957) feature clear metaphors from the formal variety of rugs, carpets, and things in the Baghdadi home. The sum of these paintings, quotations, and aesthetic observations, were plastically reorganized with a conventional perspective at one point and with realistic and current depictions at another. As if they were attempts to portray a metropolis with an aesthetic preview, full of practical reasons and current aspirations, as revealed by the stylistic approach with the leading plastic models in the art world. Experiences of Picasso, Matisse, Paul Klee, and local cultural loyalty are denoted through commonalities and traditional symbols.
Al-Baghdadiyatproposed new forms of painting, which are, to begin with, paintings that do not meet in themselves a closed structural and formative structure. However, rather shared their surroundings in its distinctive visuals and its plastic peculiarity with an open construction, identifying with this civil whole (Al-Qassab, 2008, p. 4).
In these paintings, Jawad incorporates the concept of time since he combines the essence of two distinct eras. Old Baghdad, with its domes, arches, blue, green, and turquoise colors, pale Arabic crescents, and. Thus, Jawad Selim's art reverts to the
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traditional style of Baghdadi painting to remind the viewer that the spirit of Baghdadi art, which has been dormant since the time of Al-Wasiti, is the foundation from which Iraqi art can extract its elements and build. His modern structures evoke the accomplishments of the ancient Iraqi artist in the field of plastic vision without abandoning the modern sign or the contemporary issue (Mustafa, 1971).
Jawad Salim took pride in his Iraqi surroundings and his apartment in Baghdad and was influenced by the architecture of Baghdad. This is visible in his paintings' Al-Baghdadiyat, in which he used the Shanasheeland arches used in the old Baghdad houses and the forms that constituted the lexicon of his drawings. Including the inverted triangle, crescent, star, and adjacent and opposing triangles.
While discussing crescent shapes, RifaatChadirji says that “Lurana included local forms and ideas in her paintings, including crescent moons” (Inaam, 1998, p. 123). Of the type capable of inventing symbols inspired by instinct and the width of his consciousness, symbols with an interior order depart from their adherence to the external form. However, the artist did not assume a veiled beauty for his surroundings, and thus intensifies the overlap between the artist and his surroundings (Abdul Amir, 1989, p. 106).
Considering that art is not a fiction that takes place in a vacuum of illusion, but its image is tied to reality (Matar, 2003, p. 59), Jawad created prominent symbols from these forms as the aesthetic result of harmonizing the diagnostic and abstract. To the shape of the crescent, for whatever reason, he borrows it from the simple crescent shape at the beginning of the lunar months, blending it with the crescent and transforming it into the shape of a segmented arc (Al-Said, 1998). According to the study, Jawad emptied the crescent of its theological and ideological substance, associated with the crescent of Eid and Muslim rites, to transform it into an aesthetic and decorative feature.
Civilization is on the level of art, and these words pertain primarily to the identity crisis. This artist's focus on the forms above transmits "conciliation and alienation" in their objective construction since each consists of two elements, and alienation in the method in which they are utilized in the artwork as if they are collage achievements
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(Al-Said, 1991, p. 157). This artist was preoccupied with representing the crescent and star shapes in many of his paintings since he remembered them from the first five years of his existence, i.e., since his family's residence in Ankara, even though the concept of these two shapes remains a cultural heritage in the East (Al-Said, 1973). The researcher believes that Jawad Selim was inspired by these forms and wished to integrate his personality, the culture in which he grew up, and the surroundings in which he lived. The issue of style and heritage is epistemological, not related to choosing a stylistic taste for a school. However, Jawad, in the memoirs of the forties on the style of post-impressionist painters, and their unique and new attention to color, light, and line, pause long about the connection between the artist's vision and perspective and his roots.
Often, reality is the impetus behind the production of creative work. Since He was unaware of contraction in connection to the system of things and their physical provisions, he has a tender affection. Instead, he deliberately disobeyed its directive. Following the spirit of his day, he could convey his emotions by transcending other concerns or alphabets that had emerged after the turn of the twentieth century, particularly in the 1920s and after that (Abdul Amir, 1987). And Asim Abdul-Amir adds that Jawad is not the type to accept external formalities quickly; instead, he exposes it to his intellectual workshop and supports maximizing its aesthetic potential (Abdul Amir, 1989).
Jawad Salim may have worked with the materials provided by His predecessors Abd al-Qadir al-Rassam, Asim Hafez, Akram Shukri, and others, and the issue was resolved without further discussion. However, what attracts or tempts him to alter the structure of shapes and their seeming beauty is the qualitative difference in awareness and the imaginative ability to replace the faces of things with more spectacled and empty features to please taste and generate enduring art (Abdul Amir, 1987). He has no desire for separation. of reality and realism.
That the idea of heritage – contemporary does not belong to a specific philosophical perspective, especially since Jawad did not become close to ideology or philosophy other than what connects with his trip and his ongoing search for innovative,
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aesthetic, and stylistic treatments. Furthermore, the diversity of experience sources allowed the artist's imagination to transcend precepts and conventional forms (Kamel, 2007, p. 2).
In confirmation of this, Al-Saeed states that it could be noticed in Jawad's art his universal humanity, whether through his artistic style, which he intended to integrate the global aspect simultaneously in terms of style and the local aspect., in terms of both personality and style. Nevertheless, this humanity becomes apparent through his choice of topics, such as the dead tree or feminine wiles, as he sets an example for the recipient in his continuous search for formulas through which he can reveal the falsehood of the aggressive human soul in terms of its ignorance, which drives it to violence and destruction of others, as in the theme of the dead tree. Or in terms of its inclusion in malice and hypocrisy, such as in the context of women's deceit (Al-Said, 1973).
In his paintings The Murdered Tree, Women's Deception, Sculptures The Murdered Tree, and Women Wiles, Jawad paid particular attention to the role of women's motherhood. He demonstrated his humanity by comparing the downed tree to the woman, demonstrating his compassion for her. He drew it after observing a gardener in their home's garden fall on a hardened tree to remove it; this inspired the subject of his painting, whose title reflects a human perspective that gives the plant human traits since it is a killed tree that may feel its sorrow like humans do. This viewpoint extended to the same shape, in which the tree appeared extremely beautiful.
While Jawad's picture demonstrates the antithesis of his compassion for women's feminine wiles, it represents the spiteful and crafty aspect of the woman. The maternity statue also served as an intellectual and emotional anchor for Jawad's vision. In addition to the bull, the lady is a symbol of strength and civilization, constituting one of the most significant representations of the symbol for this artist. As a result, reading his sculptures and drawings does not dispense with the concept of the bull and Motherhood, as he gave them prominent attention in most of his works. Something, and that the splendor of a mother is not limited to her tenderness,
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affection, warmth, and sanctity, but also that the most exquisite female beauty is embodied in her because the mother is the origin of Venus.
In his sculpture, the horse of the mother's identity is hung in her right hand, where a thread carrying an oval shape, a symbol of childhood, hangs from it. In his approach of placing beautiful and timeless objects in an absolute space, as he did in the oval, the symbol of childhood, he created a timeless composition. As for his sculpture Motherhood, he maintained the same concept as a symbol of childhood, as a thread suspended the oval at the end of the circular form representing Motherhood (Hussein, 1990). So, the researcher thinks that Jawad's interest in showing women in his works is supposed to allude to the fertility and permanence of existence, as women represent the beginning of life. Jawad was able to preserve the emotional expression derived from a rich source, namely the ancient arts of Iraq and the arts of other civilizations, through his art, which is of high quality and abounding in quantity. He could do this by combining his direct personal experience with the art he studied in the capitals of Europe. These elements and sources did not persuade him to abandon his interest in modern art, especially since he was subjected to the following creative truth-based traditions (Abdul Amir, 2009).
Some of Jawad's artworks, including those with depth and originality, were political the murdered tree, the severed head on the right side of the miniature of the oil mural in Iraq, the political prisoner, and the freedom monument. However, he did not permit the transformation of his work into propaganda, but he could convey political meanings through his art during his lifetime.
This uprising in his social capacity pertains to two issues: the artist's participation in the general national conflict with his people, as in the political prisoner. The second is that he was a nationalist in his statement of Arab socialist unionist views, and the third is his creative rebellion and search for a method that corresponds to the new political vision (Kamel, 1979, p. 79).
The researcher argues that despite his tremendous love for his country, Jawad Selim was not as well-known for his political leanings as he was for his human and
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emotional side, which is visible in many of his works, notably his poetry: The Dead Tree and Two Boys Eating Watermelon.
4.2. ANALYTICAL STUDY OF PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE
The fourth chapter will study the analysis of some samples chosen by the researcher, three paintings of the artist Jawad Selim. Those samples will be analyzed according to the research tool that was explained in the previous chapters, as follows:
4.2.1. Painting of Two Boys and a Watermelon
Two boys eating watermelon is a simple topic, but it is one of the most expressively gorgeous works. The composition's overall structure consists of two boys carrying a slice of watermelon. Moreover, beyond them are sketches of a group of distant palms, which are based on a straight line at the top of the panel and have a white background. The individual on the right is holding a white slice of watermelon, and Jawad Selim has painted his face with a dark black base and highlighted his eyes, nose, and mouth with a soft yellow hue. In addition, a small triangular-decorated cap appears above his head, and it is evident that his head is oval and rests on a triangular neck, 'a recurring stylistic element in the artist's drawings. Furthermore, he appears 'with a clear smile,' signaling his delight and contentment, and his garments are brightly colored and ornamented with red, yellow, orange, and green (see figure 58).
In this artwork, the artist's emphasis on flatness and reduction reawakens the perceptual activity of lines and colors, revealing their aesthetic and structural actuality. While the individual on the left is carrying a fresh red slice of watermelon, his facial expressions reveal that he is depressed. His clothing is dark in color and geometric in design, using the triangle as a recurring motif in his artistic approach. In terms of the expression of the face and its features, as well as the effective use of color, rhythm, and the formation of chromatic, linear, and volumetric spaces within the overall composition, it is essential to create an open space that depends on the progression of the two people to the foreground of the scene while they are in clear contemplation.
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Hence, Jawad Selim repeats his drawings of human faces, male and female, in the same pattern, as if to communicate to the recipient the tremendous overlap between human nature and the depiction of everyday scenes in society. Therefore, the link between production in form and content and the aesthetic subtraction philosophy is evident as cubists did when they prioritized research on the aesthetics of form and the building of engineering units over the substance. Jawad Selim was likewise concerned with form and meaning. But he related that to the substance, based on his creative style, which originates from applying heritage and location in his drawings, but in a current manner, are more associated with modernity and its effects on style, techniques used, and constructivism of forms.
4.2.2. Painting of Street Wedding
A scene depicting a wedding ceremony is quite similar to the scene of a painting of street musicians in terms of the composition's overall structure, the placement of figures, and the use of content. People's visual structures are dispersed longitudinally, so they are in standing and moving positions. As there are two women to the right of the painting 'for the receiver,' each is wearing a red dress, the first embellished while the second is just red (see figure 59). Both women wore black cloaks, with the second woman carrying a little infant over her shoulder. At the same time, the structure of the musician carrying the tambourine was obscured visually. His face was dark, and he wore what is known as the ghutra, a white scarf wrapped around his head and neck. The artist drew horizontally repeated red lines around the tambourine frame and the musician's attire, and a young child looks to be playing; her black
Figure 4.45. Painting of two boys eating watermelon, oil on canvas, 1958, Baghdad Art Center, (Al-Mamouri, 2021, p. 90).
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braids are visible as she raises her hands, and she wears a red frock with one of her legs elevated backward within the context of an intentional move by the artist or trumpet player. His face is sliced in half, his head is covered with the white period, and he wears an Arab traditional costume consisting of a long brown jacket and a black dishdasha while grasping a trumpet. A woman emerges from the wall and communicates with those present. Architecturally designed humans represent a black entrance between two abstract palm plants. A rectangular wall with two doves and various light-colored embellishments is also present in white and oak. This picture contains Jawad's persistent societal theme. Relativism in depicting the social condition of this picture requires more linkage between the purely actual image of the scene and its translation into linear, color, and formal harmony, defined by cubist construction and an abstract tendency with connotations. The symbolic and visual response shortens the artist's formal and beautiful aesthetic examples of this theme.
From this vantage point, Jawad attempted to capture the threads of the correct transition from one experimental research to another through the contents taken from reality. Perhaps the structure of his artistic style could accommodate more of these treatments to achieve an aesthetic and constructive objective for the painting, which he desired to achieve by crystallizing various forms and contents. Through the realization of creative forms bearing the language of impact on the recipient, as Jawad did in his painting when he revealed the effect between the recipient and his visual and formal units within the context of the artistic work as a whole.
Figure 4.46. Painting of Street wedding, oil on fabric, 1957, the Arts Center in Baghdad, (Kutbi, 2021).
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4.2.3. Painting of Young Man and His Wife
This piece of art depicts a half scene of a villager's wedding. The right side of the panel is filled with a peasant wearing an Arab costume. A rustic bride with long braids, a white veil, and triangle earrings stretches to the left. The upper portion of the image is occupied by a collection of long, varied-sized crescents. Jawad Selim employed the typeface element in a standardized manner, as in the layout nose and neck of the newlyweds, ignoring the texture of the clothing and the compositions of the painting in general. Earthy hues dominate this palette with various dark gradations. The floor of the picture contains few colors and is devoid of detail. Jawad is designed to reflect the arid area in which the inhabitants reside.
This work utilized the asymmetrical structural method by distributing the characters symmetrically. Selim intended to repeat the shape of the crescents at the top of the painting to fill the spaces and create a sense of equilibrium, but he could not do so. It is acknowledged that Jawad was influenced by his cultural background. Through the reduction and abstraction of shapes and the use of geometric forms, particularly in the bride's earrings, he was influenced by Islamic art triangular and spherical faces modeled after the moon's shape. His depiction of almond-shaped eyes, inspired by Sumerian sculpture, further demonstrates his influence on the old Iraqi heritage.
Figure 4.47. Young Man and Wife, 1953, oil on canvas 51,0 x 79,0 cm. Auctioned at Bonhams for $336,000, (Jawad Selim, 2006).
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The study states that this piece of art has an intellectual connection to the Sumerian ‘Abu and his wife’ statue, as evidenced by the statue's static, symmetrical attitude, which conveys a sense of honor and dignity. He utilized bows and crescents to sketch the mustache, eyebrows, garments, and bride's braids. His depiction of crescents and arcs shows he was influenced by Islamic art, as the crescent is a common symbol of Islamic nature because it represents optimism. Muslims feel optimistic about the crescent at the beginning of the month and build their holidays on the crescent moon.
Inspired by eastern customs and traditions, this painting's content overpowers its form, 'groom and bride.' It gives the woman's element equal attention to shape as the man's. Selim's treatment of the human figure was influenced by European art, notably Pablo Picasso. It modified its proportions; for instance, the eyes are enormous, the nose is long, and the mouth is relatively small, with an exaggerated neck length and a lack of centrality in the painting. Therefore, the social nature of Jawad Selim's drawings crystallized with the development of his artistic style and the form or content-level developments he saw. It faces the recipient, which is a characteristic of his drawings. However, in this painting, he added a new semantic dimension, which is the contemplative view of both people and what was revealed by the method of meditation and achieving a state of visual attraction between the painting and the recipient. Young man and his wife is an image of intellectual significance related via a recurrent pivot to the culture of social interpretation of creative success, notably the emergence of consequences touching the reality of stylistic research and its form and content modifications.
4.2.4. Freedom Monument Analysis
In Florence, the artist and sculptor Jawad Selim completed the Freedom Monument's 14-part mural. It relied on Assyrian stone references in its creative creation, as it is not only a narrative mural but also a message affirming the state's sovereignty and victories over its foes at home and abroad. Simultaneously, the monument reflects its meaning through modern meanings and the influence of famous modernist artists like Picasso. It describes the heroic path of the Iraqis in attaining freedom and combating injustice inside an interconnected epic where men and women, humanity and
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environment, and the past and future coexist. Consequently, the mural depicts an integrated life cycle consisting of birth, death, perseverance, sadness, rage, revolution, hope, injustice, joy, patience, and optimism, and the narrative of the epic begins from right to left, see Figure 61.
The tale of a wild horse is located to the mural's right. It is depicted as a spherical head in a circle surrounded by three guys shrieking with force as they struggle to subdue it and pull it to the left (see figure 62). The horse represents originality and strength because the monarchy was overthrown without a knight atop it. The knight refers to the statue of British General Maud in front of the British embassy as well as the statue of King Faisal on his horse beside the radio station. As a result, the artist united the two horses into a single horse without riders, as the people had brought them down.
Figure 4.48. The Freedom Monument, established in 1961, Jawad Salim (Wikipedia, n.d.).
Figure 4.49. Horse symbol on the Freedom Monument.
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A man and a woman represent power, reason, and wisdom. Together they produced knowledge in Mesopotamia, the birthplace of Cuneiform writing, in which the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Code of Hammurabi were written, see Figure 63.
A child with extended arms evokes the picture of Jesus ‘peace be upon him’ or the angels, standing still amid many moving figures, representing innocence, fertility, and constancy. During the installation of works on the wall, whenever Jawad Selim went by the child or pretended to pass by him, he would wipe his face with a delicate motion that radiated with affection till the bronze yellow in the two cheeks of the statue. This child is the artist's Jawad Selim favorite. After the people's biography, a child who lifted his dismembered hands to bless the efforts of adults to create a future characterized by liberty and equality. The artist Jawad Selim's sole sculpture is an anthropomorphic depiction of his affection for children, and their destiny is the child. Here, the artist was influenced by the art of the Italian Renaissance, in which the kid represents Jesus Christ, symbolizing the birth of a new Iraqi life free from exploitation, brutality, and monopoly (see figure 64). There is another symbol of a furious woman raising her head and hands to the sky, rejecting injustice, and urging revolution, see Figure 65.
Figure 4.50. The man and the woman, where they represent strength, reason, and wisdom in the freedom monument.
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Furthermore, there is a woman weeps for the freedom martyr surrounded by several women who share her sorrow. The woman places her left hand on her cheek and her right arm around the martyr, as the death of this loved one is expected to usher in a new day (see figure 66). Life continues as young revolutionaries seek liberty. The lady survives and protects her kids so they will grow up to be strong young men who demand their people's rights in the case of the integration of the cycle of life, death, sadness, joy, despair, and hope. The woman's responsibility in the uprising is to express what is within her through her movements, with her Iraqi cloak, her chant, and her presence next to the man to ensure the continuity of the revolution's significance. The bond between a mother and her child symbolizes tenderness for her infant. This circular shape of the new life as a fence provides him with that; it represents the mother, and the mother encompasses protection. This section relates to
Figure 4.51. A child evokes the picture of Jesus or the angels in Freedom Monument.
Figure 4.52. The symbol of a furious woman in the freedom monument.
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the preceding type: death for a new life. The blood of the victims irrigates the ground so that it may produce the best results, see Figure 67.
A prisoner of conscience strikes the earth with force, symbolizing his community membership, while his thoughts and cries resist the bars and shoot his hands into the sky. The universe is a prisoner imprisoned by iron bars, yet the mind and will transcend to give the revolution to others, resulting in a revolution against injustice. Iraq was rife with prisons in cities and deserts, awaiting the day of liberation so that heroes could be released and freedom could be realized, see Figure 68.
Figure 4.53. A woman weeps for the freedom martyr in the freedom monument.
Figure 4.54. The symbol of youth and revolution in the Freedom Monument.
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The monument's heart and center are described. The sun illuminates the soldier's route as he leaps to break jail bars with his powerful, exposed arms and end injustice. His left hand firmly grasps the thought of the prisoner of conscience, while his right hand tightens the jail bars. In Mesopotamian cultures, the sun represents the god 'Shamash,' the patron of justice. Army soldier represents the revolutionary Free Officers who fought against monarchy and colonialism.
Hence, the result of perseverance and revolution: a soldier engaged in a brutal attack and a formidable force. His legs, arms, and body collaborated in a non-death-knowing aggressive effort to burst jail bars so the sun of freedom could shine above him. Today is the day of the revolution, and the sun represents it. Ancient Iraq is depicted in the works of ancestors' civilizations, such as the obelisk of Hammurabi. Here, the soldier trampled all the shields of the unjust force and entered a new life. He believes that the artist intended for this soldier to represent the commander Abdul Karim Qassem, who was the leader of the revolution, but he left out the specifics of the face so that the notion of the subject does not enter into another turning point for which history condemns him (see figure 69). On the other hand, it can be seen that a woman holding a torch meets the soldier and calls out to the prisoner of conscience on the other side without feet, for freedom does not require it on the ground, see Figure 70.
Figure 4.55. A Prisoner and freedom symbol at the Freedom Monument.
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.
The revolution was successful, and the moment for peace and advancement arrived. A woman meditates with a forward-facing gaze, wearing the most exquisite attire and extending her hands as a gesture of welcome. On her shoulders is a bird, which represents hope in local traditions and peace in global ideals. The prison walls have become twigs from which life grows, see Figure 71.
Figure 4.56. Breaking prison bars and sunrise of freedom over the soldier.
Figure 4.57. A woman holding a torch at the freedom monument.
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On the right is a lady holding palm fronds, indicating the Tigris River; on either side is wheat, barley, and rice; on the left is a second woman carrying the harvest on her shoulder, symbolizing the Euphrates River. Moreover, in the center is a young girl presenting fruit juice to the world by placing it on her head. The artist represented them by depicting Iraqi ladies. One of them is as tall as a palm tree, whose leaves are wrapped over her head to symbolize the Tigris. Furthermore, the other is shorter and pregnant in length, signifying that it is as fertile as the ears it carries on its shoulder; this is the Euphrates River. The third is a girl who carries the earth's bounties on her head, perhaps the tributaries of the Tigris and Euphrates—after the previous carving, altering the style and rhythm, altering the tension and anger to a symphony that expresses peace and goodness, where palms, ears, and giving hands are depicted, see Figure 72.
Figure 4.58. A woman who represents peace and meditates with a forward-facing gaze after victory.
Figure 4.59. The three women's symbols and the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
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From the structure, two men are preparing the land for cultivation; one has an Assyrian face, representing the past and the present working together to develop the future; and in the background is a bull, a Mesopotamian symbol of strength and fertility. The cycle of agriculture and fertility is completed by the function of a woman who cares for the bull and assists the farmers on her right.
However, she is barefoot, a symbol of the variety of her chores. On the far left, a worker stands resolutely with the tool of labor in his hands, and behind him is a page detailing the tale of revolution and building. It is one of Iraq's oldest symbols. It signifies virility, fertility, and vigor and represents cattle. The horse on the far right of the mural and the bull on the far left are complementary. Two peasants with wipers depict Arabs and Kurds, and one of their heads was sculpted by the artist in the old Assyrian manner, alluding to the succession of civilizations in Iraq. As described in the text, both the strong hands ready to plant and the hands of the two personalities contract to labor together in brotherhood and love. The two guys resemble the sculpture of the two ladies in terms of their form and gestures, see Figure 73.
Figure 4.60. A symbol of strength and fertility in Mesopotamia.
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CHAPTER FIVE
5. RESULTS
The researcher drew the following results based on her analysis of the sample models framed by the theoretical framework studies. The samples provided a reflection of the cultural heritage of Mesopotamian art in its creative forms, academic references, formal qualities, and connotations, which the artist Jawad Selim recalled with a rational impetus represented in his achievements, most notably the Freedom Monument. The artist's works are defined by realism, abstraction, and symbolism, as demonstrated by his famous paintings and the Freedom Monument. The plastic artist's Jawad Selim works, symbolism, connotations, and aesthetic visions reveal his intellectual references to Mesopotamian culture. The artist Jawad Selim brought the form of Mesopotamian art derived from the act of accumulating awareness of the aesthetic effect and storing it in his interactive mind to construct a spacious and pressing ground that culminates in artistic works, such as the Freedom Monument.
The artist Jawad Selim is a member of a society that possesses aspects of tranquility; hence, his artistic accomplishments were an incarnation of folklore and folklore due to his membership in that community. Therefore, he stole symbols, shapes, and well-known iconography from him, as seen by the drawings samples, among the contents that address the problem of men's and women's relationships. As a result of the artist's Jawad Selim use of the values of strength and fertility and their relationship to the components of life as sacred values to symbolize symbols with multiple aspects, their overall content is strength, fertility, and creation, as in paintings.
5.1. CONCLUSIONS
Iraqi plastic art understood the significance of the transition to modernity without sacrificing its patriotic and humanitarian values. Moreover, the methods that merged during its march on the expansion of performance differences place this at the center of its current research. The artist Jawad Selim was simply a flash of illumination that illuminated Innovative modern Iraqi plastic art after Baghdad was obliterated by the
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dust of events, which nearly erased her memory if not for this generation, which restored her awakened and established her creative identity.
The artist Jawad Selim manifested himself by diversifying the sources of artistic discourse and fusing them into an artistic vision closely related to the values of the Iraqi man and his environment, which is rich in art manifestations such as architecture, heritage motifs, folklore, and folkloric and mythological rituals, among others. The innovative modern Iraqi plastic artist centered his attention on reading about the civilized and famous heritage of society and living it by the results obtained from international plastic experiences with their readings of Mesopotamian civilizational heritage and tracking them with their evolutionary stages of art techniques.
Dealing with civilized, popular, and folkloric legacy was not limited to a single section of society. Its practicability serves as a model for stimulating and revitalizing the awareness and capacity to adapt its period to the modern region. The innovative modern Iraqi plastic artist is a conscientious and thoughtful member of society because he or she confronts and anticipates social circumstances. He understands the significance of cultural and widespread legacy in restoring society's ideals.
The Iraqi person in general and the artist, in particular, observe the values of the inheritance and take from him what corresponds with his intellectual and artistic philosophy in a way that suits the taste of innovative modern culture to offer it to himself as a kind of uniqueness between artists.
5.2. SUGGESTIONS
The inheritance of culture and folklore take its rightful place as a science in its own right, the aim of which is to elevate society to a higher level by intensifying art displays according to how they are categorized. Inclusion of the cultural heritage curriculum only within the academic programs offered by colleges and institutes of fine arts. The student then discovers the creative part and the originality of the work, which consists of plastic works that utilized the legacy, followed by an image of the ancient artistic achievement and an attempt to clarify how to apply the legacy.
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