Madiha Omar

Born Aleppo, Syria, 1908 (d.2005)

Omar graduated from the Maria Grey Training College, London, 1933. In 1937 she taught painting at the Teachers Training School for Women, Baghdad, where, later, she was appointed head of the Arts and Painting Department. In 1942 she moved to Washington DC, studying art education at the George Washington University and graduating in fine arts from the Corcoran School of Art, 1950. She began exploring the possibilities of using Arabic script in modern painting in the mid -1940s And became known as the first artist to have done so. She was encouraged by the celebrated art historian Richard Ettinghausen, who in 1949 organised an exhibition of her works at the Georgetown Public Library,Washington. That same year she wrote a manifesto entitled Arabic Calligraphy: An Element of Inspiration in Abstract Art. Later, Omar, together with Jamil Hammoudi and others, was part of the 'One Dimension Group' formed 1971 by Shaker Hassan Al-Said.

Not featured in Dubai 2008