The Christian Science Monitor

In Iraq, artists work toward a postwar revival

Iraqi painter Qasim Sabti (left), director of the Iraqi Plastic Arts Society, shows visitors sculptures by Iraqi artists at the society gallery in Baghdad, Nov. 8, 2017. Gifted to the society in 1956 and with a long history of hosting all different visual arts, the gallery is the center of a bid to restore Iraqi art and the motivation of young Iraqi artists after decades of hardship.

The young Iraqi painter can’t help herself: She loves Iraq, she loves Baghdad, and she is determined to illuminate minds with her art despite monumental challenges.

The art market has shriveled in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But Zahraa al-Baghdadi says she won’t let Iraq’s chronic violence force her to join the legions of Iraqis who have fled to Europe or the US.

“We all have a confused vision for the future, because of the things we saw here like war, like killing, like kidnapping,” says Mrs. Baghdadi, sipping tea in the Hawar Gallery, one of the last bastions of art still open in the Iraqi capital. “But still we love it. I can’t leave.”

That is the mantra of Iraqi artists

Bursting with talentNeed for supportTo stay, or to go

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