April 4, 2005
Shakir Alousi – The Duality of Spirit and Feminism
It seems expressionisms seduced Shakir to reach out to new heights and explore new dimensions of visual expression, after years of serious study and exploration within and without art. At times he took refuge in the realist academic style, and mastered it, before taking its form and liberally and intelligently making it a derivative of his own experience in the Baghdad school, and his affection for its modern high-priest Jawad Saleem.
Shakir’s journey is framed with simplicity and depth. His paintings take you to a journey above the clouds with enchanting creatures straight from the Arabian Nights. He takes his female characters and skillfully molds them into the Iraqi folklore and traditional environment, creating extravagant worlds of color. His paintings are at once warm and direct, always taking us to a happier past, which is constantly called upon by the artist, but viewed, arranged, and presented according to his own artistic vision and dreams.
The female …that muse of beauty and adoration, has worlds of awe to offer us, and once colored by Shakir on a canvas, he declares his unambiguous love and allegiance to her. He completely aligns himself with her existence and dreams, and she is return obliges his vision by coming out as he wants her to be; a world of color tenderly framed in beauty of body and spirit. Yet, Shakir’s use of all this is not in a vacuum, he is nostalgic in his paintings to a time that was filled with the mundane, the superstitious, and the traditional. All that points to a genuine Iraqi endeavor to create a new experience rooted in the worlds of academic and realistic experimentation, and pure expression. In that endeavor, Shakir is marshalling all his energy to put the female on pedestal for all of us to adore, love, and admire the inner and out beauty that radiates from her. Shakir, is wrapping himself in the beauty of the female’s spirit and announcing to us that she is not half the universe, rather all of it.
