Nadira Azzouz (Iraqi 1927-2020),

拍品描述

Nadira Azzouz (Iraqi 1927-2020), The Back of My Garden, 2010; Oil on canvas 55 x 40cm Note: Nadira Azzouz (1927 – 2020) was born in Mosul, Iraq and studied art at the School of Domestic Fine Arts in Baghdad (1944-49). This was followed with further studies at the Central School of Art in London (1957-60) where she achieved a BA in Painting. Like most Iraqi artists of her generation who had similarly studied abroad, her work is informed by the canon of 20th century international art yet at the same time displays its own distinctive, Iraqi, identity as found in Sumerian and Assyrian sculptures, medieval Arab manuscript illumination and the folk motifs of handicrafts and rugs, as well as local popular themes. The Iraqi novelist, critic and artist, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, wrote in 1983, ‘There is something peculiarly feminine … in her choice of colour and composition as well, explicable perhaps in the context of an Iraqi woman’s passions. Things akin to burning coals suddenly glow and let off sparks through a brazier full of ashes’. She exhibited for decades in London, Baghdad and also Beirut, where she lived from the 1960s onwards. In 1980, she and her husband moved to London, where they settled, although Nadira always missed her native country and the Arab world. In 1988, her work was included in the influential exhibition ‘Arab Women Artists’ at the Kufa Gallery (then run by Rose Issa) in London that showcased the work of leading Arab woman artists. Her works can be found in the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, as well as prominent private international collections.

图片