Portrait of Basima Al Bahrani

Born in Baghdad in 1927, Iraqi artist Mahmoud Sabri was a key figure in propelling Iraqi modern art forward. Renowned for his technical mastery and intellectual contributions, Sabri was a founding member of the Society of Iraqi Artists. Initially pursuing a degree in social sciences at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom, Sabri made his artistic debut in an exhibition held at the Iraqi Embassy in London in 1947. Upon his return from the UK, Sabri joined Société Primitive – renamed the Pioneers Group in 1950 – and worked closely with the artist Faiq Hassan. He then travelled to Moscow to receive his formal training from the Moscow Surikov Institute under the mentorship of Aleksandr Deyneka, who had a profound impact on the artist and introduced him to the ideologies of socialist realism. Centred around the depiction of the struggles of the proletariat against corrupt political regimes, socialist realism became a thematic stimulus of many of Sabri’s works. In his thoroughly deliberated compositions, the artist masks political innuendoes with symbolic and evocative imagery, commemorating historical moments in Iraq’s history. This awareness of the socio-political condition in his country is eminently exemplified in several of his series, most notably Funeral of the Martyr, Mother of the National Hero, and other works from the 1960s. Sabri’s artistic trajectory underwent a significant change after his forced exile to Prague. In 1971, he published his Quantum Realism manifesto, which coincided with the debut exhibition of his ideas. He declared that knowledge – scientific and philosophical – must have a place in art. His works from this period exhibit a shift from realism, evolving into vibrant geometric abstraction inspired by atomic structures and magnetic fields.

Painted in 1955, Portrait of Basima Al Bahrani is one of Sabri’s earlier works. The painting stands apart from his 1960s politically charged artworks and his 1970s Quantum Realism explorations. The present lot is a rare, intimate portrait of the wife of his close friend Dr Hamdi Touqmachi. The model’s chiselled facial features, large, prominent eyes, and slender frame reappear throughout Sabri’s figure paintings in other works. His restrained colour palette, dominated by reds, oranges, and blues, underscores his ability to achieve vibrancy and emotional resonance through simplicity. The elongated brushstrokes add dimensionality to the fabric of the woman’s dress, creating a textural richness that captivates the viewer. And while not overtly political like the majority of Sabri’s oeuvre, the painting serves as a testament to the artist’s versatility and his mastery to convey emotion.