The 1960s was a decade of intense activities and complex interrelated cultural and political shifts around the world. It was a decade of cultural revolutions and counter-revolutions. In Iraq, it was equally a time of pivotal shifts. Politically, the years between 1958 and 1968 were years of internal unrest and great political and social changes marked by a series of military revolutions and periods of instabilities. In the midst of these events, the political optimism of the 1950s leading to the 1958 revolution evaporated, particularly in the wake of the 1963 turmoil. The turbulence of that decade reverberated across the Arab world for various reasons and culminated in the Catastrophe of 1967, the Naksa(Arabic for setback).Despite gross economic inequality, social confrontation and external political pressures, the 1950s had been a period of new possibilities leading to a better life. Without any materialisation of such possibilities, that hope ended. While the sixties generation became defined by the loss of that hope, artists of that generation were able to draw vigour from the culture that was initiated by the previous decade, while realistically negotiating their present, which necessarily reframed the problem of representation they had inherited from their teachers.

This talk discusses the various cultural formulations and shifts in Baghdad between the 1950s and 1960s as manifest in the artists groups and movements and their socio-political engagements. It will provide the context and introduce the issues and protagonists of the Iraqi art scene that were instrumental in charting its future trajectories.

This conference is held in English and takes place in the context of the exhibition Art and Architecture between Lisbon and Baghdad .

Speaker: Nada Shabout