Amer Al-Obaidi

Amer Saleh Alobaidi is a world renowned Iraqi artist whose paintings can be found in nearly every major museum of modern art in the Middle East. He has exhibited internationally, recognized with honors, and his artwork is in numerous private collections. Mr. Amer Alobaidi was the former Director of the National Museum of Modern art in Baghdad and former general director of the Fine Arts in Iraq. He has shown his paintings and earned awards in exhibitions and galleries in cities on several continents. Mr. Alobaidi’s career Born in 1943 . He grew up in a large family who encouraged his passion for art throughout his childhood. His talent and mastery of design and color gained him early recognition when he won the first prize in Ibiza, Spain, at the age of 22. He began his career teaching art in Saudi Arabia, then started designing illustrations for newspapers, magazines, and children’s publications in Iraq. Amer’s achievements in cultural ministry gradually propelled him through the administrative ranks of the Iraqi government’s best art museums. He organized national festivals, painted murals in airports across the country and traveled the world to display his work in Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, India, Brazil, Russia, France and Spain. To understand Alobaidi we must take a close look at his art work and spend hours on it;it could take days to be involved in the artist’s journey and find out more about his achievements between Iraq, Middle Eastern, and European countries; which is why I've contributed several of his significant approaches at the beginning of this article. His art subjects used to discuss the weakness and strengths of human beings as well as the different interpretations for the hunger and homeless people by using effective symbols to grab the audience's attention. Symbols such as the chair with powerful men can show the opposite in the same theme of the painting; encouragements, hospitality, birds, and women as a sign for peace, horses that refers to history and Arabic-Iraqi culture in the main theme