Nedim Kufi

Last updated
Nedim Kufi
Born1966
Baghdad, Iraq
NationalityIraqi
Known forPainter, print-maker and graphic designer
MovementContemporary art
Website Official website for Nedim Kufi

Nedim Kufi (also known as Nadem al-Kufi), born 1962 in Baghdad), is an Iraqi-Dutch multi disciplinary visual artist. He is primarily known for conceptual art that explores themes such as war, political conflict, exile, loss, and historical memory. Much of his work contains autobiographical elements. He is also a graphic designer and print maker. [1]

Contents

Life and career

Kufi was born 1962 in Baghdad, Iraq and spent his early childhood there. He studied at the Bagdhad Institute of Fine Arts, graduating in 1985. [2] He served in the Iraqi military during the Iran–Iraq War, and was deeply affected by the atrocities he witnessed. [3]

He left Iraq in 1990 and settled in the Netherlands in 1994 and studied graphic design there. [4] He now divides his time between the Netherlands and Cairo. [5]

Since 2004, he has published the monthly Daftar, an e-publication that features succinct works by artists and writers. [6] [7]

Work

As with many Iraqi artists now living in exile, Kufi's art explores themes such as war and its aftermath, political conflict, exile, loss, and historical memory. Much of his work contains autobiographical elements. [8] He is a multi-disciplinary artist, working as a painter, graphic designer and print maker. He has had more than 20 solo exhibitions, and has been included in scores of group exhibitions that feature leading Iraqi artists of the post-independence period.

Select list of exhibitions

Select list of artworks

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jawad Saleem</span> Iraqi artist (1919–1961)

Jawad Saleem was an Iraqi painter and sculptor born in Ankara, Ottoman Empire in 1919. He became an influential artist through his involvement with the Iraqi Baghdad Modern Art Group, which encouraged artists to explore techniques that combined both Arab heritage and modern art forms. He is considered to be one of Iraq's greatest 20th-century sculptors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suad al-Attar</span> Iraqi painter (born 1942)

Suad al-Attar is an Iraqi painter whose work is in private and public collections worldwide, including The British Museum and the Gulbenkian Collection. She has held over twenty solo exhibitions, including one in Baghdad that became the first solo exhibition in the country's history for a woman artist. Her many awards include the first prize at the International Biennale in Cairo in 1984 and an award of distinction at the Biennale held in Malta in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismail Fatah Al Turk</span>

Ismail Fatah Al-Turk was an Iraqi painter and sculptor born in Basra, Iraq, noted for his abstract art, monumental sculpture, and public works and as part of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, which fostered a sense of national identity. His monument, al-Shaheed Monument is the most iconic public monument in Baghdad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wafaa Bilal</span> Iraqi American artist

Dr. Wafaa Bilal is an Iraqi American artist, a former professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and currently an art professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He is a Creative Capital Award winner in 2021 for his project In a Grain of Wheat: Cultivating Hybrid Futures in Ancient Seed DNA and named one of Foreign Policy magazine's Leading 100 Global Thinkers in 2016 for his work as an advocate. Bilal's work, Canto III, was included as part of the Iranian pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Bilal's current work 168:01 brings awareness to cultural destruction and promotes the collective healing process through education and audience participation. He is best known for his work, Domestic Tension, a performance piece in which he lived in a gallery for a month and was shot by paintballs remotely by internet users watching from a webcam and for his book, Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance under the Gun, based on that performance, which details the horrors of living in a conflict zone and growing up under Saddam Hussein's regime. He holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was conferred an honorary Ph.D. from DePauw University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naziha Salim</span> Iraqi artist (1927–2008)

Naziha Salim was an Iraqi artist, educator and author, described by the country's president, Jalal Talabani, as "the first Iraqi woman who anchored the pillars of Iraqi contemporary art".

Nada M. Shabout is an American art historian specializing in modern Iraqi art. She has been a professor of art history at the University of North Texas since 2002. She is the president and co-founding board member of the Association for Modern and Contemporary Art (AMCA) of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakir Hassan Al Said</span> Iraqi painter (1925–2004)

Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925–2004), an Iraqi painter, sculptor and writer, is considered one of Iraq's most innovative and influential artists. An artist, philosopher, art critic and art historian, he was actively involved in the formation of two important art groups that influenced the direction of post-colonial art in Iraq. He, and the art groups in which he was involved, shaped the modern Iraqi art movement and bridged the gap between modernity and heritage. His theories charted a new Arabic art aesthetic which allowed for valuations of regional art through lenses that were uniquely Arabic rather than Western.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jordi Tejel</span> Historian of the modern Middle East

Jordi Tejel Gorgas is a historian specializing in modern history, state/society relations, and state-building in the Middle East. He is often cited in the media in relation to Kurdish state-building and Syrian Kurds.

Hanaa Malallah is an Iraqi artist and educator living in London, England. Her surname also appears in English as Mal-Allah. She is noted for developing the technique called the Ruins Technique in which found objects are incorporated into artwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dia Azzawi</span> Iraqi painter and sculptor

Dia Al-Azzawi is an Iraqi painter and sculptor, who lives and works in London. He is one of the pioneers of modern Arab art and is noted for incorporating Arabic script into his paintings. Active in the arts community, he founded the Iraqi art group known as New Vision and has been an inspiration to a generation of young, calligraffiti artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iraqi art</span>

Iraqi art is one of the richest art heritages in world and refers to all works of visual art originating from the geographical region of what is present day Iraq since ancient Mesopotamian periods. For centuries, the capital, Baghdad was the Medieval centre of the literary and artistic Arab world during the Abbasid Caliphate, in which Baghdad was the capital, but its artistic traditions suffered at the hands of the Mongol invaders in the 13th century. During other periods it has flourished, such as during the reign of Pir Budaq, or under Ottoman rule in the 16th century when Baghdad was known for its Ottoman miniature painting. In the 20th century, an art revival, which combined both tradition and modern techniques, produced many notable poets, painters and sculptors who contributed to the inventory of public artworks, especially in Baghdad. These artists are highly regarded in the Middle East, and some have earned international recognition. The Iraqi modern art movement had a profound influence on pan-Arab art generally.

The Hurufiyya movement (Arabic: حروفية ḥurūfiyyah adjectival form ḥurūfī, 'of letters' is an aesthetic movement that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century amongst artists from Muslim countries, who used their understanding of traditional Islamic calligraphy within the precepts of modern art. By combining tradition and modernity, these artists worked towards developing a culture-specific visual language, which instilled a sense of national identity in their respective nation-states when many of these states were shaking off colonial rule and asserting their independence. They adopted the same name as the Hurufi, an approach of Persian Sufism which emerged in the late 14th–early 15th century. Art historian Sandra Dagher has described Hurufiyya as the most important movement to emerge in Arabic art in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jamil Hamoudi</span> Iraqi artist

Jamil Hamoudi (1924–2003) was an Iraqi artist who became the Director of the Ministry of Culture's Fine Arts Department. He is noted for his involvement in various Iraqi and Arabic art movements including the Hurufiyya movement which bridged the gap between traditional and modern Iraqi art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hafidh al-Droubi</span>

Hafidh Al Droubi (1914-1991) was an Iraqi painter and draughtsman, noted for his Cubist paintings and for his approach to professionalising Iraqi art education in the early to mid 20th-century. He was a prolific painter, an important artist in the Pioneer generation, a key figure in the development of modernism in Iraq and a key figure in the development of early Iraqi art education.

Rafa al-Nasiri was an Iraqi painter, draughtsman, print-maker, educator and author whose works with a social and political message resonated with the Iraqi public in the mid-20th century. He was also very influential in encouraging young artists to take up print-making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nuri al-Rawi</span> Iraqi painter

Noori al-Rawi (1925-2014) was an Iraqi painter; a pioneer of Iraqi art who played an important role in shaping the Iraqi modern art movement through his roles as a practising artist, author, television presenter, art administrator and art critic.

Salim al-Dabbagh is an Iraqi painter and installation artist noted for abstract work that references Iraqi traditions. He was one of the founders of the Innovationists Group; an artists' collective that helped to shape modern art in Iraq and was the Head of the Graphic Department at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad from 1971 to 2000.

Mohammed Hajji Selim (1883-1941) was among the first generation of modern Iraqi artists to receive a European arts education. He was a talented amateur artist who produced still lifes, landscapes and portraits, most of which have not survived. He is mainly remembered as the patriarch of an artistic dynasty and as the father of the distinguished sculptor, Jawad Saleem.

Akram Shukri
(1910-1983) was an Iraqi artist and architect. He was the first Iraqi artist to receive an art scholarship to study in England and was also the first Iraqi artist to paint using the Pointillism style. He was instrumental in founding the Society of Artists and Art Lovers in 1941, an art group that shaped Iraq's attitudes to the arts and the role of the arts in the construction of a national identity for the newly created Iraqi state. He worked for the Iraqi Department of Antiquities and Heritage, and in his later career, became the Director of the Iraqi Antiquities Laboratory. Sayid Akram Sukri

References

  1. "Nedim Kufi on Memory, Forgetting and Naivete". 3 November 2014.
  2. Faruqi, S., "Art as a ‘Psychololgical Outlet› : Expatriation and The Work of Contemporary Iraqi Artists," [Essay], Meem Gallery, n.d., Online:
  3. Nadim Kufi biography, Barjeel Art Foundation, accessed 06-04-2018; Kufi, N., "Biography", Online:
  4. Nadim Kufi biography, Barjeel Art Foundation, accessed 06-04-2018; Kufi, N., "Biography", Online:
  5. Bocco R., Bozarslan H. and Sluglett P., Writing The Modern History Of Iraq: Historiographical And Political Challenges, World Scientific, 2012, p. 487
  6. Naef, S., "Not Just for Art's Sake: Exhibiting Iraqi Art in the West after 2003," in: Bocco Riccardo, Bozarslan Hamit and Sluglett Peter (eds), Writing The Modern History Of Iraq: Historiographical And Political Challenges, World Scientific, 2012, p. 487
  7. Shabout, N.M., Dafatir, University of North Texas School of Visual Arts, 2007, p. 47
  8. Ruya Foundation
  9. Bocco R., Bozarslan H. and Sluglett P., Writing The Modern History Of Iraq: Historiographical And Political Challenges, World Scientific, 2012, p. 489
  10. "Rebuilding the damage; From painful past, Iraqi artist creates fragile beauty". Boston Herald . 29 September 2003. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  11. "The alchemy of Nedim Kufi". The Daily Star . 14 February 2006. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  12. Bocco R., Bozarslan H. and Sluglett P., Writing The Modern History Of Iraq: Historiographical And Political Challenges, World Scientific, 2012, p. 486
  13. "El Hema Koopavond". Wereldjournalisten. 2 October 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  14. "Artist relives his pain in paintings". Gulf Daily News . 8 October 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  15. Bocco, R., Hamit, B. and Sluglett, P. (eds), Writing The Modern History Of Iraq: Historiographical And Political Challenges, World Scientific, 2012 p. 491
  16. Eigner, S., Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran, Merrill, 2010, p. 173
  17. Eigner, S., Art of the Middle East: Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran, Merrill, 2010, p. 173