Jewad Selim

(Iraq, 1919-1961)

Women Waiting

Footnotes

WOMEN WAITING: ONE OF JEWAD SELIM'S MOST SIGNIFICANT PAINTINGS

"Artists were appalled at the conditions of poverty, illiteracy and subjugation of a lot of Iraqi women during this period in Iraq's history. They were concerned about the situation of illiterate women who were "waiting" for marriage or who were forced to work as prostitutes. Jewad was very proud of his sister Neziha for having the courage to break out of the tradition of "waiting" and leaving to study art in Paris. The painting will have been a statement of the plight of women at this time"
- Miriam Selim, the artists daughter

Provenance:
Property from a private collection, England
Formerly property from the collection of the renowned Iraqi architect Said Ali Madhloom (1921-2017)
Acquired directly from the artist by the above

Published:
Exhibition Catalogue: Jewad Selim, National Museum of Modern Art, January 1968, Ministry of Culture

Exhibited:
Jewad Selim, House of Nizar Ali Jawdat in 1950, Baghdad, Iraq, 1950, No.9 (the artists first solo exhibition)
Jewad Selim, National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad, January 1968

Bonhams are most privileged to present perhaps one of the rarest and most sought after works of Iraqi art to come to auction in recent history, from the father of Iraqi Modernism, Jewad Selim.

Jewad Selim painted Woman Waiting in 1943, the work was not only exhibited at Jewad's first ever solo exhibition in the house of Ali Jawdat Ayoubi, but also featured in his major 1968 retrospective at the Baghdad National Museum.

Executed in Jewad's key transitional period; during a five year stay in Baghdad after returning from Rome and before enrolling at the Slade, the work is a powerful and unique commentary on the plight of Iraqi women, and perhaps one of the first overtly feminist artworks painted in the Middle East

In this painting Jewad depicts the prostitutes that loitered in the back alleys of Baghdad, entreating business for passers by. Far from being a merely literal appreciation of its subject matter, Jewad's depiction of the women is a wider commentary on the plight of a generation of Iraqi women whose fate and destiny were tied to the men for whom they were "waiting"; this including not only Women Waiting for male custom, but for girls waiting to be betrothed whose transition to adulthood depended on the presence of a male provider.

Mixing traditional Iraqi and Islamic motifs with a modernist visual language, Selim weaves a form of "folk modernism" which is both vernacular and universal. Focusing on the florid landscape of downtown Baghdad, Selim's composition is populated with the humorous and extravagant characters encountered in everyday life. Light hearted and boisterous, the "Women Waiting" is in part a stylistically sophisticated example of a burgeoning modernist movement in Iraq and in part a playful take on life in streets of Baghdad.

Jewad was sent to Europe on government scholarships to further his art education, first to Paris (1938-39) and then to Rome (1939-40). The affects of World War II resulted in Jewad cutting short his studies and returning to Baghdad, where he began part-time work at the Directorate of Antiquities, where he developed an appreciation and understanding of ancient art of his country, and he also taught at the Institute of Fine Arts and founded the sculpture department. During this wartime period in Baghdad, Jewad and a group of Iraqi artists became acquainted with several Polish officers who were painters, two of whom had studied with Pierre Bonnard. The Polish artists introduced the young Iraqis to the latest European styles and concepts, leading Jewad to comment in his diary that after discussion with the Poles, he understood the importance of colour and its application; and only then was he able to fully understand the works of European artists such as Rembrandt, Goya and Cezanne.

"...A new trend in painting will solve the identity crisis in our contemporary awakening, by following the footsteps of the thirteenth century Iraqi masters. The new generation of artists finds the beginning of a guiding light in the early legacy of their forefathers" – Jewad Selim