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Sattar Kawoosh
Sattar Kawoosh was born in 1963, in Baghdad, Iraq. He studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Baghdad from 1984 to 1990, and has a Visual Arts Diploma. Between 1986 and 1993 he held four solo exhibitions in Baghdad. At that time, in the early 1990s, his work included journalism and book illustrations.
Many of his works have found their way into exhibitions across the globe. He left Iraq and settled in the Netherlands in 2001, continuing his commitment and passion for art, and having successful solo exhibitions over the next four years in Stichtung SCID, Rotterdam; Openbare Bibliotheek, Rijswijk; Dokkum and Groningen galleries; in Enkhuizen and Utrecht; and in Hoogevan.
He is a painter of colours, rainbows and light. He is concerned to be true to his imagination and his art, and as said that “the more the creator is honest and truthful with himself and his art, the more he can achieve for his country and the world. He manufactures beauty and makes it equal to the destruction that is going on.”
Kawoosh has developed his own figurative, expressionist style, working with ranges of colours and experimenting with non-standard formats. His particular themes are love and those special moments between a man and a woman and Kawoosh considers that his inspiration comes from the atmosphere of the thousand and one nights, of the East were he came from, mixing with the decorative and ornamental Art Nouveau of the North, where he lives now.
Sattar Kawoosh has held numerous solo exhibitions and taken part in various group exhibitions in Iraq, Jordan, Italy, United States, Ukraine, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, Germany, France and The Netherlands.
Banipal first featured his work on the front cover of Banipal 26 (2006) with "Completeness in Blue". In 2007 he helped Banipal celebrate 10 years of publishing by designing an Anniversary postcard. And in 2012 the front cover of Banipal 45 – Writers from Palestine was created and painted by him especially for the issue.
The latest cover of Banipal painted especially by Kawoosh is the magnificent portrait of Mahmoud Shukair for Banipal 70 – Mahmoud Shukair, Writing Jerusalem (Spring 2021).
More information about Sattar Kawoosh and his art can be found at www.kawoosh-art.com
Contributor's Issues
Banipal 59 - The Longlist (Summer 2017)
The Tent Generations
Things I Left Behind by Shada Mustafa, translated by Nancy Roberts
Shadow of the Sun by Taleb Alrefai
Birds of Nabaa, A Mauritanian Tale by Abdallah Uld Mohamadi Bah
The Stone Serpent, Barates of Palmyra’s Elegy for Regina his Beloved by Nouri Al-Jarrah
Mansi A Rare Man in His Own Way by Tayeb Saleh (Banipal Books, 2020)
Tayeb Salih
Goat Mountain by Habib Selmi
Habib Selmi, author of Goat Mountain and 3 times shortlisted for the IPAF
The Mariner by Taleb Alrefai (Banipal Books, 2020)
Taleb Alrefai, author of Shadow of the Sun and The Mariner
Digital images
Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures by Fadhil al-Azzawi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Fadhil al-Azzawi
Poems of Alexandria and New York by Ahmed Morsi (Banipal Books, 2021)
Digital Banipal promotion B67
Saïd Khatibi
Amjad Nasser (1955–2019)
Digital Banipal the full archive
Denys Johnson-Davies (1922–2017) 70 years translating Arabic literature
Ahmed Morsi, author of Poems of Alexandria and New York
Sarajevo Firewood
The Madness of Despair
Mahmoud Shukair – see special feature of Banipal 70 (Spring 2021)
LATEST NEWS
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Link to poems by Mosab Abu Toha, published in Banipal 71 (Summer 2021), available to read online
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Link to poem by Liana Badr published in Banipal 74, now available as an online selection
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GRIFFIN PRIZE SHORTLIST 2023
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Banipal's first audiobook* * *
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Banipal Book Club
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