Common Colors seminar : Exploring Visual Art between Saudi Arabia and Iraq
Common Colors seminar : Exploring Visual Art between Saudi Arabia and Iraq
Writing between two cultures Ministry of Culture
Common Colors: Exploring Visual Arts between Saudi Arabia and Iraq Symposium Topics Ayman Abdel Haq Saudi Writer Symposium Guests Dr. Haider Arab Iraqi Visual Artist Dr. Issam Asiri Saudi Academic and Artist Dr. Maha Radwi Saudi Visual Artist Thursday, December 26, 2024 From 5:00 - 6:30 PM Section | Visual Arts Mega Studio Website https://maps.app.goo.gl/fG79cRUBS4ym4vQ17?g_st=iw
Between Two Cultures
(Exploring Fine Arts between Saudi Arabia and Iraq)
An evening and a dialogue seminar in which participants Dr. Maha Radwi and Mr. Haider Arab discussed several issues revolving around: art as a means of expressing national identity, personal and artistic experiences, symbolism in art, and social influences.
A paper was presented in which she stated that art is a mirror that reflects life and draws the features of the identity of peoples and their successive civilizations. Art is not just aesthetics, but rather a common language that connects peoples and conveys values and heritage, and has a role in confronting the common challenges facing the region and the world.
There are several similarities and differences between Saudi and Iraqi art, as they share the ancient Arab heritage and ancient history since the cultures and civilizations of Ubaid, Dilmun, Sumer, Assyria, Babylon, Akkad, Kinda and beyond. We are united by the father of the prophets, Abraham, peace be upon them. The commonalities continue until the era of prophecy and the era of the Umayyad Caliphate, then the Abbasid, the beginning of modernity and enlightenment for Arabs, Muslims and the whole world. The Arabs built important cities in Iraq such as Basra 14 AH, Kufa 17 AH, Baghdad, Samarra, Wasit...etc. These cities played a major role in building the Islamic civilization and spreading it to the world.
They created in all cities architectural arts from houses and palaces, markets, mosques, walls, schools and hospitals...etc. They excelled in building them with decorations in all their geometric, plant, written, animal and human forms that formed attractive spaces. They also developed the arts of Arabic calligraphy and created dozens of designs in building soft and dry letters and writings, perhaps the most famous of which is the Ijazah script and the Kufic script, which stems from the heart of the Hijazi scripts spread in the monuments of Mecca and Medina. These eras were also accompanied by the arts of literature, composition, translation, industrial arts and applied machines that amaze today's specialized professors and students.
The desert nature shares Saudi Arabia and Iraq with its sunny landscapes, oases and picturesque farms, horses and camels in groups and markets, mud houses and tents, etc., landscapes that do not make you feel alienated when you move between them. Therefore, some see them as one culture and not two. The teaching of calligraphy, decoration, coloring, gilding, binding, papermaking, ink, pens and other fine arts began since the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman Caliphates. Then, when the twentieth century came, Iraq preceded the establishment of art colleges since the thirties. When Saudi Arabia opened the Art Education Institute in 1965, they brought in Iraqi teachers such as Professor Saadi Al-Kaabi and Suleiman Al-Dulaimi, who held the first art exhibitions in Riyadh in houses, then the Al-Yamamah Hotel and the Art Education Institute. The graduates of the institute were the first generation of Saudi fine art. Hassan Shaker Al-Saeed also came to teach arts at an intermediate school in Al-Khobar in 1968-1969. Among his most famous students was the artist Abdullah Al-Shalti. These artists influenced their students at the institute in the works of Bakr Shaikhoun, Abdullah Nawawi, and Suleiman Bajaba. Recently, the Saudi Ministry of Culture held a memorial for the artist Saadi Al-Kaabi and his students in 2021. The calligrapher Abbas Al-Baghdadi and the painter Aqil Al-Awsi also recently resided here before their deaths. Engineer Ali Thuwaini currently resides here. We were visited by the international designer Ryan Abdullah, who has many projects related to the visual identity of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the artist Professor Fakher Mohammed, and several projects were implemented by the architect Zaha Hadid, and several Iraqi artists held individual and group exhibitions in Saudi galleries, many artists that the meeting does not have enough space to mention in detail.
As for the differences between Saudi and Iraqi art, Saudi art seeks to modernize by starting from heritage and identity, while Iraqi art reflects conflict, challenges, pains and dreams, as we see in the impact of the Iraqi wounded lioness and the painting of the nursing lioness in Saudi Arabia and even today's artists participating in the exhibition such as the works of Sirwan and Al-Bahrani and others.
What is hoped for in the future is to increase interest in marketing and promotion of fine arts, support artists and exchange exhibitions by facilitating transportation and reducing logistical costs, as shipping artworks costs 65% of the value of a light painting, so how much does it cost to ship statues? This harms artists and all exporters of fine and cultural production in both countries. Dr. Issam Asiri