Jawad Saleem

Jewad Selim (1919–1961) (Arabic: جواد سليم‎‎) was an Iraqi painter and sculptor born in Ankara (Turkey) in 1919. He studied sculpture in Paris (1938-1939), Rome (1939-1940) and London (1946-1948). Having been influenced by Western artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore, Selim returned to Iraq and was appointed head of the Sculpture Department at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, a position he retained until his death in 1961. He also founded the Jama'et Baghdad lil Fen al-Hadith (The Baghdad Modern Art Group) with fellow artist Shakir Hassan Al Said, as well as the new Baghdad School of Modern Art. He is especially known for his Nasb al-Hurriyah (Monument of Freedom), located in one of Baghdad's main squares. In this monument, the artist celebrated the Iraqi people and the 1958 Revolution, however, he died before the monument was finished. Selim is credited as being the most influential artist in Iraq's modern art movement.