M12 Shakir Hassan al-Said

Manifesto of the Baghdad Modern Art Group (1951)

The Baghdad Modern Art Group (Jama’et Baghdad lil Fann al-Hadith) emerged at a time of revolutionary fervour in Iraq. Formed in 1951 by the artist Jewad Selim (1919–61) and the artist and writer Shakir Hassan al-Said (1925–2004), the group aimed to develop a contemporary national artistic style that incorporated concepts from Western modern art and traditional Arab cultural and intellectual influences. In April that year, their manifesto was read out by al-Said in the conference hall of the Museum of Ancient Costumes in Baghdad, at the opening of the group’s inaugural exhibition of modern art. It argued for a distinctive Iraqi cultural identity, citing the achievements of the thirteenth-century miniature painter Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, who had been active during the golden age of the Abbasid caliphate, when Iraq was the political and religious centre of the Islamic world. The manifesto proposed picking up the evolutionary thread of Iraqi art from where it had been cut short in 1258 by the Mongol invasion and the subsequent destruction of Baghdad.

After the July Revolution in 1958, in which the ruling Hashemite monarchy was deposed and a republic established, the Baghdad Modern Art Group became representative of a desire within Iraqi society to formulate a Pan-Arab identity based on the combination of the country’s traditional heritage and modern progressive ideals. Yet the moment was short-lived: as infighting between tribal factions split the new republic, Selim was denounced as ‘an enemy of the people’ and died prematurely in 1961, while al-Said suffered a near collapse of his mental health caused by the continuing turbulence of the political situation.

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At a time when Western civilization is expressing itself in the realm of art, an expression that marks the present age with a yearning to achieve freedom through modern trends, our audience remains oblivious to the importance of the art of painting as an indicator of the extent of the country’s wakefulness and its tackling of the problem of genuine freedom.

However, a new direction in the art of painting will resolve this problem as a contemporary awakening that picks up a path begun long ago: the first steps along this path were taken by the artists of the thirteenth century AD, and the new generation will find that their ancestors’ early efforts are still pointing a way forward, despite the darkness and the danger. The modern Iraqi artist is burdened with the weight of the culture of the age and the character of local civilization.

As a result of this, the following question will linger in the artist’s mind: By what means will this new art be realized? Various answers will tempt his thought, and he will carry out all manner of experiments, as his head, eyes and hands dictate. As for the audience, who are shocked at first by the novelty of the effect, they would do better continuously to seek the key to the secrets behind the efforts that are exerted. And then the gulf that separates the audience from the artist will disappear.

Logic has been our guide since the beginning. There are two things: a means and a goal. In art, the goal becomes the means. On the one hand, the emergent modern art style becomes the crux of the concept that we will realize. As for the conventional view that constantly tears the concept from the style, it is a narrow view from the remnants of the romanticism of the beginning of the past century. There is no reason to keep clinging to that concept if it calls for a dismantling of the artwork. On the other hand, our efforts go to waste if they do not contain a spirit of renewal and innovation. This initiative, which appears today in the form of the First Exhibition for Modern Art, and which brings together various modern studies such as Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Cubism and abstractionism, is the first following the Second World War, and it takes confident strides towards creating a unique personality for our civilization. If we do not realize ourselves through art, as well as in all other spheres of thought, we will be unable to take the feverish plunge into the fierceness of life. However, a work of only style alone does not solve the problem we seek to resolve, i.e., the necessity of creation that requires the introduction of new elements into our styles. Picasso, the artist of this age, who has today become one of the foundations of the most modern art, did not attain that status without passing through stages that showed him the validity of searching for new elements at their sources. It was not in vain that he was led to primitive Iberian art, then to black African art, then to the works of one of the authors of the post-Impressionist movement. These were first steps that would lead him to what is called Cubism. This shows us, from among the different paths diverging before our feet, a course we must explore. It requires on the one hand our awareness of the current styles, and on the other hand that we grasp the elements with which we will enrich our work. Here, the first presents the level of our understanding of those foreign styles; and the second our awareness of local character. This character – which most of us are ignorant of today – is what will allow us to compete with other styles in the universal field of thought.

We thus announce today the beginning of a new school of painting, which derives its sources from the civilization of the contemporary age, with all the styles and schools of plastic art that have emerged from it, and from the unique character of Eastern civilization. In this way, we will honour the stronghold of the Iraqi art of painting that collapsed after the school of Yahya al-Wasiti, the Mesopotamian School of the thirteenth century AD. And, in this way we will reconnect the continuity that has been broken since the fall of Baghdad at the hands of the Mongols. The rebirth of art in our countries depends on the efforts we make, and we call upon our painter brothers to undertake this task for the sake of our civilization and for the sake of universal civilization, which is developed by the cooperation of different peoples. May the heritage of the present times and our awareness of the local character be our guides. May we receive support from the attention, good taste and encouragement that we anticipate from the public.

We, the Baghdad Modern Art Group, hereby declare the birth of a new school of art for the sake of our civilization, and for the sake of universal civilization.