Lot 262: Hafiz Droubi , Iraqi 1914-1991 Dancing Girls oil on canvas

signed and dated 76 oil on canvas

measurements note 70 by 50cm.; 27 1/2 by 19 3/4 in.

Private Collection, Italy

Hafiz Droubi is one of the foremost artists of the modernist period in Iraq. The founding member of the Impressionsts Group, that later included Dia Azzawi (see lots 218 & 265 in this sale), his work was highly influential on both his own, and the younger generation of Iraqi artists. Droubi's style and technique revolutionised the Iraqi modern art movement. His training at Goldsmiths College in London in the 1940s and his relationship with a number of Polish artists stationed with the Allied Forces in Baghdad after the Second World War, made him a great innovator and a radical in his own artistic milieu. The influence of Cubism on Droubi's work is clear as geometric vortices. Objects and landscapes, even figures are broken up and analysed in an abstracted. In this painting the dancers are depicted from apparently multiple viewpoints, and in so doing the artist shows the dancer's form in greater context, ironically providing a more accurate understanding of the reality thanks to its very abstraction. In depicting these women in this fashion, Droubi creates a highly dynamic and powerful scene. By intersecting the surfaces he effortlessly conveys the movement and energy of the dancers, their whirling skirts and the beat of the drum. This superlative example of Hafiz Droubi's work shows him both at his Cubist and his nationalist best. Iraq was going through great change at this time; with the effects of industrialisation and the erosion of the rural lifestyle, many Iraqi artists chose to celebrate the disappearing traditions of their culture through paint. The belly dancer is a tradition synonymous with the Middle East, but rather than the louche provocateurs of fantasy, here Droubi depicts them with grace and composure - symbols of an honoured, fading heritage.