Kadhem Hayder, Martyr’s Epic, 1965, Oil on canvas, 96 x 125.5 cm

An artist, writer, and poet, Kadhim Hayder is a prominent figure in Iraq’s modernist movement. After graduating from Baghdad's Institute of Fine Arts in 1957, Hayder studied theatre design and graphics at London’s Royal College of Arts. He was involved in a number of artists’ groups during the 1950s and 1960s. Based on a poem the artist wrote in 1965, the Epic Martyr references the Battle of Karbala, which resulted in the death of the prophet’s grandson, Hussein ibn Ali; one of the most significant battles in the history of Shia Muslims, and commemorated annually through public mourning rituals. Painted with oil on canvas, Hayder mixes elements of figurative and abstract art, this mixture serves his purpose of combining poetry, myth and metaphor. Hayder’s Martyrs Epic painting is a re-enactments of the Battle of Karbala. We see groups of horses reduced to their basic shapes, rounded and often lacking even the detail of eyes. Their horsemen are clustered throughout the painting in an obvious state of pain and horror. In a scene full of chaos and grief, the horsemen raise their weapons (swords and spears) in the air, while a group of horses weep, some raising their heads in the air like howling wolves, in a turbulent landscape filled with bold angry brushstrokes of warm, angry colors. Near seven-o-clock on the painting, a mythical winged creature lays motionless with its face on the ground, away from the other figures in the painting. Although the work references a moment of martyrdom, and a significant turning point in islamic history, Hayder’s painting also serves as an allegory for the aftermath of the political unrest in Iraq following the 1963 coup, overthrowing The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party.