Rafa al-Nasiri: The travels and influence of an Iraqi artist
Rafa al-Nasiri (1940-2013) attended the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and later returned as an instructor of graphic arts. Between those stints, he acquired international training in China and Portugal that gave him insight into Eastern and Western artistic techniques and styles. Questioning the source of his expressive forms, he developed a distinctive calligraphic modernist art style that incorporated horizon lines as compositional elements and featured dislocated letters as elements for contemplation. His work in the late 1960s and beyond reflects Asian landscape philosophy, European abstract expressionism, and Arabic script elements. For al-Nasiri, the techniques of printmaking in particular facilitated his development of contemporary calligraphic aesthetics. Initially trained in woodblock, he made it a point to acquire mastery over myriad other techniques, seeking out residencies abroad, cultivating friendships with printmakers around the world, and organizing exhibitions, showcases, and student workshops.
A holiday card by al-Nasiri
Al-Nasiri’s silkscreen card would have been produced at a similar time as Dia al-Azzawi’s, albeit with a different color palette and resulting mood. Al-Nasiri employs a version of his trademark sin letter, but duplicates, rotates, and splits its toothed shape to spell “happy holiday” (ʿeid saʿid) in Arabic. The minimal, abstracted setting shows a diffusion of warm tones surrounding the characters. A result is that the undulating shape of the letter connects to themes of radiance and diffusion associated with the sun.
Above: Rafa al-Nasiri, silkscreen Eid card, c. 1970s. UC Berkeley Library collection.
Early printmaking training
Above: Rafa al-Nasiri, Summer Palace, 1960, woodcut, 15 x 20 cm. Reproduced from Rafa Nasiri: 50 Years of Painting & Printmaking, exh. Cat. (Amman: Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, 2013). UC Berkeley Library collection.
Al-Nasiri made this woodcut during his studies in Beijing (1959-63). It demonstrates the technical skills that he acquired in China while also reflecting an interest in the characteristics of the Chinese environment: figures, architecture, and landscapes. Students were expected to undertake sketching trips to important sites and monuments.
Made in Iraq
Right: Rafa al-Nasiri, A Girl from the Marshes, 1965, Baghdad, woodcut, 60 x 40 cm. Reproduced from Rafa al-Nasiri, Riḥlatī ilā al-Ṣīn (My Journey to China) (Beirut: al-Muʾassasah al-ʿArabīyah lil-Dirāsāt wa-al-Nashr, 2012). UC Berkeley Library collection.
Upon his return from China to Iraq, al-Nasiri completed woodcut images of people living in the Tigris-Euphrates plain in southern Iraq, who were understood to be the descendants of the ancient Sumerians. We see the artist emphasize the crescent shape of the young woman’s eyes via the repeated shapes of the arched reed boats and houses in the background. His idiom is still largely social realism, but now applied to a study of Iraqi cultural settings and contexts.
Made in Lisbon
Left: Rafa al-Nasiri, untitled, 1968, etching, 202 x 298 cm. Reproduced from Rafa Nasiri: 50 Years of Painting & Printmaking, exh. Cat. (Amman: Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, 2013).
Al-Nasiri produced this etching during an extended visit to Lisbon, Portugal, from 1967 through 1969. While there, he was especially drawn to Dutch etchings and European abstraction. While in Lisbon, al-Nasiri created some of his first recognized works associated with the hurufiyya (letter arts) movement of abstracted Arabic calligraphy. He made particular use of the character sin ( س ) , which has an undulating shape that can be used to connote flowing energy. In this untitled etching, the character sin is dark black and appears to be suspended in a field of blue hues.
Professional Print Aesthetics in Iraq
The below illustrated study of contemporary trends in Iraqi art, written by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, was published for the occasion of the inaugural al-Wasiti Festival in Baghdad in 1972 (a pan-Arab gathering of artists and other creatives). Al-Nasiri contributed the cover design, and Ramzi print shop did the printing.
Right: Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, al-Fann al-ʿIrāqī al-Muʿāṣir (Iraqi Art Today) (Baghdad: Wuzārat al-Iʿlām, Mudīrīyat al-Thaqāfah al-ʿAmmah, 1972). Cover graphic by Rafa al-Nasiri; designed and printed at Ramzi print shop, Baghdad. UC Berkeley Library collection.
Al-Nasiri's vibrant design clusters letter-like, toothed forms and dots at the center of an undulating horizon line. Rather than spell out a legible title, the forms become eye-catching graphic elements in a sea of printed tones. By 1972, al-Nasiri had already thought a great deal about the characteristics of contemporary Iraqi art and in 1969 collaborated with other artists to issue a manifesto emphasizing the need to experiment while also staying true to cultural roots. His design for the cover of Iraqi Art Today emblematizes his generation's quest to link heritage forms to future-oriented imagery.
Above: Unknown designer, silkscreen print for the Babylon International Festival, 1987, 20 x 25 cm. UC Berkeley Library collection.
The above silkscreen, a striking multicolored image, plays with registers of both Latin and Arabic characters to create an advertisement for the Babylon International Festival. Inaugurated in Iraq in 1987, the festival was conceived as a major music, dance, and theater event that would, in part, distract from an ongoing war between Iran and Iraq. The bold use of gold reads as a ziggurat that recedes into the turquoise sky, flanking a pop art depiction of antiquity. Al-Nasiri was running a specialty print studio of his own in the 1980s; this design may well be his.
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