All Manner of Experiments

The NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery presents All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group. It is curated by art historian Nada Shabout, Senior Investigator at al Mawrid Arab Center for the Study of Art, and faculty at NYU Abu Dhabi. 

The exhibition examines the radical legacy of the Baghdad Modern Art Group and its enduring influence on contemporary Iraqi art, tracing how Iraqi artists forged a modern visual language from Baghdad during a pivotal era of nation-building and decolonization. 

Founded in 1951 by artists Jewad Selim (1919–1961) and Shakir Hassan Al Said (1925–2004), the Baghdad Modern Art Group emerged as Iraq grappled with the cultural and political aftermath of colonial rule. Rejecting narrow definitions of “Islamic art,” the Group developed new artistic approaches that drew on abstraction, calligraphy, figuration, and references to Iraq’s ancient civilizations, articulating a modern aesthetic rooted in local visual memory.

Bringing together painting, sculpture, works on paper, and extensive archival materials, many previously undocumented, All Manner of Experiments spans from the 1950s to the present. The exhibition traces the continued resonance of the Group’s ideas across generations of Iraqi artists, both within Iraq and throughout the global diaspora, including artists working today.

The exhibition takes its title, "All Manner of Experiments," from the Baghdad Modern Art Group’s manifesto, which framed artistic practice as an open-ended process of inquiry. At NYU Abu Dhabi, this ethos aligns with the Art Gallery’s role as a university museum, where exhibitions function as sites for research, debate, and historical rethinking. A program of public talks and academic engagement will accompany the exhibition.

Originally presented at the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, where it received widespread critical acclaim, including “best of” recognition from The New York Times, this iteration is expanded, and introduces new artists to the story of the Baghdad Modern Art Group and its legacies.

Artists in the exhibition
Faraj Abbo, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Himat Mohammad Ali, Rasoul Alwan, Suad al-Attar, Qahtan Awni, Dia al-Azzawi, Bogus Bablanian, Amar Dawod, Ghassan Ghaib, Faiq (Faeq) Hassan, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Rand Abdul Jabbar, Fouad Jihad, Saadi Al Kaabi, Ardash Kakafian, Salma Khoury, Hanaa Malallah, Mahmoud Obaidi, Widad al-Orfali, Khalid al-Rahal, Kareem Risan, Miran al-Saadi, Mahmoud Sabri, Naziha Salim, Nazar (Nizar) Salim, Shakir Hassan Al Said, Delair Shaker, Jewad Selim, Lorna Selim, Walid Siti, Ismail Fattah (al-Turk), Madiha Umar, Khalil al-Ward, and Nazar Yahya.

All Manner of Experiments: Legacies of the Baghdad Modern Art Group was originally organized by the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS Bard). The presentation at CCS Bard’s Hessel Museum of Art was curated by Nada Shabout with Tiffany Floyd and Lauren Cornell. Lead support is provided by the Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah, United Arab Emirates), The Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF) (Beirut, Lebanon), the Farjam Foundation (Dubai, United Arab Emirates), and the Ibrahimi Collection (Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq). Major support is provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

About the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery 
Established in 2014, the NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) Art Gallery is among the only university museums in the region with a program of scholarly and experimental exhibitions. In synergy with the other arts institutions within the UAE, the NYUAD Art Gallery and the projects it supports serve the local arts community as a testing ground for new or experimental curatorial approaches that nourish the dialogue around exhibition practice in the Gulf. The program is recognized for mapping new territories and ideas, presenting exhibitions by internationally established artists, curators, and scholars. A regular book publication program is a core part of its curatorial frame within its academic mission. In addition, its auxiliary venue, the Project Space is an exhibition laboratory for UAE-based artists and curators. Situated within NYU Abu Dhabi, the community of which hails from over 120 countries, the Art Gallery, the Project Space, and the Art Gallery’s Reading Room collectively open up artistic opportunities and initiate regional and global dialogue. 

Press contact: maisoon.mubarak@nyu.edu.