Mathaf is dedicating a major exhibition to the Baghdad Modern Art Group, a collective founded in 1951 by Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said. Curated by art historian Nada Shabout, the exhibition aims to reconstruct the history—including its gaps and lost chapters—of the golden age of Iraqi modernism.
By Meryem Sebti
How do you write the history of a movement when some of its works and archives have disappeared? This is one of the questions explored in “What Lingers in the Artist Mind: Experiments and Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group,” on view at Mathaf in Doha from October 25, 2026, to February 6, 2027.
Founded in 1951 by Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said, the Baghdad Modern Art Group occupies a major place in the history of Arab modernism. Like other modernist movements in the Arab world, such as the Casablanca Art School, its artists sought to develop a distinctly Iraqi artistic language, creating a dialogue between Mesopotamian heritage, Islamic traditions, and international modernist ideas. This exploration of identity, heritage, and modernity is one whose resonance today the exhibition also aims to assess.
Curated by Nada Shabout, an art historian and founder of the Modern Art Iraq Archive, the exhibition explores this history through paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and archival materials. Jewad Selim, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Naziha and Lorna Selim, Faraj Abbo, and Kadhim Haidar are featured alongside, among others, Dia Al Azzawi. Among the major works are Baghdadiat (1956) by Jewad Selim, as well as a preparatory drawing from 1959 for the Freedom Monument in Baghdad.
Missing Archives
The issue goes beyond simply creating a hall of fame. Mathaf traces the group’s evolution, changes in its membership, and its exhibition history, as well as its influence on subsequent generations and on collectives that challenged its positions, such as New Vision and Al-Mujaddid.
The narrative is also shaped by what is missing. Wars and instability in Iraq have led to the loss of archives. Some works have been stolen or damaged, while documents mentioned in the sources remain untraceable. Rather than concealing these gaps, the exhibition chooses to make these absences visible.
First presented at the Hessel Museum at Bard College in 2025 under the title “All Manner of Experiments,” and then at NYU Abu Dhabi in 2026, the exhibition is now in its third iteration at Mathaf. The museum’s extensive collection of Iraqi art allows Nada Shabout to further expand her exploration and, by implication, raises a broader and highly relevant question regarding the way exhibitions are conceived: how can we rewrite the history of Arab modernisms today when their very sources have been scattered?
“What Lingers in the Artist Mind: Experiments and Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group,” Mathaf, Doha, October 25, 2026, through February 6, 2027.
