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Untitled

2004

Iraqi, born 1953

In April, 2003, Sabti found the Iraqi Academy of Fine Arts, where he had been a student and a teacher, destroyed by bombing and looting. Like a firefighter in search of survivors, he began salvaging the torn and burnt books from the rubble of the academy's library. Recasting those remnants into abstract collages, Sabti reflects on the resilience of art and national cultural heritage even in the face of its desecration.

Book: Paper, ink, pigment, adhesive

20 11/16 x 8 11/16 in. (52.5 x 22cm)

Gift of Marc C. Bergschneider

2008.35.3

Provenance: The artist, Baghdad, Iraq; [Pomegranate Gallery, New York, 2006]; purchased by donors from gallery

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics, Dec. 22, 2022 - ongoing [on view beginning June 14, 2023].

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM