Wall in Baghdad

Shaker Hassan al-Saïd's work is often divided into two periods; the first is related to the artistic program of Jamaat Baghdad lil-Fan al-Hadith (Group of Baghdad for Modern Art). The artist's theoretical research on the philosophical and spiritual aspects of Sufism influences the second period. Sufism is a mystical belief in the Islamic faith to which the artist adhered and revealed itself in the late 1960s. In 1971, al-Saïd established the al-Bu'd al-Wahid group (One Dimension). The group's thesis is embodied in his painting Jedaar Fi Baghdad (The Wall in Baghdad), made in 1975. Using cool colors, the artist treated the plywood like a wall, which looks scratched and cracked. The abstract composition itself is mysterious, as al-Saïd also coincidentally wrote Arabic letters (و, ال) with some symbols (circle, cross) and numbers (6). This approach recalls al-jafr, a science developed during the Islamic period that attributed a secret power to numbers and letters. In Jedaar Fi Baghdad, al-Saïd expressly explored the meaning of these letters and the symbols to discover what is hiding behind this wall: the ultimate truth.