Ismail Fatah al-Turk; Iraqi abstract artist
Hyfler/Rosner
age 69
AP BAGHDAD, Iraq
Examples of his work which was great:
http://www.imagesofeyes.com/fatah.htm
http://www.iraqiart.com/artists/i_fatah.htm
Ismail Fatah al-Turk, an abstract artist best known for his
Martyr's Monument in the eastern part of the capital died of
cancer Wednesday. He was 69.
Al-Turk, who was being treated for his illness in the United
Arab Emirates, died within minutes of arriving at Baghdad
International Airport, said Qassim al-Sirti, a close family
friend.
Born in the southern city of Basra in 1934, al-Turk received
a Masters in Fine Arts degree in Rome in 1962. Returning to
Iraq, he taught for years at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Baghdad, retiring two years ago because of his battle with
cancer, said al-Sirti, who runs one of Baghdad's most
prestigious galleries.
Al-Turk's Martyr's Monument, a giant turquoise sculpture of
two halves of an egg, sits near a state-run amusement park
in the eastern part of the capital. Between the two halves
of the egg is a twisted Iraqi flag. The division of the egg
is said to symbolize allowing the anguished souls of the
dead to soar free.
"Al-Turk was a great artist who left a significant
impression on Iraqi art, and he was one of the vanguards of
the modern art renaissance," said Fadhel al-Azzawi, an Iraqi
poet and art critic who lives in Berlin and knew al-Turk.
Other friends said he lived for his art, which saved him
from persecution under Saddam Hussein's regime.
He "was closer to his art than politics," said Khalis
Muheiddin, a retired Iraqi politician who lives in London
and knew al-Turk from his days as a student at the Iraqi
Fine Arts Institute. "He did not have any political
affiliation and was not in politics that saved him from the
wrath of Saddam Hussein."
Al-Turk is also known for bronze statues of Marouf
al-Rasafi, an Iraqi nationalist poet of the 1940s, and of
the famed Abbasid poet Abu Nawass, whose liquor-infused
erotic poetry and literature prompted the naming of one of
prewar Baghdad's most vibrant streets after him.
Abu Nawass, whose real name was al-Hassan bin Hani, was
originally Persian and his family emigrated to Iraq. When
the Iran-Iraq war broke out, Iraqis focused on his Iranian
heritage and for a while considered taking down his statue.
Al-Turk held six sculpture exhibitions and five for his
paintings in Rome, Baghdad and Beirut. His dream of having
his work appear in Paris was cut short by his illness, said
al-Sirti.
He is survived by two sons and two daughters from his first
wife, Liza al-Turk. After her death, he remarried and had
two sons.