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Meet Great Contemporary Iraqi Plastic Artists

by Yasin T. al- Jibouri,Layla Murad Sarhan

Young creative and innovative impressionist artist Yaqeen Shadhan

al-Dulaimi recently held her first solo exhibition under the title

“Dreams in the horizon” in which she adopts three main themes:

mankind, life, and death.

It is clear that three themes have dominated most of Yaqeen's

paintings, yet she uses her extreme artistic senses in employing them

over the surfaces of her paintings to bring out in the end a different

image to each. Thus we find the curved land, the colorful sky and

the human being cleverly symbolized in each tableau so as to reflect

a number of realistic thoughts engulfed with surrealistic shades.

At the first look, the viewer is taken by the dreamful atmospheres of

her fantasy world; however, a careful look would soon reveal how

near to our daily life Yaqeen's themes are.

The graduation of colors in Yaqeen's paintings has played an

integral role in conveying the kind of meaning she aspires, added to

the reflection of light that will eventually result in forming the

horizon. Artist Yaqeen Shadhan al-Dulaimi revealed once to an Iraq

daily newspaper the feeling she poured in her paintings saying,

"What concerns me mostly is how to embody the concept of balance

in relation to man and woman.”

She needs his strength as much as he needs her tenderness and

passion. She illustrates that sometimes a woman appears in her

paintings weak and helpless; however, she does not consider it as a

weak point. Nearly all women in Yaqeen's paintings are gazing

upwards as if looking for something. "All that we achieved are the

outcomes of the dream, as my women never stop dreaming. One

woman would seem tired, while the other might look ready to do

something. What is really important to me is to unearth the

passionate side in the many situations witnessed by a human being,"

Yaqeen maintains.

She further symbolizes the concept of eternity and life by drawing

figures of people standing on a sliding land as if they are melting

with the bottom of the painting. "Eternity is in the sky, while the

human being and life are mortal like any substance, only the spiritual

things are apt to remain and immortalize. Through that melting I

give things the aspect of moving,” this artist said.

She concludes saying, "Ever since ever I started painting, my fingers

adhered to curves and sloping strikes as my eyes could not come

with geometrical figures as much as with curving and sloping ones.”

Born in Basra, Iraq, Yaqeen earned a B.A. degree in Chemistry from

Baghdad University. She studied ceramics at the Institution of

Popular Heritage, and she is now a member of the Iraqi Artists

Union and of the Iraqi Plastic Artists Society.