My Friend, Iraqi Artist Amer Saleh Alobaidi

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One of the things that my wife and I enjoy very much are collecting books about the things that we enjoy most, for me it is books about art. For Becky, its books about knitting, basket making, bread making, working a loom, among other things.
So we were at the bookstore in the arts section where I saw a handsome man with long gray hair, his lovely daughter, and his wife who were seriously involved in choosing the best books on the history of art that they could find. I recommended a book on 17th century baroque art that was my favorite and his wife showed me a book she had found on Klimt. While he and his wife and daughter could speak English it was clear to me that they were not from the United States. As it happens they were from Iraq, specifically, Baghdad.

And as we chatted we discovered that we were both artists. Amer pointed out that he could tell I was an artist because artists don't take good care of themselves. I have to admit I was looking pretty scruffy. But Amer is a handsome man, so I'm not sure that's always true.

As we talked some more, Amer briefly told me about his son's death because of a roadside bomb and the injury of his wife and the particularly difficult time for artists in Iraq. Amer is a genuinely humble man, warm and generous. I mentioned to him that I would love to see his artwork and immediately he invited me to have a meal with him at his home and visit his studio. We exchanged information, e-mail addresses and phone numbers, and Amer asked me what kind of foods I could eat. And the next thing I know a week later I was sitting with his family having dinner and talking about art, about Amer's art and what it meant to him.

The time passed quickly, and the food was wonderful. Amer's work was amazing and he went on to explain the connections it had in Iraq's modern and ancient culture. Particularly, the inspiration he drew from the low relief sculptures of the Assyrians and their representation of horses, which are an important stylistic element of his work. His work reminded me of a modern interpretation of cubism, but in a passing way as Amer's work is more schematic and intensely colorful and not as sharply angular, more a matter of pattern and design which tends to flatten his images.

It appeared to me that Amer was sculpting his designs by building up the surface with layers of acrylic imposto, then continuing to draw and push his paint into and around the textured forms on large canvases.

Amer's work has been very popular in the Middle East. Since coming to the United States and living in Central Iowa he has had to adapt. There are many people who are not familiar with his work; it's refreshing spiritual intensity and sense of purpose. He paints a very consistent message through all of his work, a message of beauty and the simplicity and profound importance of love and the enjoyment of life: talking, eating, drinking, painting, visiting with friends and family, including his son who is no longer alive.

His work is filled with a combination of pathos and joy, a reflection of the economic and political realities of his life. Amer was trained in Italy and France and graduated from his studies in 1968 and then returned to Baghdad to live and work. He has seen many changes in the government of his country and unfortunately the shifting political and religious tides are a danger to the possibility of his returning to his old home.

It is not very often you find someone who believes in his or her work with the intensity that I have seen in Amer's art. It's not merely a decoration but a reminder or a token of a memory that is worth holding onto, which is one of the reasons why artists paint pictures in the first place. It's almost a shame that I feel like I have to explain that, but I feel a keen interest in taking a closer look at his work. Certainly we are different kinds of painters but I expect to take something from my examination and I'm looking forward to it.

If you would like to get in touch with Amer, and you ought to, you can find him on facebook, Amer Saleh Alobaidi. Amer's english is pretty good and he gets a little help in translation from his friends and family.

There are a number of Iraqi expatriates living in the United States and the environment for artists in Iraq are profoundly effected by the potential for terrorists who see free artistic expression as a threat and insult to Islam. I'm hopeful for Amer's success.


Dick Shook (copyright 2012)