Harmony in Blue (1966) represents a short but prolific period of abstraction in Droubi’s artistic practice during the late 1960s. The overlapping geometric colour fields are stylistically related to his more characteristic ‘cubist’ works, such as Family 2 (1962) also in the Modern Collection. However, this monochrome painting plays more with the creation of volume through tone and form rather than the relationship between colours. This experimentation with volume culminated in several abstract works also completed in 1966, in which Droubi used papier-mâché to create three-dimensionality on the canvas. These paintings were part of a trend towards abstraction in Baghdad in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Artists like Faik Hassan (1914-1992), whose work is also in the Modern Collection, experimented with abstract painting during this period. Harmony in Blue was exhibited at the opening of the building of the Iraqi Artists Society in 1966, which was built with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation funding. The painting entered the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation collection shortly after the exhibition.

Sarah Johnson