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Lot Essay
Dia al-Azzawi's Rêveur (Dreamer) marks a crossroads between his earlier work, which drew extensively upon Mesopotamian visual history, and the more experimental visual language that emerged after the 1980s. Significantly, the work was exhibited in Paris in 1988 as part of Quatre peintres arabes, première: Azzaoui, El Kamel, Kacimi, Marwan at the Institut du monde arabe, an important institutional presentation of al-Azzawi’s work. The painting demonstrates al-Azzawi's synthesis of abstraction and figuration through his distinctive use of line, colour and geometric form. The broad, slightly curved white contour enclosing the figure contrasts with the angular geometric planes within it, creating a tension between organic movement and geometric structure. This non-rectilinear and slightly curved line, inspired by Sumerian art, creates a sense of continuity across the composition emphasising the figure’s visual presence. al-Azzawi's intuitive use of colour is central to his artistic practice; its intensity serving as an essential means of evoking memories and experiences. The red geometric planes are particularly significant, as al-Azzawi associated red with themes of love, passion, fear and death, ideas that recur throughout his engagement with Mesopotamian mythology.
Rêveur (Dreamer) reflects al-Azzawi's continued engagement with Iraqi cultural identity through the incorporation of symbolic motifs. The bird, a recurring image throughout his practice following his voluntary exile from Iraq in 1976, can be understood in relation to themes of memory, identity and displacement. In this work, the movement of the figure towards the crescent moon, combined with the title’s reference to dreaming, introduces a sense of longing and contemplation. It suggests a desire to reconnect with a cultural memory that remains present despite physical separation from the homeland.
The relationship between memory and identity is further explored through the integration of Arabic calligraphic forms. The isolated text beside the crescent moon operates as both a decorative and nostalgic device. Throughout this period, al-Azzawi incorporated Arabic letters, fragments of text and references to medieval manuscripts, healing prayers, and everyday expressions into his work, using them as visual elements charged with cultural and emotional significance. This understanding of memory is central to al-Azzawi’s wider practice. He understood the past as a continuous presence within the Iraqi present, coexisting with contemporary experience. As Bahrani argues, al-Azzawi’s images function as a means of transcending the boundaries of time, demonstrating an insistence on the continued presence of history within modern life. (Z. Bahrani, Dia Al-Azzawi: A Retrospective, from 1963 Until Tomorrow, Milan 2017).
This relationship between history, memory and belonging was particularly significant for al-Azzawi’s generation, whose understanding of modernism was shaped by experiences of political instability, displacement, and collective suffering. The Iraqi poet Muzaffar al-Nawwab expressed this complex relationship between homeland and memory, writing: “I don’t think there is a land that was watered with blood and sun like my homeland. But it is my homeland. I don't cry from the heart, or laugh from the heart, or die from the heart, except in it.” His words capture the simultaneous attachment to and pain associated with Iraq, where personal and collective memories are inseparable from experiences of loss. In relation to Rêveur, the dream-like movement of the figure towards the moon suggests a reflection of this tension: a longing for a homeland that exists both as a lived reality and as a repository of memory.
Born in Baghdad in 1939, al-Azzawi trained as an archaeologist at the University of Baghdad, and formerly served as Director of Antiquities at the National Museum of Iraq. He consequently developed a deep engagement with Iraq’s ancient civilisations: Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. These cultural legacies would become a wellspring of inspiration for his artistic practice, blending contemporary techniques with historical forms and aesthetics, al-Azzawi has created a unique visual language that bridges past and present.
His works have been widely exhibited and are held in major institutional collections around the world, including the British Museum, London; Tate, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Today, his legacy continues to shape the trajectory of modern and contemporary art from the Arab world.
Rêveur (Dreamer) reflects al-Azzawi's continued engagement with Iraqi cultural identity through the incorporation of symbolic motifs. The bird, a recurring image throughout his practice following his voluntary exile from Iraq in 1976, can be understood in relation to themes of memory, identity and displacement. In this work, the movement of the figure towards the crescent moon, combined with the title’s reference to dreaming, introduces a sense of longing and contemplation. It suggests a desire to reconnect with a cultural memory that remains present despite physical separation from the homeland.
The relationship between memory and identity is further explored through the integration of Arabic calligraphic forms. The isolated text beside the crescent moon operates as both a decorative and nostalgic device. Throughout this period, al-Azzawi incorporated Arabic letters, fragments of text and references to medieval manuscripts, healing prayers, and everyday expressions into his work, using them as visual elements charged with cultural and emotional significance. This understanding of memory is central to al-Azzawi’s wider practice. He understood the past as a continuous presence within the Iraqi present, coexisting with contemporary experience. As Bahrani argues, al-Azzawi’s images function as a means of transcending the boundaries of time, demonstrating an insistence on the continued presence of history within modern life. (Z. Bahrani, Dia Al-Azzawi: A Retrospective, from 1963 Until Tomorrow, Milan 2017).
This relationship between history, memory and belonging was particularly significant for al-Azzawi’s generation, whose understanding of modernism was shaped by experiences of political instability, displacement, and collective suffering. The Iraqi poet Muzaffar al-Nawwab expressed this complex relationship between homeland and memory, writing: “I don’t think there is a land that was watered with blood and sun like my homeland. But it is my homeland. I don't cry from the heart, or laugh from the heart, or die from the heart, except in it.” His words capture the simultaneous attachment to and pain associated with Iraq, where personal and collective memories are inseparable from experiences of loss. In relation to Rêveur, the dream-like movement of the figure towards the moon suggests a reflection of this tension: a longing for a homeland that exists both as a lived reality and as a repository of memory.
Born in Baghdad in 1939, al-Azzawi trained as an archaeologist at the University of Baghdad, and formerly served as Director of Antiquities at the National Museum of Iraq. He consequently developed a deep engagement with Iraq’s ancient civilisations: Sumerian, Assyrian, and Babylonian. These cultural legacies would become a wellspring of inspiration for his artistic practice, blending contemporary techniques with historical forms and aesthetics, al-Azzawi has created a unique visual language that bridges past and present.
His works have been widely exhibited and are held in major institutional collections around the world, including the British Museum, London; Tate, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), Beirut; Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman; and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah. Today, his legacy continues to shape the trajectory of modern and contemporary art from the Arab world.