Curriculum Vitae of the Artist Khalid AL-Jadir (1924 - 1990) 

The Iraqi artist Khalid Al-Jadir was born in 1924 in Baghdad.

He graduated from the National Institute of Arts in Baghdad with a Diploma in painting.

He graduated from the School of Law in Baghdad with a Bachelor Degree (BA) and founded the "School of Law League for Painting" in 1946.

He moved to Paris to study Arts within the framework of a government delegation.

He studied in the "Beaux Arts", the French National Higher School of Arts, in Paris and specialized in painting. Therein, he received many awards and medals, including the first medal twice.

He defended a Thesis on the History of Islamic Art in Lille University and received a PhD in Arts with Honors. The subject of the Thesis was: "The Iraqi painted manuscripts of the medieval era, preserved at the National Library in Paris."

He was elected member of the Paris Salon of painting.

He returned to Baghdad after five years to teach painting and History of Arts at the Queen 'Alia School for female Students, Tahrir College (liberation).

He was appointed Dean of the Institute of Arts in Baghdad in 1959 and contributed to putting in place new curricula.

He was appointed Dean of the Academy of Arts when it was first founded in 1961.

He was the President of the National Committee of Arts, which is affiliated to the International League of Arts at the UNESCO and was also a member of the Unesco High Cultural Committee.

He founded and was elected president of the Iraqi Artists Association.

He founded the Iraqi Symphonic Orchestra and the National Oriental Orchestra and contributed to founding the First Bronze melting factory in Iraq.

He was elected Head of Iraqi artists after the setting up of the Union.

He was elected secretary general of Arab Artists Union.

He worked as a History professor in the College of Letters at the Riyadh University in Saudi Arabia.
At Riyadh University, Khalid Al-Jadir held an exposition in 1969 about which the rector of the university, Dr. Abdelaziz Khouweter said "to date, the university lacked a very important element: art, without which the university would not be complete. Dr. Al-Jadir's exposition came to fill in this lacuna". This comment displays Khalid's contribution to introducing art in Saudi Arabian institutions.

Professor at Baghdad University.

He taught Arab and Islamic civilization at the High Institute of Journalism in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco.

He participated in exhibitions which had been held in Baghdad since 1941.

He co-organized expositions with his professors and colleagues at the Institute of Arts in 1943. He was the first winner of the two expositions organized by the Institute of Arts. He was also first winner of the Colleges Exhibition event held in 1947.

Personal exhibitions of his artworks were in Baghdad (since 1955), in Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Romania, Algeria, Morocco, Pakistan, etc.

In her article entitled "the artist Khalid Al-Jadir and the unity of style", Khuloud Nouri says "Al-Jadir played a fundamental role in preparing the holding of an extensive ten-day cultural festival in the cities of Kirkouk, Al- Sulaimania and Arbil in the spring of 1974. Unfortunately, the Iraqi authorities forbade this festival by implementing the March 1970 Convention, which led to the outbreak of the September war.

He participated in expositions of Iraqi art within Iraq and abroad (The United States, The Soviet Union, China, India, Great Britain, Finland, France, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Morocco, Bulgaria, Poland, Egypt, Lebanon etc.).

He lived in Rabat (Morocco) since 1980 where he conducted studies and research and created a great number of paintings and sketches inspired from ideas and events related to local people at the time and the Moroccan environment.

He travelled throughout Morocco and fell in love with its beaches, seas, countryside, mountains Kasbahs, urban neighbourhoods, seasonal festivals, weekly markets and the traditional handicraft heritage.

Khalid Al-Jadir's art was distinguished from that of renowned Arab, Muslim and Western artists who lived in Morocco, either as visitors or as residents, by depicting different parts of this country and its old medinas in an impressive expressionist style, very fine artistic compositions, and exquisite color combinations. This marked his oil paintings and sketches of the period, a fact that makes them an important part of the cultural memory of Morocco in the 1980's.

Five expositions of his latest works were organized in Morocco and the sixth one in Pakistan.
Concerning his first exposition in Rabat (Morocco) in 1983, the Moroccan poet, Mustapha Al-Qassri says "I thank Khalid for his exposition which made us break away from the grips of many figures of abstract art who terrorized us for more than a quarter of a century". This statement reflects Al-Jadir’s contribution to the establishment of his realistic and expressive style in Morocco.

His artistic works in Morocco are among his best in terms of focalizing on their plastic value based on their expressive functionality. They depict realities about life in different parts of Morocco and the nature of the Moroccan people which differs according to places (Sahara, countryside, seas, beaches, cities, towns, small villages and settlements).

He passed away in the military hospital in Saudi Arabia in December 2nd 1988. His body was transported to Baghdad where he was received by his friends, colleagues and admirers with great respect and esteem.

On the occasion of the memorial of the Iraqi artist Khalid Al-Jadir, poet, journalist and artist Firas Abd Al-Majid wrote: "He is still among us, despite his departure" “the dead who is still alive: December, 2, 2007 was the 19th memorial of the Iraqi artist Khalid Al-Jadir who marked with his original art print the period from the 1940's until his death in one of Saudi Arabia’s hospitals in 1988. He taught the History of art and Art Criticism at the Higher Institute of Journalism in Rabat, Morocco and his name was given to the room he used to teach at in the Institute. In a memorial organized soon after his death, his colleagues and students, as well as a number of Iraqi intellectuals and artists living in Morocco spoke about his artistic and human life and condemned the silence of the Iraqi dictator regime's embassy and the repressive policy and wars of the regime which caused an elite of artists, writers and intellectuals to leave Iraq.’’

Khalid Al-Jadir passed away when his artistic production was at its peak. He left a number of paintings which, though some of them were unfinished, would easily captivate any observer by their realist-expressionist style. As Le Corbusier said once: "The beautiful building starts in a beautiful way".

In her article about Khalid Al-Jadir, A’lia Karim, a writer and journalist, says: "Finally, how can we affirm our faithfulness to the symbols of our civilization? How can we affirm our faithfulness to the pillars of our art and artistic creativity? How can we affirm our faithfulness to those who conferred beauty and innovation on our civilizational heritage? Whatever is done remains so humble and pale in front of such might and greatness. However, the least we can do is to record the history of their creation with sincerity".

That was a long journey that Khalid Al-Jadir made as a student, teacher, dean to the Institute of Arts and founder of the Arts Academy until he became the Head of Iraqi artists in 1971.

When he was re-elected as Head of the Union for the second term, he sought to gather all artists under the same Union that would include all the fields of artistic creativity. He also lobbied for the adoption of legislation in favour of artists retirement.

The efforts of Khalid Al-Jadir earned much interest and appreciation: On this, the local Iraqi newspaper ‘The Republic’ wrote: "The efforts of Khalid Al-Jadir became noticeable by the holding of the First Arab Arts Exhibition, which was the first of its kind to take place in the Arab world".
In 1973, during the First Arab Exposition, the Union of Arab painters was created and Al-Jadir was appointed its Secretary General. The Union included 12 Arab countries. One of its achievements was the organization of the first Arab Biennale in 1973.

Al-Jadir believed that such a conference was a good opportunity to upgrade the Arab art in all Arab countries and provide assistance to revolutionary movements against all kinds of backwardness and unmask the causes of this state of being.

Khalid also strived to make the Iraqi art known to the world.

In this respect, Shaker Hassan Al-Sa’eed says: "His personal international expositions organized as of 1966 (along with four artists in Brussels) and his expositions in Saudi Arabia, Romania, Switzerland, Morocco reflect his insight to make the voice of the Iraqi artist reach the farthest part in the world.’’

Khalid AL-Jadir, dead but still in life, Baghdad 1990.