World famous artist highlights emergence of Kurdish women as warriors

LOS ANGELES, USA – In the 1960s when he was starting on the path to international fame, Kurdish artist Zuhdi Sardar did a series of works on Kurdish women highlighting their beauty. Decades later, he has renewed the work to draw attention to another aspect of Kurdish women: their emergence as freedom fighters.

“My reason for renewing this work now is motivated by the recent emergence of Kurdish women as freedom fighters and warriors in the mainstream media,” Sardar told Rudaw at Gallery 800 in Los Angeles, where his five-piece series is on exhibit.

“I wanted to show another dimension of Kurdish women and their mythologized beauty as well,” he said.

In the fight against Islamic State (ISIS), women fighters have taken a frontline role, especially in Syria, where Kurdish forces have their own all-women wing.

The roots of Sardar’s original series, which sold out when he first showed it in Baghdad, is based on Kurdish mythology and the story of where Kurdish women get their looks.

Legend has it that a king in Kurdistan ordered his men to search through Asia and Europe for the most beautiful women for him to choose as a bride.  But when they returned years later the king had died. The men, who had fallen in love with the women under their care, married them and settled in the Balakian region, located northeast of Erbil, the current capital of the Kurdistan Region. Balakian women have always been known for large, beautiful eyes and delicately long necks.

“This was perhaps my first experiment with mythologized beauty of Kurdish women and it was a delight to depict the myth,” Sardar said. “My paintings were first shown in Baghdad, all of which were sold out.  Soon my art enabled me to travel beyond Kurdistan. I was fortunate to have an exhibition of the same works in Paris in 1967, sponsored by the famed Dr. Kamran Bedrkhan.

Sardar was thrilled by the tremendous interest in his work, as he sold out at every show. It was a path that led him to California in 1969, where he began work as a scenic artist with NBC, one of America’s three biggest and oldest television networks.

The Kurdish Women series has seen transformations over time: it first began as paintings with brushstrokes of oil and sand; it changed to abstract form on hard-edged canvas when it was shown at the Skinny Art Gallery in Los Angeles in 1973, again getting rave reviews.

The new series embellishes the iconic women with lush bright colors on canvas and wood.

Reflecting on the sources of his inspirations, the jovial artist remarked they come from his childhood.

“My childhood was filled with fairytales, mysterious worlds and lands, the fierce fight between deevs (demons) and goodness, light and darkness, a magical world in which the forces of goodness protected us from evil while forces of evil threatened us -- the very forces we face today.”

Sardar has chronicled those tales and experiences in his new book, Forces.

“My passion for art was informed by these experiences. My art is imbued with Kurdish themes and sensibilities. Although my native culture may not always be visible in some of my works, it is the running theme in all,” he stressed.

“I started experimenting with modern art in my hometown, Sulaimani. Like my people, I was filled with hope and the quest for freedom, and art gave me the optimism and the direction I wanted.”

Despite a life in Diapora, Sardar is proud to have stayed true to his Kurdish roots.

“Although I began to work in a major American network as an artist I remained true to the lived experiences of my people and Kurdish heritage, as shown in a myriad of galleries and museums. Kurdishness is the life force inherent in my works.”

While he has achieved worldwide success, Sardar laments the sad state of Kurdish art.

“For reasons of political tumult and displacements Kurdish art’s progress was arrested,” he explained. 

“Most Kurds are not educated in and through art. That is why there is lack of interest in art in general, and the Kurdistan Regional Government has not paid attention to Diaspora Kurdish artists whose works constitute a significant part of our art and cultural history.“

He added pensively that Kurds do not have a national art museum for worthy works of the past and present.

Although he has an impressive list of exhibitions in Los Angeles, Sardar wishes to take his work to where it all began, Sulaimani – the very heart of Kurdish cultural life. That is where many prominent artists, poets and artists emerged to shape the trajectory of Kurdish modern art.

So what got him interested in becoming an artist?: “I paint life as I have lived and imagined it in this world and worlds beyond. I paint to bridge the past and present. my land and with other lands and even planets. I paint to look back and look ahead when it comes to the Kurdish struggle for freedom.”

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For more information about the artist:

http://www.zuhdisardar.com