Dia al-Azzawi is an Iraqi artist known for both his paintings and sculpture which incorporate traditional elements of Arabic calligraphy, scenes from Iraq’s history, and Babylonian symbols. “All I am trying to do is to calmly remove the human from the dungeons of oppression and murder, and deliver it to a place where it is possible for its body to be spread wide across the face of the earth,” he has said of his work. Born in 1939 in Baghdad, Iraq, he went on to study archaeology at the College of Arts and later under Hafidh al-Droubi at the Institute of Fine Arts. Melding his interest in ancient history with European styles of painting, Al-Azzawi created unique works that strove to encompass a wide array of themes. In the ...