Ashmolean Museum (April 26, 2023): ‘The Arab world’s most influential living artist’, Dia al-Azzawi is best known for monumental and colourful canvasses. His work spans many genres, including a type of artist books known in Arabic as ‘dafatir’.

DIA AL-AZZAWI

PAINTING POETRY

Here Francesca Leoni, curator of Dia al-Azzawi: Painting Poetry at the Ashmolean, introduces us to the work of this important contemporary artist and takes us through the exhibition currently on display at the Ashmolean Museum.

Dia Al-Azzawi is an Iraqi painter and sculptor, now living and working in London, and one of the pioneers of modern Arab art. He is noted for incorporating Arabic script into his paintings. 

Dia al-Azzawi: Painting Poetry is open and free to visit until 10 June 2023.