Ali Talib (artist)

Ali Talib was born in Basra in 1944.[1] He was among the first graduates of the Academy of Fine Arts, Baghdad, gaining a BA in painting in 1966,[2] He returned to Basra for a short period in the 1960s, but ultimately settled in Baghdad, which at the time had a thriving arts scene. Along with artists such as Amer al-Obaidi, Saleh al-Jumai'e, Salman Abbas, Talib Makki, Nida Kadhim and Faik Husein he became part of a group of artists and intellectuals that "defined Iraqi arts" in the 1960s.[3]

He joined the faculty of the Institute of Fine Arts as a lecturer in painting, a position he held throughout the 1970s.[4] He was known to exhibit a "rebellious attitude to what he and his colleagues regarded as a stagnant arts scene."[2] Determined to be part of a change, he became very active in the local arts community through his participation in Iraq's numerous art groups. He was founding member of the Innovationists established in 1965; a group of younger artists that wanted to advance Iraqi art by through the use of new media and new methods.[5] Artists in this group often took war and conflict as their themes.[6] Following the demise of the Innovationists group in 1969,[7] Talib established a new art group, known as the Shadow Group.[8] He was also a member of the New Vision Group, joining it a few years after its formation in 1968.[9]

He studied graphic design at Helwan University in Cairo, where he attained a Master of Arts in 1980.[10] In 1991 he left Iraq for Amman, Jordan where he was employed as a professor of fine arts at Yarmouk University between 1991-1997. He currently divides his time between the Netherlands and Amman, Jordan.[11] In the Netherlands, he has curated exhibitions such as Iraq: Still Going Strong which featured works by Iraqi artists who did not flee the country during the 1990s.[12]

He is the subject of a number of scholarly publications, including:[13]

• Dia Azzawi, Ingrid Rollema, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Abdulrahman Munif and May Muzaffar, Ali Talib, (English & Arabic) Dar Amwaj, 2009 ISBN 995341775X (book)

and;

• Yusuf Faruq, "Three Painters, Three Styles," Gilgamesh: A Journal of Modern Iraqi Art, vol. 3, 1988 pp 13–17 (journal article)
• Mayy Muzzafar, "A Turmoil Under a Quiet Surface," Gilgamesh: A Journal of Modern Iraqi Art, vol. 3, 1988 pp 6–12 (journal article)

Talib held his first solo exhibition at Mubarakia Gallery, Kuwait, in 1964, while he was still a student at the Academy. Since then, he has participated in scores of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions, including Gallery d'Art 50x70, Beirut, 1994; De Vrije Academie, The Hague, 2003 and United Nation Humans Settlements Programme, Barcelona, 2004.[14] His work is held in collections including Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha and Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman.[15]

His artwork deals with themes of the human experience and the power of nature.[16] The art historian and art critic, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra commented on Talib's work: "His paintings skillfully tackle an experience insistent with its inner contradictions: evasive and recurrent, leaving its impact each time in certain forms on the canvas-and in our memory."[17]

Select list of paintings

• Mesopotamia Mixed media on paper 76 x 56 cm (297/8 x 22 in) (now in a private collection), 2004[18]
• The Mask oil on canvas, 110 x 110 cm (43 5/16 x 43 5/16in), 1976[14]
• Lovers and Mountain 139 x 139 cm (54¾ x 54¾ in), 1985[19]
• Tangera (Series), 2009[20]

During the 1986 inaugural Baghdad International Arts Festival, he and Shakir Hassan Al Said and Dia Azzawi, were the three Iraqi artists who were awarded prizes.[21] He has been the recipient of two prizes:[20]

• 1986 First Prize, First Baghdad International Festival of Plastic Arts, Baghdad, Iraq
• 1995 First Prize, Second Sharjah Biennale, Sharjah, UAE

• Iraqi art
• List of Iraqi artists

• Modern Art Iraq Archive - includes reproductions of artworks including many of those looted from the Modern Art Museum in 2003 and not accessible in any other source