Bashir, 69, fled Iraq after the American-led invasion in 2003. His oil paintings and sculptures are on display at Corvus Art Center in New Haven and have been exhibited at the United Nations and around the world.

“We’re only just beginning to understand the importance of his works,” said Tim Hopper, past president of the National Art Materials Trade Association.

Lesley Roy, owner of Corvus, first saw Bashir’s paintings in 2005 on a trip to London and began collecting them.

“I feel that I have rescued an extraordinary slice of human history,” Roy said. “Ala’s personal experiences in life made his work of art all the more precious. His art is about man’s struggle for freedom and sacrifice for love of others.”

Despite his reputation for brutality, Saddam tolerated Bashir’s paintings, which frequently showed the horrors of war. Saddam once pressured Bashir into doing a painting of himself.

“After all, Saddam did not think he was an oppressive ruler nor that Iraqis hated him,” said Nada Shabout, an art history associate professor at the University of North Texas and an expert on Middle Eastern art. “Thus, art that expressed suffering and oppression was always about imperial powers and their inhuman policies against Arabs.”

Perhaps Saddam didn’t see Bashir’s “Raven Phone,” a 1999 painting depicting severed phone cords that illustrate the people who died for what they said over the phone — or a painting of a severed head with nine men depicted like animals to symbolize hate and other deadly sins Iraqis have suffered throughout their history at the hands of dictators and foreign powers.

“He did get away with a lot,” said Charles Duelfer, a friend who was the weapons inspector for the United Nations. “I find them compelling. They are not Iraqi paintings to me. They are paintings of the human condition.”

Bashir first met Saddam in 1983 while accepting an award for his pioneering work as a surgeon.

While Saddam was often rumored to have a double, Bashir said neither he nor other doctors performed plastic surgery on anyone to make them look like the Iraqi president. He did perform a nose job on Saddam’s granddaughter and other relatives, who were worried about their appearance as the rest of the country braced for the American invasion.

“They were divorced from reality,” Bashir said.

Bashir also treated women abused by Saddam’s son Uday, including one who had burns from cigarette butts. After Saddam’s son was shot while prowling for women, Bashir was among the doctors who performed life-saving surgery.

Bashir says he has no regrets, noting that doctors cannot choose their patients.

“I think God saved him, to let him suffer from this injury,” Bashir said. “He did a lot of bad things.”

Subscribe to The China Post and save.  Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 1000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email