Iraqi artists of the 20th century thought of modern art as an active space of shared humanity within which they were able to negotiate their contribution to building a new nation with a distinctive culture.

Their conscious desire to take part in building the new Iraqi nation as a coherent whole resulted in the creation of an iconography that is recognized till this day as distinctly Iraqi, in both form and content. Following the philosophy and spirit of modernity and its concept of the nation-state, the visual language they created was based on selection and synthesis of what they believed constituted the "Iraqiness" of the various and multiple fractions of society. These elements were then merged into a single identity representative of the pluralistic whole.

This exhibition presents a few of the experiments that participated in creating visual cultural rhythms in Iraqi art. While by no means exhaustive or comprehensive, nor exclusively representative of the artists' oeuvres, works exhibited date from the 1940s to the present, and include some of Iraq's most accomplished artists from the generation of the pioneers (al-Ruwad) as well as from the subsequent younger generations. What these works share is visual transformations of specific cultural trends and patterns.

The works exhibited present examples of historical trajectories that were dominant in setting the rhythms of modern Iraqi art throughout the twentieth century. Much has changed since 2003 and new factors are responsible for forging divergent rhythms. The new cultural beats and tempos will only become evident with time.

Dr Nada Shabout, curator

The exhibition is sponsored by Merchant Bridge