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NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery is presenting “All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group,” curated by Nada Shabout and on view through Jan. 3, 2027. The exhibition brings together work by members of the group, established in Baghdad in 1951, and artists influenced by its legacy across later generations.
NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery is presenting “All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group,” an exhibition curated by Nada Shabout that connects the Baghdad-based group’s work to artists it influenced in later generations. The exhibition is on view through January 3, 2027, bringing a significant chapter of Iraqi modern art into a present-day UAE gallery setting.
The Baghdad Modern Art Group was established in 1951 by artists Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said. It grew to include artists and practitioners from other fields, including architects and poets. The exhibition presents work by members of that circle alongside artists whose work was influenced by it, extending the story into subsequent generations and the present.
According to the exhibition announcement, the group sought to develop an art form that engaged with modernism while drawing on Baghdad’s historical and cultural inheritance. The works listed include Selim’s oil painting Good and Evil, An Abstraction (1951) and Al Said’s Horse (1962). Contemporary artist Rand Abdul Jabbar is represented by Earthly Wonders, Celestial Beings (2024), a series of glazed stoneware works.
The announcement names artists from different periods, including Faraj Abbo, Suad al-Attar, Dia al-Azzawi, Naziha Salim, Madiha Umar, Hanaa Malallah and Sadik Kwaish Alfraji. The exhibition is curated by Shabout, a scholar of modern and contemporary Arab and Iraqi art. She is also the founding director of the Modern Art Iraq Archive and a senior investigator at NYU Abu Dhabi’s al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art.
A Baghdad Movement in Abu Dhabi
The exhibition places the Baghdad Modern Art Group within a continuing history rather than treating it as a closed episode of the 1950s. By pairing artists connected to the original circle with later and contemporary practitioners, it offers visitors a way to consider how artistic ideas can persist, change and travel across generations.
That framing also gives the exhibition relevance beyond art history. The group formed amid efforts to define cultural representation in a newly independent Iraq, and its members explored how art could respond to contemporary life without simply repeating inherited forms. Showing this work in Abu Dhabi makes that history accessible to audiences in the UAE and places Iraqi modernism within a wider regional conversation about modern art and cultural memory.
The exhibition announcement describes the group’s experimental approach as continuing to connect contemporary Iraqi artists around the world. That is the organizers’ account of its legacy; the exhibition’s range of artists and dates provides the material through which visitors can assess those connections.
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Iraq’s Modern Art Emerges
The Baghdad group formed after the Kingdom of Iraq became an independent state in 1932. The exhibition announcement describes Iraqi artists of the period as exploring the possibilities of a secularizing modern society and questioning whether existing artistic practices could adequately represent the realities they faced. Modern art offered one route for that exploration, while artists’ engagement with national culture helped support a broader movement.
The 1950s are often characterized in the source material as a golden age for Iraqi art, when a generation developed more rigorous approaches to art theory and practice. Selim and Al Said helped establish the Baghdad Modern Art Group as one part of that wider period. The Abu Dhabi exhibition uses the group’s history as a starting point, then follows its influence through a selection of later and contemporary artists.
The display includes works held by several collections, including the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah and the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation in Beirut, as well as work provided by artists. The announced presentation therefore brings together objects and artists with different histories, rather than describing a single collection or a survey limited to the group’s founding decade.
““The Baghdad Modern Art Group was established in 1951 by two of Iraq’s most influential artists, Jewad Selim (1919–1961) and Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925–2004).””
— Exhibition announcement
The Exhibition’s Scope and Loans
The available announcement does not provide a full checklist, the number of works on display, or details about the exhibition’s layout and accompanying public programs. It also does not explain how individual works were selected or how the gallery defines influence between the founding group and artists working decades later.
The source names participating artists and gives details for several works, but it does not state whether every artist is represented by an artwork in the gallery. Nor does it provide an attendance estimate or visitor response. The exhibition’s account of the group’s continuing influence is presented by its organizers; the announcement does not include independent assessments or statements from participating artists.
Exhibition Runs Through January
“All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group” is scheduled to remain on view at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery through January 3, 2027. The gallery’s announcement directs visitors to NYU Abu Dhabi for further information. Any additional program details, changes to the presentation or public response were not included in the source material.
Key Questions
Where is the exhibition?
It is on view at the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery in the UAE.
How long will it be open?
The exhibition is scheduled to remain on view through January 3, 2027.
Who founded the Baghdad Modern Art Group?
The group was established in 1951 by Iraqi artists Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said.
Who curated the exhibition?
Nada Shabout, a scholar and curator of modern and contemporary Arab and Iraqi art, curated the exhibition.
Does the exhibition include contemporary artists?
Yes. The announcement says it includes artists influenced by the group in later generations, including contemporary artist Rand Abdul Jabbar, whose 2024 stoneware series is listed among the works.
Source: hyperallergic.com
