Art News and Articles: FAR® Columnist
Starting Over:
Exiled Iraqi Artist Ghassan Ghaib
by Anayat Durrani
Bombs. Death. Destruction. Not the usual environment one might imagine an artist to create in. For Iraqi painter, Ghassan Ghaib, the realities that unfolded in Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 was too much to bear. Ghaib was forced to leave the life he knew behind and move to neighboring Jordan to start new.
“I left Iraq because of the American occupation of Iraq and because of the creation of a non-peaceful atmosphere there, destroying all the historic museums and exhibitions. Terror was all over Iraq and neglect over all the cultural issues and affairs,” Ghaib told Fine Art Registry™ (FAR®).
Ghaib had a studio in Iraq where he worked for many years. His work was shown in several galleries in Baghdad, which is where he began his career as an artist. But that all quickly changed after the US bombings in 2003.
“All of this made me leave Iraq and made me carry a heavy psychological burden which obstructed adapting to my new residence in Jordan regarding showing and production of my works and also making a living,” says Ghaib.
Many of Iraq’s artists have taken refuge in countries in the Middle East or Europe, forced to start over. Ghaib says the conditions he experienced in his country caused severe hardships in his abrupt move to Jordan. Fortunately for Ghaib, he received help and support from the galleries in Jordan, which he says encouraged him to adapt gradually to his new life.
“And so I made new paintings in a convenient atmosphere,” says Ghaib.
Ghaib was born in Baghdad, Iraq in 1964. He attended the Fine Arts Institute there where he received his diploma in 1986 and later received his BFA at the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1997.
Ghaib’s path into the art world began when he was admitted into the Fine Arts Institute in 1980 and became acquainted with various artists’ methods and schools of art worldwide. He stepped out as a professional artist in 1985 participating in local and international exhibitions. He took part in The First International Iraqi Art Festival in Baghdad in 1986.
Since then, Ghaib has had worldwide exhibitions of his work, which includes oils on canvas and mixed media. His work is represented in the permanent collection of the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art, the former Saddam Center for the Arts, which was damaged by fire and looting after bombings during the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
Ghaib has also explored the book art form in his artwork. This style features books as art and allows artists to reinvent and transform the book into sculptural and poetic objects and bring into their work everything from modern poetry to current political events. Examples of Ghaib’s book art can be seen in his pieces called, “Iraqi Document – 2003” and “Poetry Book (Mudafer al-Nawab) 2004,” a collage and mixed media on handmade paper. His work has been featured in “Dafatir: Contemporary Iraqi Book Art,” which opened in Texas in 2005. The exhibit features book art by seventeen Iraqi artists spanning three generations.
Ghaib has won several awards such as the 2000 Creativity Award in Baghdad. He participated in numerous exhibitions of contemporary Iraqi art including the touring exhibition, “Strokes of Genius: Contemporary Iraqi Art,” which began in London in 2000. He has taken part in exhibits from Baghdad to Beirut to Dubai to Frankfurt and Paris.
“I try to base my artwork on an abstract logic which transfers us to an inclusive view, through which we can realize the formal existence and reach not only the pure beauty but also waking the mind and intellectual abilities such as imagination, intuition and contemplation,” explains Ghaib. “I try in my work to combine and bond what is selfish – inside, with what is objective –outside. The association of ideas and views of the outer are sometimes considered a launching point for building pure beauty mixtures.”
Ghaib says much is available and can be taken from the outdoors, from daily life materials such as textiles and metal surfaces like chrome. He said the personal documents and photos help in supporting the formal construction of the artwork making it beautiful.
He said the situation in Iraq has undoubtedly affected him as an artist. He explained that the artist is the “messenger of humanity” and that all of an artist’s works seek to achieve humane and peaceful objectives, where love, beauty and peace prevail.
“Since war is in the opposite direction of any artist or human being, it represents death and destruction. Its consequences are worse than war itself. The psychological, social and environmental impacts of the war create a constructive atmosphere to the human spirit.”
Ghaib said the war has had a great impact on his artwork. He said he borrows remains such as textiles, photos, documents and metals like chrome, which give industrial technological implications to his artwork.
For now, Ghaib will remain in Jordan where he has been living for the past three years. He continues to create and display his artwork and take one day at a time. He hopes some day in better times to return to his Iraq, back to the studio where it all began.
“Returning back to my country, to my studio and working there remains my ambition,” says Ghaib.
Fine Art Registry™ and Iraqi Artists
Fine Art Registry is working to help bring more exposure to Iraqi artists and those less represented in the arts. As members of FAR, Iraqi artists can showcase and sell their works and also make a permanent record of their work of art. FAR plans to feature profiles of some of its Iraqi members as well as videos of these artists discussing their work and life amid war in their homeland.
FAR is working with Dr. Nada Shabout, assistant professor of art history at the University of North Texas and the world's leading authority on contemporary Iraqi art, to help document Iraqi artwork missing and stolen from the Iraqi Museum of Modern Art in Baghdad, which was damaged by fire and looting after bombings in 2003. The details of this collaboration will appear in a forthcoming article.
— Anayat Durrani | January 31, 2007
Read the series:
• Iraq's Forgotten Modern Art
• Introducing Iraq Contemporary Artists
• Starting Over: Exiled Iraqi Artist Ghassan Ghaib
• Resilience: Esam Pasha - First Iraqi Artist to Register his Work with FAR
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