LECTURE

Les débats sur l’abstraction dans les écrits d’artistes irakiens (1949-1971) : pour une approche historique et mondiale d’un mouvement. 

Zouina Ait Slimani

20.10.22, 5 pm

CAPC musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France. 
 

Zouina Ait Slimani will speak at the “Des Lignes et des Lettres. Artists’ Writings and Abstractions” symposium, organized by Caroline Degruson, as part of Richard Leeman's seminar “On Art Today”. 

Her paper aims to shed light on the historiography of artists’ writings on abstraction, from Iraq: Madiha Umar's pioneering art and writings from the late 1940s were followed by an intensified discussion until 1971, which corresponds to the publication in Baghdad of the One Dimension group’ manifesto,  and painter Shakir Hassan Al Said’s theoretical writings on Al-ḥurūfiyya (“lettrism”) movement. These writings constitute the meeting point between abstract art and the Arabic letter as an art form. This contribution is part of a reflection on how to include discourses on Iraqi art in the canons of art history—long reduced to the simple fact of the West—with the aim of reflecting on the restitution of a narrative of the history of abstraction, taking into consideration networks, circulations and artistic transfers.

More informations here.