Rajha Al-Qudsi launches her exhibition “Dialogue with Eve” today

An artist who smartly uses abstraction allowing the viewer to fill the gaps within their imagination

The Orfali Gallery in the Jordanian capital Amman hosts tonight the opening of the exhibition of the pioneering painter residing in Montreal, Rajha Al-Qudsi, which will continue until September 15 under the title “Dialogue with Eve.”

Al-Qudsi, who has managed to leave her mark on the Iraqi plastic art scene both before leaving Iraq and in exile, was born in Baghdad and graduated from the Fine Arts Academy at the University of Baghdad, painting department, in 1972. She was a university professor teaching painting and design at the Institute of Fine Arts for two decades and is a member of the Iraqi Artists Association, the Jordanian Artists Association, the Iraqi Artists Association in London, and the International Arts Association affiliated with UNESCO in Paris. Al-Qudsi has received several local and regional awards for her artistic career, and her works now have a presence in exhibitions in some countries around the world.

Last year, she was honored by the Iraqi Consulate in Montreal, Canada, on the occasion of International Women’s Day in March 2024. On June 17, the chargé d’affaires of the Iraqi General Consulate in Montreal, Sadiq Ali Al-Yasiri, received her, according to a statement followed by (Azzaman), where she gifted the mission a painting expressing her passion for social life, characterized by her depiction of women, which often appear in her paintings, as well as pigeons and the Iraqi nature. The mission appreciated this initiative, represented by the head of the Iraqi mission, who presented her with a letter of appreciation for this meticulous creativity, expressing pride in her works that embody the Iraqi spirit and gratitude for her artistic journey, which is a rich cumulative product of those she studied under, pioneers of Iraqi painting and plastic art.

Critic and academic Marwa Al-Omidi wrote an analytical critique of Al-Qudsi’s works and the painting “Rest with the Birds,” published by Al-Qudsi on her Facebook page. She said: “Rajha Al-Qudsi conveyed in this artistic experience a quiet moment of feminine contemplation in an inner scene full of emotion. From an artistic composition perspective, we see a woman sitting with full elegance and calm, holding a cup or glass, surrounded by birds in a symbolic harmony revealing a hidden friendship between two elements: human and nature. This is what the German Romantic pioneer Caspar David Friedrich referred to about man and nature: ‘The artist should not paint what he sees before him, but what he sees inside himself when contemplating nature.'”

Expressive Lines

The artist used open and clear expressive lines with unlimited color flow, which gives the work a beautiful character far from reality, as if the boundaries between the woman, the place, and the soul are fading. She employed warm and cool colors in an elegant blend known to fingers saturated with art and colors, ranging between orange, pink, brown, and green on the character’s body, with a gray background covered with some white, placing the woman as the center of feeling and the source of aesthetic pulse.

Regarding this, Van Gogh said: ‘Colors are not only for the eye but for the soul; if the viewer does not feel warmth from the color, there is no light in it.’ Additionally, from an aesthetic perspective, the artist’s ability to build a scene based on inner emotional expression rather than realistic diagnosis is evident, as the facial features appear incomplete, and this abstraction, cleverly adopted, allows the viewer to fill the gaps within their imagination, adding aesthetic value to the intentionally left space for the visual reader.

The artist excelled in using free, confused brush strokes expressing her charged mood, perhaps indicating a mental break from the noise of reality. She used birds as symbols of composition and balance, expressing moments of lost freedom or white peace messengers or messages that do not reach. Leonardo da Vinci said: ‘Combining elements of nature with the human form in a moment of contemplation is not only an artwork but an imitation of the act of creation itself.’

Philosophically, the artist borrowed the title “Rest with the Birds,” a silent symbolism gently revealing a hidden existential vision. The rest here is contemplative, transcending the body, representing a tactical withdrawal from the monotony and routine of life to a temporal space that rises above monotony, routine, and pressure, confirming Paul Gauguin’s statement about transcending realism, monotony, and routine: ‘Art is not an imitation of nature, but an expression of the artist’s visions.’

It is noted that Al-Qudsi’s paintings are dominated by white and turquoise colors, realistic in content and contemporary in execution and form. Faces, birds, and the Baghdad environment hold equal aesthetic values, and her paintings carry delicate feminine faces showing poetic touches and simple compositions resembling poetic verses. In this regard, Al-Qudsi said in a statement: “I have excelled in many stages, most of which I spent drawing houses and Baghdad neighborhoods with their windows and mashrabiyas. I tend in my paintings to movement and color transparency, which gives the simple composition a kind of poetry and beautiful melody. Because I love peace and hate violence and the color of blood, I deliberately repeat faces, women, and the female figure because she is a beautiful human being.

Also, anyone following my works finds that I always paint about Baghdad because I was born there and spent the best days of my life there.”

She graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Baghdad, 1972. She taught at the Institute of Fine Arts since 1980. Member of the Iraqi Artists Association. Member of the Iraqi Artists Syndicate. Worked at the Ministry of Culture and Information designing book covers and posters. Studied under the supervision of artist Faiq Hassan. Participated in many Iraqi exhibitions since 1973 inside and outside the country. Studied design under academic Azzam Al-Bazzaz in 1973. Designer in the Design Department – Ministry of Culture and Information 1974-1980. She has many personal and joint exhibitions and has won many local and international awards.