Hashim Samarchi

Abstract

Born in 1939 in Mosul, Iraq, Hashim Samarchi was a pioneering figure in Iraqi graphic art and design. After receiving extensive art education in Baghdad in the 1950s–60s, Samarchi was selected for a fellowship in Portugal in 1967, an experience which would transform his innovative artworks into graphic masterpieces. Upon his return to Iraq in 1969, Samarchi joined the New Vision group and was instrumental in developing poster art in the 1970s. He then worked in the Ministry of Culture’s Design Department, later moving into magazine design before relocating to London. Samarchi passed away in 2024.

Biography​​

Hashim Samarchi was born in 1939 in the city of Mosul, Northern Iraq, where he spent most of his youth before moving to Baghdad in 1954. In Baghdad, he enrolled in the Institute of Fine Arts to study painting and drawing, graduating in 1957, and subsequently began a career as a teacher for several years. However, in 1962, he traded the life of a teacher for the life of a student again, furthering his own education at the Academy of Fine Arts where he spent the next several years alongside artists such as Mehdi Moutasher (1943–), Salim al-Dabbagh (1941–2022) and Yahya al-Sheikh (1945–), and was taught by iconic artists including Faiq Hassan (1914–1992), who Samarchi respected immensely. Samarchi, in turn, was respected by his teachers and peers and was often entrusted with organising annual exhibitions and group activities. Described by al-Sheikh, a particularly close friend during this period of his life, as having the nickname “The Ruler,” Samarchi was known as a social but very disciplined man who had the utmost precision in his life and work, something that would be evident in his meticulously intricate artworks over the following decade.

Finding local employment for art graduates was not always easy, so Samarchi—alongside many other artists, including al-Sheikh—was recruited to teach in Saudi Arabia, where he spent one year teaching drawing at al-Farouq School in the Eastern city of Dammam. During this time, his career as an artist began to flourish. In December 1966, he took part in the Carreras Craven “A” Exhibition, an eight-month touring exhibition of Arab art across Europe, including the cities of London, Paris, and Rome. This was the first time a show of Arab art of such a large scale would tour these cities. It was even more significant for Samarchi, whose submission Composition of Symmetry (1966) was described as “one of the best paintings in the exhibition…a pure 20th century image” by the exhibition chairman, who awarded Samarchi with the official accolade of “Best Iraqi Painter”.

At the same time, the Iraqi Artists Association nominated Samarchi for a fellowship with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, which would offer him an opportunity to develop his graphic art skills and techniques. Samarchi left his teaching job in Saudi Arabia and, alongside artists Rafa Nasiri (1940–2013) and Salim al-Dabbagh, travelled to Portugal, where he would spend the next two years. At Galeria Gravura in Lisbon, he worked alongside his fellow Iraqi artists but also a range of local and international artists too: “The days I spent at Gravura in the company of many Portuguese artists…the workers and staff…were some of the most diligent, dynamic and relentless I have ever lived.” Focusing completely on graphic art, Samarchi immersed himself entirely in his work and embraced a boundless, imaginative approach he hadn’t fully engaged with before. Drawing on inspirations from nature and his own increasingly creative imagination, he explored the possibilities of the dot, the line, shapes, and colours, developing an entirely new perspective, wholly different from his training as a draughtsman and painter. Nasiri, Dabbagh, and Samarchi exhibited their work together at Galeria Gravura in 1968, where we see Samarchi truly begin to push himself and further experiment with his work. Upon leaving Portugal, the three artists also exhibited their work together at Gallery One in Beirut, owned by Lebanese poet and writer, Yousef al-Khal (1917–1987).

In 1969, the artists returned to Iraq. Samarchi soon married his long-time love, artist Selma al-Khoury, and settled back into Baghdad. However, much had happened in the artists’ absence, notably the 1967 Six-Day War, which gripped the Arab world and concluded with a period of depression and an ideological and political identity crisis amongst Arab nationalists across the region following Israel’s victory. This was indeed the case, especially for many Arab intellectuals and artists, who processed current events through their work. Dia al-Azzawi (1939–)—a close friend of Samarchi—catalysed a new, revolutionary cultural movement, entitled New Vision, alongside Ismail Fattah (1934–2004), Muhammad Muhraddin (1938–2015), Saleh al-Jumaie (1939–), Rafa Nasiri, and Samarchi. This movement and this group of artists hoped to bring art and politics together, emphasising the push to expand national boundaries into a unified, regional Pan-Arab identity. In their manifesto, Azzawi wrote, “art is the practice of taking a position towards the world, a continual practice of transgressing and discovering human interiority from within change…the artist is a fighter who refuses to put his weapon down as he speaks in the name of the world, and in the name of the human.” The artists began to experiment with their work in entirely new ways, both thematically and stylistically.

Graphic art also played a significant role at this time—especially posters, which became an increasingly important means of spreading political and cultural messaging in the late 1960s and 1970s. Poster exhibitions took place in 1970 under the Freedom Monument in central Baghdad, in 1971 at the National Museum of Modern Art, and in 1972 as part of the al-Wasiti Festival, as well as many other exhibitions and festivals throughout the 1970s. A significant turning point for this art form on a local level was the al-Marbad Poetry Festival in 1971, where Azzawi, Nasiri, and Samarchi each designed a poster in collaboration with a local poet. Azzawi and Nasiri made posters using the work of Yousif al-Sayegh and Fadhil al-Azzawi, respectively, while Samarchi designed a poster inspired by the verses of Buland al-Haidari. A limited number of these posters were printed and then stuck on the walls around Baghdad by the artists themselves, functioning simultaneously as festival advertisements, public art, and poetic interventions for everyday Iraqis who came across them.

The New Vision group never had a whole-group exhibition, and instead had a range of shows, sometimes involving three, four, or five members. Ismail Fattah left the group soon after it was formed and was later replaced by Maki Hussein Maki and Tariq Ibrahim. Each artist continued their own personal work, but sometimes came together for their various group exhibitions, often experimenting with exhibition poster design in their own styles.

The 1970s were a busy period for Samarchi. He illustrated several books in the early 1970s and consistently produced large, abstract artworks with a distinctive proclivity for optical art. Artist and writer, Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919–1994), wrote in 1974 about this period of Samarchi’s work: “Optical delusion is a legitimate part of the creative process here, and it can only be realised through exquisite draughtsmanship and unfailing resourcefulness in the invention of geometrical shapes. Moreover, Samarchi has the ability of creating unexpected visual effects which give the viewer an intense mental pleasure.” Samarchi spent most of the decade interrogating the endless possibilities of lines, shapes, and colours, not limiting himself to the boundaries of paper and canvas, but also bringing his work to life through hypnotic, immersive three-dimensional wooden structures, forcing the viewer to apprehend his work more and more each time. He would also occasionally harness his elegant skills in line, form, and illusion, combining them with script, notably Arabic calligraphic script, in the then-burgeoning trend of Hurufiyya and in Islamic manuscripts that inspired many Arab artists of his generation.

Beyond his own career as an artist, Samarchi was also keen to get involved in the creative sector at the institutional and governmental levels. He was recruited by Lam’an al-Bakri, the Exhibitions Director at the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, to establish a design department within the ministry. With Yahya al-Sheikh and fellow artist, Sadiq Smeisem (1948–2020) as part of the founding team, Samarchi was named as head of design. His skill as a designer was being noticed, and he did not hesitate to take on a range of projects in Iraq's flourishing art and design scene. In 1973, Samarchi designed the logo for the First Arab Biennial, which took place in Baghdad in 1974—a monumental moment in Iraqi and Arab art history— and in the mid-1970s he also began to get involved in magazine design. Handpicked by a politician, poet and the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief, Shafiq al-Kamali (1929–1984), Samarchi worked under the supervision of designer Nadhim Ramzi (1928–2013) on Afaq Arabiya. This celebrated publication focused on art, culture, and current affairs, but became increasingly influenced by state propaganda over the years. Ramzi would support Samarchi when he chose to leave Iraq with his family several years later, due to the political situation, offering him work at Funoon Arabiya magazine in London and, afterwards, at Tadamon magazine. In the mid-1990s, Samarchi began working in the London studio of Dia al-Azzawi, where he remained for almost a decade.

In 2003, Samarchi retired, occasionally participating in exhibitions but mainly enjoying life with his family until his death in December 2024. Throughout his life, Samarchi’s compelling and daring compositions, as well as his willingness to collaborate and take on a range of projects, played a significant role in the development of graphic art and design in Iraq and across the Arab region, cementing his enduring legacy as a pioneer in his field.

Bibliography

Al Sheikh, Yahya. الايم الأولى والأيام الآخرة: عن هاشم سمرجي وآخرين” (The First Days and the Last Days: On Hashim Samarchi and others)”. In Makou Magazine: Year 6, Issue 1. Serif Graphics Ltd, 2025

Al-Nasiri, Sabah. Hashim Samarchi. Adib Books, 2023

Hashim Samarchi – Grosvenor Art Gallery: Abu Dhabi Art, 20 – 26 November 2023 (exhibition catalogue). Accessed December 2025. https://www.grosvenorgallery.com/usr/library/documents/catalogues/hashim-samarchi-abu-dhabi-art-2023.pdf

Al-Azzawi, Dia. “Graphic Design and the Visual Arts in Iraq”. In Modern Art in the Arab World -  Primary Documents, edited by Anneka Lenssen, Sarah Rogers and Nada Shabout. Duke University Press, 2018

Al-Azzawi, Dia; Fattah, Ismail; al-Jumaie, Saleh; Muhraddin, Muhammad; Nasiri, Rafa; Samarji, Hashem. “Manifesto: Towards a New Vision”. In Why Are We ‘Artists’? 100 World Art Manifestos, edited by Jessica Lack. Penguin Classics, 2017

Al-Azzawi, Dia. فن الملصقات في العراق: دراسة في بدايته وتطوره ١٩٣٨-١٩٧٣ (Poster Art in Iraq: Its Beginnings and its Development, 1938-1973). Ministry of Information, Republic of Iraq, 1974.

Hashim Samarchi – Baghdad, 1969 (exhibition catalogue). “Modern Art Iraq Archive”, Iraqart.org. Accessed December 2025. https://artiraq.org/maia/items/show/150

Rafa Nasiri – Salem Dabbagh – Hashim Samarchi: Exhibition of Paintings, Galeria Gravura, Lisbon, Portugal, 1968 (exhibition catalogue)