press clips summer academy currently on workshops activities archive	May 2000 Excerpts from Mai Muzzaffer's article "Contemporary Artists from Mesopotamia" ...It was not until the 1940's that the modern vision found its way to the core of artistic work wherein it was conceived by its two prominent pioneers, namely Faiq Hassan and Jawad Selim with their adherents following suit. Working in unison , the two creative masters labored painstakingly not only to pave a distinctly manifest path for succeeding generations to pursue, but to bring about the concept of artistic groupings representing various Iraqi artist trends. In addition to that, they founded artistic traditions and criteria that are in one way or another still adhered to today, despite difficulties imposed by harsh conditions to which Iraqi artists have generally been subjected. Shaker Hassan Al Said (Iraq) Iraqi's cultural isolation, brought about in consequence of the now decade long embargo imposed on it, has given rise to exceptional circumstances that in addition to rendering the standard of performance disjointed and dispersed have split Iraq into an inner and outer halves. And along Iraq's two extremities, no less extensively outstretched than the wide expanse of the world itself, the experiences of artists, both those who have lived through two or more generations or those who are young, are undergoing a process of crystallization. With visions inspired by the bitterness of reality, the march of creative output goes on unhindered, both inside Iraq and outside it, as though art is a spirit kindling over the soil of this time-honored land and engendering one generation after another... Mai Muzzaffer, May 2000
press clips summer academy currently on workshops activities archive
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