Painting by Jewad Salim

Jewad Salim (1920-1961) was modern Iraq's most gifted artistic talent. He pioneered an indusputably Iraqi school of thought in the plastic arts which remains influential to this day. In 1959, he was commissioned by the fledgling republic established in 1958 to celebrate the revolution in a new monumental sculpture. Salim expended an extraordinary effort on this project, successfully resisting the attempt of the President, Brigadier 'Abdel Karim Qassem, to have his image included. Nasb al-Hurriyyah, the Freedom Monument, still presides over the heart of Baghdad having survived one attempt to pull it down on a count of paganism. In 1961, at forty-one years of age, Jewad Salim died of a heart attack brought on by stress and overwork during the final stages of construction of Nasb al-Hurriyyah.