current projects

June 16–24, 2007

Hassan Al-Saidi—portrait of a man, selected works 2001–2007

Al-Saidi Hassan, (2002) Portrait of a Man. Black ink, crayon, and watercolor on paper, 6 x 6 inches

“...seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”

~Italo Calvino, from Invisible Cities

Al-Saidi Hassan‘s career in art spans over 35 years, beginning with his studies at the Baghdad Art College and the Academy of Fine Arts, in Rome, to exhibiting and living in Italy, where he had his own sculpture and design studio and was an instructor at the Pietrasanta Art Studios. He has exhibited widely in Italy, France, Africa and India and has most recently been featured in group exhibitions at the Lalit Kala Akademy and Travancore Art Gallery in New Delhi.

Since 1996, Hassan has been living as an artist-in-exile in New Delhi. In past years this was due to his political disagreements with the former regime of Saddam Hussein, and currently because of the United States invasion and civil war. He is a singularity in the world of contemporary Indian art: an artist who has experienced life as both a cosmopolitan nomad and a ‘homo sacer,‘ his life hanging between the sovereignty of states. Hassan‘s work offers a glimpse of a possible Iraqi modernism, albeit one suspended and deferred.

art-jhuggi; 14 June, 2007