This Saturday evening an unusual exhibition opens at The Polish Social and Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Works by Iraqi artists will be displayed for two weeks there. Yousif Naser is probably now putting his paintings in the car to deliver them to the venue. The exhibition room must be very busy. The previous exhibition only closed yesterday. Not once, I think, have I mentioned here that, according to Yousif, it was the Polish soldier artists who introduced the modern Western way of painting into the Iraqi art during The Second World War. The Polish Army led by General Władysław Anders stayed in Iraq on the way to fight the Nazi forces. There were many artists in the army. A special magazine was published. Yousif and the Iraqi artist gathered around The Ark and The Iraqi Cultural Centre are very keen to gain access to these publications and fill in the gap in the art history of their land. I haven't managed to find them online. It would most helpful to gain access to them. I've been thinking... Maybe by some mere luck, through writing here, I will manage to reach someone who may be in possession of any copies of The Kurier Polski, Polish army magazine published in Baghdad... I would be most grateful for any help in gaining access to these rare publications. Maybe it would be possible to look at them or see the copies... Please contact me if you have any hints and tips!...
The second event I must mention now is a morning coffee at Pitshanger Manor Gallery in Ealing this Monday, 31 March!
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...This Polish English woman came to the Putney shop one day last year and bought an old book of Arabic stories on the way to or from the doctor. The doctor who saw her was from Iraq. We've kept in touch since than and just had a fantastic chat over the phone. She's lived in Hong Kong for over twenty years and visited the Middle East a great number of times.I phoned to tell her about 'Iraqi Artists' exhibition at POSK this evening.'She isn't well, long fighting off a bad cold. I recommended mixing honey with freshly grated ginger and garlic. A teaspoon of it several times a day did the trick for me. She is probably 'enjoying' the concoction right now... Get well soon, dear friend!
Last minutes of the day.. The Iraqi art at POSK was enjoyable. I met some of the artists and a student of Yousif. She brought her mother after the two or three hour class. I told them about Yousif's admiration for the Polish school of painting. On hearing that Yousif's teacher learnt from the Polish soldier artists from General Anders' army, the mother revealed that her late father was one of the soldiers. When the two ladies arrived, the exhibition had already been closed, but they talked their way into it and we joined them as Yousif wanted to give them a personalised tour.
As a matter of fact, we only just managed to enter it as the Iraqi men in charge had been there since 10 am. However, they stayed with us and two of them posed for my pictures next to their works.
At last I could see the beautiful ceramic works by the sculptress who co-started The Ark with Yousif Naser.
Dalal Al Mufti, the cofunder of The Ark, Exhibition Catalogue:
Looking at the works we met an elderly man who told us that his father had been in Anders' army. Yousif asked him about any pictures or documents from those days, but the man said it would probably be impossible to find them.
More works:
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Everyone was amused when I told them that the works Yousif submitted to the show were not the ones he had intended. Why? They wouldn't fit in his car!
The man who organised the exhibition told me about a long standing fruitful cooperation between the Iraqi and the Polish Cultural Centre. It started decades ago when the two institutions were neighbours. Excellent!
I'm so glad I went!
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