Galerie Claude Lemand

MASSACRES AND JOY OF LIFE.

Claude Lemand,

AZZAWI, The Arab Master of Prints.

The 17 port­fo­lios of orig­inal prints real­ized by Dia Al-Azzawi between 1978 and 2007 illus­trate well the two con­stant fea­tures of the work of the great Iraqi artist based in London: on the one hand, Picasso’s influ­ence on his art inspired by the Massacres and the vio­lent events that have been trau­ma­tizing the Arab World for decades and on the other hand, Matisse’s influ­ence on the joyful and colourful works that express his call for the Joy of Life in Nature and in the Oriental Gardens.

Born in Baghdad in 1939, Dia Al-Azzawi studied archae­ology and art at the University and later at the Fine Arts Institute of Baghdad. He set­tled down in London in 1976. He is a painter, sculptor, book artist and he still pro­moting the young Iraqi cre­ations. Many solo exhi­bi­tions have been organ­ised in gal­leries, inter­na­tional fairs, museums and art cen­tres. His works fea­ture in both public and pri­vate col­lec­tions across the globe. The Institut du Monde arabe held a ret­ro­spec­tive exhi­bi­tion for him in 2001 and the Qatar Museums ded­i­cated a double ret­ro­spec­tive exhi­bi­tion in 2016-2017.

Having a pas­sion for graphic arts and pub­lishing, he pro­duced many orig­inal prints, port­fo­lios and artist’s books. He played a piv­otal role for the cre­ation and dif­fu­sion of modern Arab graphic arts in Europe and in the Arab world. His oeuvre con­stantly built autonomous visual worlds that were in par­allel to the poets’, mas­tering with an equal skill both ancient and recent Western tech­niques of etching, lithog­raphy, silkscreen and dig­ital prints.

Since a quarter of a cen­tury, the Claude Lemand gallery reg­u­larly exhib­ited in Paris Dia Al-Azzawi’s works, in which the artist bears wit­ness to his ‘pos­i­tive moder­nity’ and to his deter­mi­na­tion that art should con­tribute to the world’s hap­pi­ness and to the emer­gence of a new Arab civil­i­sa­tion that would be in har­mony with itself and with other civil­i­sa­tions. « My work is part of the move­ment of Arab Art’s renais­sance, but it is uni­versal in its approach and it is closely related to his­tory and to the values of con­tem­po­rary cul­ture».

Translated from French by Valérie Didier Hess.

PORTFOLIOS OF ORIGINAL PRINTS:

1978. Al-Mu’allaqat. - Seven Golden Odes. Eight silkscreens, 100 x 70 cm.
1979. The Body’s Anthem. Poems illus­trated for Tall al-Zaatar. Sixteen silkscreens, 65 x 65 cm.
1982. Homage to Baghdad. Ten silkscreens, 55 x 50 cm.
1983. We are not seen but Corpses. The Sabra and Shatila Massacres. Eight etch­ings and one lithograph, 100 x 75 cm.
1986. One Thousand and one Night. Twenty seven prints (lithographs and etch­ings), 65 x 50 cm.
1989. Homage to Jawad Salim. Eight etch­ings coloured by the artist, 50 x 52 cm.
1989. Al-Jawahiri Verses. Ten lithographs, 65 x 50 cm.
1990.. Adonis. Five lithographs, 50 x 65 cm.
1991. Beirut Suite. Ten lithographs, 50 x 65 cm.
1991. The Crane. Ten lithographs, 50 x 65 cm.
1991. Nuzhat Zaman. Nine lithographs, 50 x 65 cm.
1994. The will of Life. Al-Chabbi - Irâdat al-Hayât. Six lithographs, 56 x 38 cm.
1994. Cities of Salt. - Mudun al-Milh. Six lithographs, 56 x 38 cm.
2004. Majorelle Gardens. Marrakech. Three silkscreens, 63 x 50 cm.
2005. Portrait of The-Non-Existent-Bird. Eight dig­ital prints, 60 x 42 cm.
2006. Al-Mutanabbi Prints. Four dig­ital prints, 50 x 200 cm.
2007. Al-Mutanabbi Portfolio. Eight dig­ital prints, 60 x 42 cm.