DIA AL-AZZAWI EXHIBITION

ضياء العزاوي

رسم الشعر

PAST EXHIBITION

Gallery 8

Admission was FREE


The Arab world's most influential living artist
 

Dia al-Azzawi is an internationally recognised Iraqi painter and sculptor who has been living and working in London since the late 1970s. Best known for monumental and colourful canvasses, his work spans many genres, including a type of artist books known in Arabic as 'dafatir'.

A combination of painting and text, dafatir take various forms – accordions, square and oblong booklets, cigar boxes or other sculptural assemblages – but are not meant to be read or viewed in a traditional way. Rather than illustrating the poetry within, which is usually drawn from the pre-Islamic traditions or based on collaborations with contemporary poets, the paintings are free and emotive responses to it.

 

Painted concertina paper artwork by the artist Dia al-Azzawi

'A Rose of Black Lace: Amjad Nasser' by Dia al-Azzawi, 1999. Concertina with sculptural case, gouache & ink on paper, wood & plaster © Azzawi 1999, photography Anthony Dawton

 

This exhibition explored the development of dafatir over 40 years of artistic production and considers the evolution of Azzawi’s distinctive pictorial language – a fusion of words and images – which would come to dominate much of his work. The installation also included drawings, prints and a monumental ten-metre tapestry immortalising the impact of war on the city of Mosul and displayed in public for the first time.

 

DOWNLOAD THE DIA AL-AZZAWI EXHIBITION LEAFLET

 

An additional display in the Islamic Middle East Gallery 31, designed as a companion display to the Dia al-Azzawi: Painting Poetry exhibition, explores the impact of dafatir on a younger generation of Iraqi artists.


Header image: 'Of Layla: Qasim Haddad' by Dia al-Azzawi, 1998. Concertina, gouache & ink on paper, acrylic on foamboard. © Azzawi 1998, photography Anthony Dawton

EXPLORE AL-AZZAWI'S WORK IN OUR FILMS

BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE EXHIBITION

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/X3fYT9LgS_I?rel=0

SPOTLIGHT ON AL-AZZAWI'S TAPESTRY

 

SOME OF THE WORKS ON DISPLAY

Click on each image to view the full artwork

Exhibition curator Dr Francesca Leoni says: "Dafatir represent an unusual and rather ‘fluid’ artistic genre – neither entirely book nor entirely sculpture. They speak to past traditions such as Islamic illustrated manuscripts, and yet they also fully embrace modern aesthetics and contemporary concerns. As such they have become a thriving space for artistic expression and experimentation, as well as a site for defiance and resilience when produced in reaction to violence and conflict."


This exhibition was developed in collaboration with Dia al-Azzawi's studio

Exhibition generously supported by:

Kinda Foundation

Saeb Eigner
And donors who wish to remain anonymous

With special thanks to Dia al-Azzawi, his studio and family

 

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