Burning Baghdad wounded exiled Iraqi artist

By Jeremy Lovell

LONDON (Reuters) – When exiled Iraqi artist Suad al-Attar
saw her home city being pulverized by British and American
bombs in March 2003 it broke her heart.

And her internationally acclaimed body of work based on
fantasy, legend and dreams changed to include grimmer images.

Live television footage showed the devastation that marked
the end of Saddam Hussein’s rule but Attar was also moved by
the suffering of Baghdad’s people and the damage to the
country’s cultural heritage caused by the bombardment.

The central image of her latest exhibition at Leighton
House Museum in London is a big picture of Baghdad in flames
entitled “My Burning City,” a reworking of her 1991 “My
Colorful City,” and based on iconic photographs of the bombing.

“This was my city. These were my people — Iraqis. They had
suffered for so long and now they were suffering again,” she
said in an interview on Wednesday at the show’s opening.

Attar was unapologetic for the angst-ridden images.

“This is the scream of people who are still suffering. For
30 years we couldn’t express the suffering of the Iraqis. But
now the conflict is hurting so much,” said Attar, who in 1965
became the first woman to have a solo exhibition in Baghdad.

One of the most celebrated of contemporary Middle Eastern
artists, Attar set out to disturb with powerful paintings
showing screaming mouths and severed limbs, a far cry from her
dreamy, mystical works from the past.

Attar, whose paintings have been exhibited in the United
States, France, Brazil, Poland and Egypt, says she is not
making a political statement with her new works — which
contrast sharply with the lyricism of previous works with
titles like “Tender Moment,” “Eternal Peace” and “Mystery of
Sunset.”

When asked if she thinks Iraqis are better or worse off
under the new administration she draws her fingers across her
lips as a sign of silence.

The London-based artist, who moved into exile in Britain in
1976, still has family there but has never been back.

But the tortured and blood-soaked images are unremittingly
dark. “I see suffering,” said the artist, who was born in 1942
and educated in California, London and Baghdad.

“There was suffering before. There is suffering now,” said
Attar. “But there is hope. Let us all hope.”