⊕ DIA AL AZZAWI (BRITISH / IRAQI B.1939) Lot n° 53

⊕ DIA AL AZZAWI (BRITISH / IRAQI B.1939) AL-JAWAHIRI VERSES signed, stamped and dated Azzawi 1989 lower right; numbered 71/89 lower left hand coloured lithograph on Velin Cuve BFK Rives Blanc mould-made 250gsm paper 65 x 50cm; 25 1/2 x 19 1/2in 73 x 56.7cm; 28 3/4 x 22 1/3in (framed) Property from a Private Collection, London Provenance Acquired from the artist by the present owner Al-Azzawi began creating art at a young age, drawing illustration reproductions from magazines and scenes from his family life. This natural talent was encouraged and developed in his time at al-Markaziyyah high school from which he graduated in 1958. He then attended the College of Arts, Baghdad, completing his degree in archaeology in 1962. While there, al-Azzawi was encouraged by friends in the al-Marsam al-Hurr group (the Free Studio) to attend night classes at the Institute of Fine Art to continue his art studies, which he completed in 1964. His early work drew from many sources of inspiration, including the Sumerian figurine, visual motifs from popular culture and everyday life, and legends and folklore such as Gilgamesh and Imam Hussain. After Al-Azzawi moved to London in 1976 to expand his practice and escape the increasingly oppressive Ba'thist state, he moved towards exploring the interaction of visuals and the written word through experimentations with poetry, such as the al-qaseedah al-marsumah or 'drawn poem'. In 1979, he continued to create visual representations for poetry using al-qaseedan al-marsumah. After 1983, Al-Azzawi returned to earlier motifs like colour through the form of the Arabic letter and the influences of classic literature such as One Thousand and One Nights but now through the medium of prints. Al-Azzawi continued to explore the convergence of visuals and the written word by producing dafatir, or artists books, which reflected the poetry of the great Arab poets. Beginning in 1989, Al-Azzawi produced over 40 dafati and it became a place for him to reflect on political events such as the start of the Gulf War in 1991. Al-Azzawi's Al-Jawahi verses were based on the poems by Iraqi poet Muhammad Mahdi Al-Jawahiri, born in 1899 in Najaf. Al-Jawahiri's father, 'Abd al-Husayn was a religious scholar among the clergy in Najaf who wanted his son to be a cleric as well. So he dressed him in a cleric's 'Abaya and turban at the age of ten. The origin of Al-Jawahiri goes back to his Najafi, Iraqi family. Since the 11th century Hijri (15th century CE), the most famous people have inhabited Najaf, and individuals named al-Najafi have earned the title 'Bejeweled' (or al-Jawahiri) for their relationship to the book of fiqh values (religious scholarship), which one of his family's ancestors, Shaykh Muhammad Hasan al-Najafi, had written.