THE CURD SELLERS – THE ONLY RECORDED SCULPTURE IN COPPER RELIEF BY JEWAD SELIM

"My heaviest burden is to decide how to divide my energy between painting and sculpture. I think that someday I must give up one of them because my creative ability is split between the two. I am thinking of giving up painting for good.'"- Jewad Selim

"The Curd Sellers is the only known version of Jewad's sculptures done in the "hammered copper" technique. What is particularly significant here is that "hammered copper" was an ancient technique perfected by the Mesopotamians" – Zaineb Selim, the artists daughter

An artist of incredible versatility, Jewad Selim excelled in painting, drawing, sculpture and craftsmanship. Despite turning his hand primarily to sculpture for the latter part of his career, owing to the scarcity of foundries in his native Iraq, he executed his works almost exclusively in wood and plaster; the appearance therefore, of an exquisite, widely published work in metal relief, unique amongst his body of work, provides a single opportunity for a collector to acquire an example of the artist's work which is unmatched in its rarity and importance. 

One of the main themes that Selim's Baghdad Group of Modern Art focused on, was peasants and Bedouins in different settings; such as the mudhif (guest house), the coffee house, as well as various roles including water carriers, bakers, farmers and so on. The role depicted in this relief is that of the women who sell buffalo curd at dawn in Baghdad, locally termed as العلابات (El-Allabat – translated as the Packers referring to the packs of buffalo curd stacked on their heads or on the ground beside them). 

Semi-abstracted into interlocking rounded forms articulated by Selim's signature crescent motif, Selim provides a modern interpretation of an ancient and highly acclaimed craft. The Middle East, as one of the foremost centres of metalwork in antiquity was home to some of the most sumptuous and lavish examples of this craft, with standout examples including the magnificent royal Sassanian silver dishes decorated in high relief.

In place of the kingly, high flown mythological subject matters of ancient metalwork, Selim brings his focus back onto the common plight of the noble Iraqi peasants and their daily toil, a cunning subversion of what was once seen as a "courtly craft" in the hands of an artist using it to shine a light on the everyday life of his native people.