Mustafa al-Hallaj studied art in Egypt and lived in Beirut, Lebanon, and Damascus. An important figure in contemporary Palestinian art, Hallaj helped to define fan al-muqawama (the art of resistance). Self-Portrait as God, the Devil, and Man was inspired by ancient Canaanite legends, folk tales, and Palestinian cultural icons. The sequence of pictorial narratives depicts a fable casting the self as man, god, and devil. This ongoing saga made in sections, each measuring 30 x 80 centimeters, had reached 114 meters at the time of his death. Arranged horizontally, the sections together comprise an epic using symbols from ancient mythology—bulls, birds, fish, and animal hybrids. Set within fantastic landscapes derived from ancient and modern Palestinian life, this massive print represents scenes from Al-Nakba (the Catastrophe) of 1948 and other historical events from the history of the Palestinian people, from the eleventh century B.C. to the present. Hallaj died while trying to save the orig Legend of Petra II, 1988
Suha Shoman (Palestinian, born 1944)
Oil on canvas; 78 x 58 1/2 in. (200 x 150 cm)
The Khalid Shoman Private Collection

For twenty years, the ancient Nabataean city of Petra in southern Jordan has been Suha Shoman's source of inspiration. Her studio overlooks the mountain ridges of the ancient city. Her paintings are a meditation on time, on the synchronization of life and death embedded in the Nabataean belief system, on the ephemeral and eternal as embodied by the rocks of Petra. The Legend of Petra is one in a series of paintings reflecting the light in the narrow passage of the Siq. Strong, twisted shapes burst onto large canvases, in vertical compositions, images of the radiant walls of the Nabataean city. The magnified rocks are rendered in burnt orange, volcanic black, gleaming yellow, and dark twilight blue. Shoman's skillful use of color evokes the timeless beauty of Petra, telling the story of the ancient civilizations of her homeland, the richness and life-giving memory that flows through the veins of history.

Fateh Moudarres was a leading figure in contemporary Syrian art. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome and in Paris at a time when Abstract Expressionism was exploding throughout Europe. Moudarres developed a personalized language as an expressionist with a special interest in dramatic color and form. His artistic language became a vehicle that simultaneously conveyed his most intimate personal impressions and the collective memory of his people.

Drawing on the deeply rooted mythology of the Near East, this work depicts a group of refugees displaced by war. Inspired by ancient Canaanite legends such as the Baal epic, Refugees evokes the continuum of memory and tradition in the region and links ancient history and symbols with the volatile political events of modern times. Solemn figures adorned in ancient headdress, typical of Moudarres' work, portray a sense of loss, exile, and oppression. A bull's head is held upright to symbolize dignity and defiance, and contrasting colors expre Nasb al-Hurriya (Monument to Freedom), 1959–61
Jawad Salim (Iraqi, 1920–1961)
Bronze; 164 ft. x 26 ft. 3 in. (50 x 8 m)
Collection of the artist

Jawad Salim grew up in a family of gifted painters. In 1938–39, he studied sculpture in Paris and Rome. In 1945, he studied painting at the Slade School of Art in London. He was influenced by the work of Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso. Upon his return to Baghdad, he taught sculptor at the Institute of Fine Arts. As a co-founder of the Baghdad Modern Art Group, Salim espoused the creation of a unique national artistic identity through the melding of modern concepts with Islamic and Iraqi artistic traditions, from ancient Assyrian miniatures to the work of the thirteenth-century ^cAbbasid painter al-Wasiti. Deeply rooted in the richness of Mesopotamia, Islamic art, and local folklore, Salim's work influenced generations of Iraqi artists.

The Monument to Freedom represents the culmination of Salim's efforts to create a synthesis of indigenous, historical forms and modern international trends, and is considered a landmark in modern Arab sculpture. Commissioned by the new Iraqi gove Iraqi Legend, 1992
Kareem Rissan (Iraqi, born 1960)
Mixed media on board; 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (80 x 80 cm)
The Khalid Shoman Private Collection


Kareem Rissan belongs to a generation of Iraqi artists who managed to maintain their career in spite of constant conflict: the Iran-Iraq War, the first Gulf War, economic sanctions, the second Gulf War and its aftermath. These experiences led Rissan to apply himself assiduously to the task of finding a graphic language in which to express the spirit of past Mesopotamian civilizations that have enriched human life with their values. He bases his work on the legends and epics of ancient Iraq, painting the symbols and signs of Sumerian cuneiform into a contemporary aesthetic. Through his painting, Rissan attains a universal language grounded in his unique local identity. His diversity of expressive form and intense symbolic content allow his art to become both commentary and witness, exuding confidence and hope.

Born in Iraq, Suad al-Attar studied art in Baghdad, San Francisco, and London. She was the first Iraqi woman artist to have a solo exhibition in Baghdad, in 1964. Attar's work is deeply embedded in the layered, historical traditions of her homeland, and yet she is unique in her ability to create and reinvent imagery inspired by Arabic literature, ancient Sumerian mythological texts, and her own representational search for symbolism and dreams. Gilgamesh and Enkido is based on a Sumerian legend. Gilgamesh, the hero-king of the ancient Sumerian city of Uruk, is depicted emerging from a dark, cavernous background. He has the body of an animal and a highly emotive and luminous feminine face, suggesting the artist's desire to create a powerful female image and invent a new role for women in an otherwise male-dominated legend. The animal represents the winged bull of Assyria with its strong and upright legs. Gilgamesh is flanked by his foe turned friend and companion Enkido, whose presence in the painting Kitab al-Mudun: Petra, 1999
Ziad Dalloul (Syrian, born 1953); poetry by Adonis (Syrian, born 1930)
Etching, mixed media on zinc; 23 5/8 x 15 3/4 in. (60 x 40 cm)
Collection of the artist
© Ziad Dalloul

Ziad Dalloul studied at the College of Fine Arts in Damascus and received a diploma from the École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Dalloul is a painter who also engraves, prints, and draws. He merges disciplines and ideas allowing simple forms and complex emotions to come alive on paper. Dalloul uses traditional materials, such as ink, sepia, and handmade paper. His subjects range from domestic quotidian objects, such as a table or chair, to the breadth of nature, such a tree and the sea. He transforms two worlds, Orient and Occident, into a landscape of colors derived from nature and etched by memory. Dalloul's Kitab al-Mudun: Petra is a bilingual Arabic-French book of poems by the Syrian poet Adonis. The book features eighteen engravings by Dalloul that correspond to Adonis' poems about cities—from Beirut, Paris, and Marrakesh to New York, Petra, and Damascus.