Regards, Ivan
Posted on 04/21/2003 6:36:41 PM PDT by MadIvan
TIME was when life as a well-paid portrait artist in Iraq was relatively simple, if a little monotonous. In a good year, 20 portraits of Saddam Hussein could earn an artist £1,200 - a small fortune in a country crippled by two decades of war and economic sanctions. But now that the best-paying customer in town is fresh out of commissions, his absence is leading to a plummeting market in presidential iconography; what is a Saddam portraitist to do?
Most of the better-known painters of the Iraqi president, who have become virtually synonymous with the regime, vanished along with the senior leadership when United States tanks rolled into central Baghdad on 9 April. Artists such as Mohammad al-Mosawi, Karim Seifu and Salam Abed, who has painted some 300 such portraits and once said he knew Saddam’s face as well as his own, have not been seen since.
Most of the art studios dedicated to the deification of Iraq’s former leader have either closed down or been ransacked, the portraits they produced torn to pieces or burnt.
Yesterday, the artists who remained were left picking up the pieces of a previous life.
Haider Dehloz, who insists he painted his former patron "in order to eat", said that it pained him to see the wanton destruction of his art - but that it hurt even more to see his livelihood destroyed.
In the past five years, Dehloz has painted more than 50 massive portraits of Saddam. Many of them have now been torn to pieces on the streets of Baghdad, and there is little demand for him to replace them. "I’ve seen many of my pieces ablaze in the city. It hurts me, not because of what they represented but because my work is being turned to ashes," he said.
In his workshop, the painter still has two towering portraits of the former president, bought and already paid for a few weeks ago by the army for an art gallery. He would still put the finishing touches on them, he said, even though he is doubtful anyone will come to pick them up.
For each portrait, which would take him between seven and ten days to complete, Dehloz earned 300,000 dinars, or about £60. He has few qualms about his profession, which enabled him to earn a living in a country where many were short of food.
"I can’t say that they forced me to do these portraits of Saddam," he said. "Nobody put a knife to my throat. I did it for the money, that’s all."
Despite his reputation as a profiler of the unpopular dictator, one lesser known artist was prepared to risk re-opening his Baghdad workshop, on Rashid Street. It has lain shut for two months.
Yawad al-Yoburi, 67, who has painted ten grand portraits of Saddam and countless smaller ones, claims he was forced to paint the president. "I didn’t like what I did," he said. "They had to threaten to do me great harm if I said no and they would pay me up to 500,000 dinars [£100] for a big portrait."
"I did ones of Saddam in civilian dress, in military uniform and in Arab clothing. The portraits all went up in offices, palaces and official buildings. I painted most of them between 2000 and 2001," he said.
Yoburi, a self-taught painter who has been in the trade for 53 years, said he did not have portraits of his best-paying client in his own house.
Whatever Iraq’s political future, he plans to stay out of this line of work. Instead, he hopes to immortalise "anonymous Iraqis".
Dehloz has shut down his workshop and hopes to resume courses at the university to become an art teacher.
However, despite the life of comfort painting the Iraqi leader has afforded both artists, neither was prepared to transfer his skills to a figure even more powerful.
"Never would I paint Bush, even if he paid me $1,000," said Dehloz. "I despise him and all Americans. I don’t want them to stay in my country."
Although he acknowledged that Iraqis were not free under Saddam, Dehloz was scathing about the alternative rule provided by the US army.
"The proof is right here, in this centre," he said, pointing to the school of fine arts, emptied in the days of chaos following the arrival of US troops.
Yoburi also failed to see a future for himself painting the US president. "I couldn’t paint Bush, it would cause me problems. I’d be seen as a traitor by Iraqis," he said.
Regards, Ivan
However, despite the life of comfort painting the Iraqi leader has afforded both artists, neither was prepared to transfer his skills to a figure even more powerful.
"Never would I paint Bush, even if he paid me $1,000," said Dehloz. "I despise him and all Americans. I don’t want them to stay in my country."
This guy would be right at home on the American college campus, especially being an art teacher.
Or, portraits of Stalin at the DNC.
Or, portraits of Stalin at the DNC
Or portraits of PeeWee Herman at NaMBLA,
Or portraits of Hillary at the National PTA,
Or portraits of Al Sharpton at the United Way...
These will be collectors items in 25-50 years (or 25-50 days).
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