Jewad Selim
Biography
Jewad Selim was an Iraqi painter who is considered to be the founder of modern art in Iraq. As a son of an officer in the Ottoman military, Selim was born in Ankara in 1921, yet he belonged to a family originally from Mosul. Jewad Selim was one of the most influential artists of his time and by his involvement with the Iraqi Baghdad Modern Art Group, which encouraged artists to explore techniques that combined both Arab heritage and modern art forms, he reinforced his efficacy. Having met and adopted Iraq's old artistic traditions, the artist consciously tried to explore the possibilities of combining old motifs with the modern abstract art he observed in Europe. “The Watermelon Seller” is a bright sample of this approach of the artist.