Visual Artist
Hameed Al-Attar
2016 - 1935
Artist Biography
Hameed Al-Attar
Hameed Majeed Habeeb Al-Attar, born and raised in Karbala in 1935, pursued a degree in law in Baghdad in 1952, and graduated in 1955.
Al-Attar was a server of justice in the suburbs of Hilla (Babel), having been a lawyer who does art as a hobby.
He acquired his passion from his teacher and guide in art, Atta Al-Sabri, a well-established visual artist himself.
He was a founding member of The Iraqi Artists Association in 1956, and has participated in every art gallery organized by said association. His work was published both in Iraq and abroad, including many personal galleries in Baghdad, Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and London.
Hameed Al-Attar studied art in Berlin (1963 – 1967), and later on received a Postgraduate Diploma in Art Criticism in Cairo (1974 – 1978).
He remained on the move, living in Beirut once and in Damascus another, until finally settling down in London where he passed away on the 23rd of December, 2016.
Sculpting as Painting
Among the different meanings of sculpting and the many definitions of painting, you would stand astonished trying to accurately describe the type of art Hameed Al-Attar produces. His unique style of combining sculpting with painting on a two-dimensional panel makes a sight worthy of contemplating and reflecting, in order to arrive at the story being told through his three-dimensional pieces. Looking at his work slowly creates a fourth dimension – the legacy behind the place and the ideologies of the time he lived through and then embodied, with elements of sculpting that pop to life, adding various details to his paintings that change as you change the angle, contrary to two-dimensional paintings.
Critical Articles:
Sculpting Between Thought and Beauty in The Works of Hameed Al-Attar
Jasim Assi
Iraqi Critic
Hameed Al-Attar was a natural in art, as in his intentions were hidden under the layers of his work. He deals with the spectator with an intellectual sense of existence, and his career as a lawyer might have had a hand in being at the center of his social calling, eventually making the worries of others a core part of his social and political concerns. Being closely tied to the pioneers of this filed, and having been taught by Atta Sabri, might be some of the prominent reasons behind his success.
Hameed Al-Attar ……. A Master of the Equation of Happiness
Mahmood Ali Al-Saeed
Arabic Critic
In the face of the guillotine that took down Al-Hussein’s head, and with it bursts out the veins with the blood of Karbala, as the veils of insurgence slowly peel off. And with the falling branches of the first Palestinian martyr – Jesus Christ – the cross protesting and the flames blazing – Our artist takes a stand, flouncing with a hilt and sword.
Hameed Al-Attar.. Art that Seeps into The Depths of Despair
Dr. Jawad Al-Zaidy
Iraqi Critic
Hameed Al-Attar makes the struggles of his country and the suffering of the people material for his work, an everlasting premonition to transact with the external events in the creative artwork, as he defies naturalization and belonging to only one school of art, producing a visual speech that bursts out with many colors of art. His paintings were visual pieces that took a sculpting turn.
Hameed Al-Attar .. A Lure of Legends .. And The Soul of Painting
Asim Abd Al-Ameer
Iraqi Critic
He is a one of a kind artist amidst the raging wave of modernization following the recessions endured by the second generation of postmodernism in the fifties. We see him in his many successes, welding sculptures into paintings in a spectacle exploding with change, supported and inspired by his personal and cultural background.
The Intellectual and Aesthetic Experience in Iraqi Hameed Al-Attar’s Work
Jasim Assi
Iraqi Critic
Hameed Al-Attar was a natural in art, as in his intentions were hidden under the layers of his work. He deals with the spectator with an intellectual sense of existence, and his career as a lawyer might have had a hand in being at the center of his social calling, eventually making the worries of others a core part of his social and political concerns. Being closely tied to the pioneers of this filed, and having been taught by Atta Sabri, might be some of the prominent reasons behind his success.
Hameed Al-Attar: The Uninterrupted Questions of Art
Salah Abbas
Iraqi Critic
I find the work of Hameed Al-Attar engraved in my memories, those displayed in the galleries in Baghdad since the seventh decade of the past century. Those pieces were carefully created with such diligence and perfection, combining the fields of painting and sculpting. In his work, you will find that he emphasized some of the literary materials found in the literature of the Mesopotamian Culture.