Iman Mahmud's Page

Website

www.iman-abdullah-mahmud.com

Relationship status

married

College / University

Art Akadiemie Bagdad Irak

Member type

Artist

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?

Installation, Painting

I am...

Iman Abdullah Mahmud
Born in 1956 in Baghdad (Iraq). School for art and graphics in Baghdad. Study of fine arts at the Academy of Arts in Baghdad. Member of the association of artists (BBK), Munich and Upper Bavaria. In Germany since 1998. Exhibits in Iraq, Germany, France, Cyprus, Jordan, England, USA, Russia. Acquisition of a painting by the British Museum. Symposia in Germany, Hungary, France and Czech Republic. Bilds vom Britischen Museum in London, 2003. Symposien in Deutschland, Ungarn, Frankreich, und Tschechien.

About my artwork

My "wall paintings" intend to express permanent change. An old wall, e.g., tells its history, is subject to continuous renewal. When I touch the wall I feel connected with the past, and with people who left their traces there.

In the beginning of the 1990s I got interested in inscriptions on walls (graffiti) and I started to use calligraphic elements in my paintings, i.e., characters, symbols, and numbers. For my paintings I use tempera or acryl on paper, fixed on cardboard or wood, sometimes structured with gypsum.

In many of my paintings I use Arabic characters and sequences of numerals. I was inspired by old temple inscriptions with numbers that represent coded text. The coding had magic meaning and hardly anyone could decode it. The calligraphic elements resemble the symbols in old Babylonian or Egyptian temple inscriptions. I am particularly interested in the relationship between the individual characters and feel a magic force originating from these inscriptions.

The characters in my paintings have no concrete meaning. The occupation with the characters and numbers, however, is of great importance to me; it influences my awareness of life and my attitude towards my inner and outer life.

To me, an old wall expresses decay and growth, death and renascence, destruction and reconstruction, war and peace. As the wall is painted and re-painted, the layers become documents of the past. In a weathered wall the different layers emerge and reveal its history.

Artists I like

am 6. April 2006

Iman Mahmuds Mauerbilder halten eindrucksvoll Erinnerungen und Erlebnisse, die sich bei ihr mittels der Oberflächen und typischen Strukturen von alten Mauern, etwa in Bagdad, für sie verfestigt haben, zu steinernen Gedächtnissen fest, die sie dann in ihren transparenten Papierarbeiten überträgt. Ihr künstlerisches Verfahren dabei ist jedoch nicht die Abbildung als einer in die Zeichnung umgesetzten Kopie. Sie erfindet in Geiste der geschauten Inschriften von Zahlen und Schriftzeichen eine neue Graphik als Annmutung dieser erinnerten Eindrücke. In ihrer großen Arbeit der sumerischen Wand, die frei im Raum hängt und paradoxerweise in der luftigen Leichtigkeit der Papierschichten als fragmentarische Evokation, als Erinnerungszitat gelten kann, entsteht so ein verwehter Ort, über den sich reden lässt, der sich herbeirufen lässt. Die Poesie der Skulptur besteht nun gerade in dem Materialwechsel, der zur glaubhaften künstlerischen Aussage wird, obwohl das Dokumentarische als solches der Künstlerin nicht wichtig ist – ganz anders als bei Karl Weibl.

Das Medium Papier begleitet Iman Mahmuds künstlerischen Werdegang als ihr künstlerisches Profil seit sie ihren Abschluss 1980 am Institut für Kunst und Graphik in Bagdad machte und dann noch die Kunstakademie dort absolvierte. In über 20 Jahren stellte sie in ganz Europa aus, in Ungarn, Frankreich, Zypern, Italien, England, den USA und immer wieder in München und Umgebung. Auch ihr Werk und ihre Person sind uns wichtig als Ausgangspunkte für weitere transkulturelle Überlegungen einer Zusammenarbeit von „westlichen“ mit Künstlern islamischen Hintergrunds. Denn einerseits praktiziert Iman Mahmud solche Ansätze sowie schon in ihrer künstlerischen Praxis, und andererseits schafft sie es wie kaum ein anderer Künstler aus der islamischen Welt, in ihren Papierarbeiten eine starke Authentizität zu vermitteln, ohne dass die Exponate selber historisch zu sein haben und als künstlerisch hergestellte Konstrukte ihr Simulacrum, man könnte eben auch sagen ihre Poesie bewahren und somit kein „Talmi“, keine billige Abbildung werden, wie es so oft in der zeitgenössischen Kunst von heute geschieht.

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Interests

' 28932966102, in the silence of my sanctuary andsolitude I pronounce holy purification of the heart, platforms and configurations 10432723921142214 26/22. It is the opposite entirety of absolute exposure 12821062192107where soundless revelations in the depths of my being are denied. In the absence of consciousness, where human expression of an unspoken concept reveals both sides of the truth, I construct a shelter to retrieve my fortune 82/18136. The glass barrier within me shatters. Through the debris of mantra and silenced murmurs I hear an inner call bai ala al salat (rise to prayer). In confidence I proceed towards a secret tawaf (orbital ritual) and I whisper lebbaik Allahumma lebbaik (Allah, I am at your command). This then becomes a reflection of materialistic subjectivity 13107358765076447016566136611130.

After a period of compulsory quietness, I enter in an erratic, spontaneous non-conscious conversation, which aims to measure spirituality. In this capricious way, not vacant of presence, lays my destination, my art and my freedom.

I wander the streets and alleyways of the city, imbedded with times lone, perceiving the effect of the universe and mute relationship with our surroundings. I penetrate the pathways of my memory, where instant illumination of the moment occurs as 287, and the world is exposed as 181. Signs and symbols are a presence of that which exists as truth. The icons of completion and opposites are what triumph, for there must be "light" against "darkness" and "existence" against "nothingness".’

4000 years BC Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and Tigris, was populated by the Sumerians. They lived under harsh climatic conditions in a fertile plain.

The Sumerians and their Semitic successors had a logical and scientific way of thinking, which shows especially in their culture of writing. Around 2700 BC writing experienced a revolutionary development. For centuries the Sumerians had used archaic pictographic symbols. Around 1700 BC a cuneiform writing was developed. The former way of writing which used a sharp pen to scratch the symbols in a board of clay was very cumbersome. A writing tool was invented to press cuneiform marks in a soft clay board. Until a few decades ago archeologists believed that writing was invented in a certain place, which was believed to be Uruk in Mesopotamia, and from there spread out over the world. In the meantime this belief has been abandoned by the majority of researchers.
There are cultures with a long tradition where writing was seen as a form of art. In the Arab-Islamic culture that prohibits pictures of humans and other living things writing developed as an art form, the Arabic calligraphy. The aim is to bring writing to a perfection. In the Islamic world the calligraphic aesthetics is a natural component of the traditional written culture.

In my paintings I use Arabic characters with black and gray color on white paper. The texts are mere compositions of word fragments with sometimes symbolic or mystical meaning.



Arabic calligraphy

4000 years BC Mesopotamia, the land between the Euphrates and Tigris, was populated by the Sumerians. They lived under harsh climatic conditions in a fertile plain.

The Sumerians and their Semitic successors had a logical and scientific way of thinking, which shows especially in their culture of writing. Around 2700 BC writing experienced a revolutionary development. For centuries the Sumerians had used archaic pictographic symbols. Around 1700 BC a cuneiform writing was developed. The former way of writing which used a sharp pen to scratch the symbols in a board of clay was very cumbersome. A writing tool was invented to press cuneiform marks in a soft clay board. Until a few decades ago archeologists believed that writing was invented in a certain place, which was believed to be Uruk in Mesopotamia, and from there spread out over the world. In the meantime this belief has been abandoned by the majority of researchers.
There are cultures with a long tradition where writing was seen as a form of art. In the Arab-Islamic culture that prohibits pictures of humans and other living things writing developed as an art form, the Arabic calligraphy. The aim is to bring writing to a perfection. In the Islamic world the calligraphic aesthetics is a natural component of the traditional written culture.

In my paintings I use Arabic characters with black and gray color on white paper. The texts are mere compositions of word fragments with sometimes symbolic or mystical meaning.

What exhibitions are good at the moment?

Group exhibits
1983 exhibition with a Syrian artist, Academy of Arts, Baghdad
1985, 1986 participation in the annual "All Wasity" Festival in Baghdad 1986, 1988 participation in the first and second "World Festival" in Baghdad
1989 participation in the International Festival in Canne sur mer, France
1990 participation in group exhibitions in England and the USA
1990 participation in the Festival "Contemporary Art from Iraq" in Cyprus
1991 annual exhibition of the Federation of Iraqi Artists
1992 exhibition of contemporary Iraqi art in Rome, Italy
1994, 1996 exhibitions "One dimension", Gallery Abaad in Amman, Jordan
2000 exhibition "Strokes of Genius, Contemporary art from Iraq" in London
2002 -2004 group exhibitions at the German Association of Artists (BBK)
2002, 2003 group exhibitions at Haus der Kunst, Munich
2003, 2004 group exhibition in Galerie Arte N, Munich
2003 group exhibition in Kunstforum Arabellapark, Munich
2003 group exhibition "von BEUYS aus ..." in Galerie Wild, Munich
2004 group exhibition in a hospital at Cosimapark, Munich
2004 German Hungarian art project in the museum of Csurgo, Hungary
2004 group exhibition "Angels" in St. Benedict church, Munich
2004 group exhibition in kleine Altstadtgalerie in Dachau (near Munich)
2005 German-French art project "l'art sans fin" in Carcassonne, France
2005 German-Czech art symposium "60 years of search" in Kulturni Centrum, Rehlovice, Czechia
2005 "Night of the open studios" at the monastery Fuerstenfeldbruck
(near Munich)
2005 German-Czech art symposium at the cultural association of Riesa
2005 entry in "Kuerschner's artists' manual"
2005 "Haende schaffen Heimat", a catalogue created by foreign artists in Munich
2006 group exhibition "von Beuys aus ..." in Stadtmuseum Weilheim
2006 group exhibition "Europa und der Islam" in Pasinger Fabrik, Munich
2006 group exhibition "Word into Art", The British Museum, London
2006 group exhibition "Fluchtpunkt" in whitebox, Munich
2007 group exhibition "Nord Art 07", Kunst in der Carlshütte (KiC), Rendsburg
2008 group exhibition "Food" Art Dubai, Dubai
2008 group exhibition "Bewegte Kunst" Schlossgarten, Erlanger
2008 participation in the International Festival St. Petersburg, Russia
Solo exhibits

1997 exhibition in Gallery Ather in Baghdad

1997 exhibition in Gallery Hammurabi in Amman, Jordan

1999 exhibition in "Gallery of the Earth" in Zurich, Switzerland

2001, 2004 exhibitions in Galerie Vinogradov, Munich

2002 exhibition in Galerie Arte N, Munich

2003 exhibition in Kleine Altstadtgalerie, Dachau

2003 acquisition of a painting by The British Museum, London

2006 exhibition in Galerie Huber, Munich

The centre of the artworld is

London, Berlin, my studio, nowhere and everywhere

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