A tribute to the great Kurdish artist Ali Latif

Ali, where will you hold your 25th exhibition?
 - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli

Note: Ali Latif was one of the greatest artists (painters) and sportsmen of the Kurdish people. He was born in Chwarbakh neighborhood in Slemani in 1944. He was a born self-made painter. He had his first exhibition at the Teachers Institute in Sulaymaniyah in 1964 and his last exhibition in Darmstadt in Germany earlier this year where he had lived as an exile and since the mid 1990s.

He always earned to return to his city and use his art and knowledge to serve the new generations of his people. He returned to Sulaymaniyah last year and stayed for 18 months. He told a friend: “During all this time no one welcomed me.” He returned to exile with a broken heart and died as a result of a failed heart operation in his second home Darmstadt on 18 July 2009. Dr Kamal Mirawdeli attended the ceremony of the 40th day after his death at Tawer hall in Sulaymaniyah on 25 August 2009 and wrote this piece of prose as a tribute to the late artist but ‘party men’ did not allow it to be read to the audience.

Ali, where will you hold your 25th exhibition?

Ali, I do not recognize this city.

I do not recognize a city that does not recognize you.

Neither the blood of love, nor the certificates of sin, nor the flocks of the birds of the migrating colours in the skies of Darmstadt, nor the tales of one thousand and one nights of sorrows and ailment and exile and death can provide a sufficient proof that Ali was born in a rainy dawn under the hands of the midwife of art in the neighbpourhood of Chwarbakh in the Babanian Slemani.

Before he opened his eyes he adored colours.

Before his body made a motion his hand and fingers were busy with dots and lines painting in a magical horizon the portrait of an anfaled Kurdish girl.


Before his mind gained consciousness his brain was full of dreams and fancies drawing the map of a country in which h the artists would be rulers

Does anyone remember Ali? Does anyone know that Ali was the son of this city?

When he left you he took away with him all your wounds and left with you all his aspirations.

Brother Ali, it was only last year that you returned to your city with a well-kept small dream of your childhood. You said: “I stayed there for 18 months. No one paid attention to me.”

No one recognized you.

The old neighborhoods of your town, dominated now by intruding villas, were pushing you away. The faces had changed. The identities, standards, principles and nobilities had reversed. Your teachers were nameless. Your students were alienated and quiet. Art was an orphan word. The closest friends did not testify for you. They said: “Who is this crazy passenger who wants to enter our German, Lebanese and English villages without the party visa? Who is this talentless person who claims to be a painter without the permission of our party and wants to open an exhibition without a party permit?

Then you looked at your heart and found your city hidden there sound and safe.

Before they managed to change it, before they were able to steal it from you or buy it from you with whatever amount you wished

Before they could rename you and redefine you the way they wanted

Before they could recreate you with dollars and hang you onto the rope of corruption

You took up again the road of exile towards the warm embrace of your refuge in Darmstadt

You again sank your broken and exhausted heart in the scent and hue of ink and refreshed it with the blood of paints

You said to the world: This is my Kurdistan

I have painted this carnival with the pink spots of my soul, the blueness of my looks, the dance of my fingers and the blood of my heart.

Brother Ali: Darmstadt is your home: its roads and avenues know you, its streets know you, its exhibitions know you, its artists, journalists and poets know you, and its professors know you.

But still your heart painfully pines for the ordinary homes of Chwarbakh in your occupied city

It was only four months ago you sent me this email message:

“On Sunday 3 May 2009 in the Agri Kultur gallery the German organization of culture will organize my 24th exhibition for me. At the beginning Mr. Wilhelm Kins will read a message then the artist and poet Martin Jourdan will talk about my work, my artistic life and my life in general.”

Dear Ali, I apologize for not being able to attend your 24th exhibition. How did it go? What did they say about it? You have been silent since then. I have not heard of you. Are you taking a break to let your tired heart rest among the yellow leaves of Darmstadt trees? Or are you going back to Sulaymaniyah again and insist that your 25th exhibition be held there? Will the political party give you permission?

Norman E. Rogers, american artists  about Ali Latif

The first contact to Ali was in a small village in the Spessart foothills in Germany ( north from Frankfurt). I, as Ali, was invited to exhibit our art work along with other artists in a yearly Art Festival.
Not knowing him, nor his work, I had wondered various rooms looking at what was presented in the Exhibit.
In one room I was confronted with several large paintings that dominated the atmosphere of the room. Powerfull brush strokes an somber colours; concealing, but still conveying fomr. The dynamic form of faces and hands, expressing their deepest emotions of their heart and souls, reaching out to the world -Ali Latif -
Upon meeting the artist, I learned of Ali Latif's personel situation an that of his homeland an people. Then I understood and I can feel why these works werde created.

I have had the pleasure to see several exhibits, and to spend time visiting him in his studio.
The dept and quality of his work is of the highest niveau, exposing his great talent and broad knowledge in the world of art.
Ali's works have many facets. Realistic to Abstract Impressionism; but the style is directed at the content; the purpose is to bring his goal to the hihest obtainable level.
The human being plays an important role in his works, as he reached into his soul to present them. The sensibility in his "line" quality and its intensity shows his inner most feelings when drwaing or painting a face or a landscape. It is an exciting moment to review a new work of Ali Latif.
The Power of application of pigment, either with brush or pallet knife; the drama created within the depts of light and shadow: an then within this, reaching out, the "line". The "line" that is the drawing of the human being. The "line" in this quality tha can only be expressed by exposing his sorrow, his joy, his pain, his love of his people and land and his rexpect for Man.

Norman E. Rogers 2006

Johannes Jourdan former priest and famous German poet  and songwriter about Ali Latif

The first pictures which I saw from Ali Latif werde pictures of the fliht. IKf one flees, one flees from reality. One flees from a bad reality into agreality hoped for.
One takes the reality in his soul,  in his interiors with. And the more each takes along, all the more one has to carry. For that every human beeing attempts to rid himself of this reality.
That one replaces it does not make the soul easier, however. For that the artist renders into music, into poems or however also into painting. So the art changes the realtiy, that the soul, that burdened whole human being so very much.

And there one looks at the picture of the flight. It radiates rest. Therd the unshakebly firm mountains are. There the snow which covers everything is. Even the tracks of the flight. Reality experienced pictures, a reality come for the rest are like this. Ans so they can provide the observer rest. Our reality, the experience of every single human being, it has to change thousands of colors, sound, forms and correspondingly also thousand of techniques, to arrange the life and to achieve to the rest therefor.
Ali Latif lent the gift from God, to incorporate very sensitively in himself and to record in many kinds of technique and to achieve to the speaking the life get. Ali's pictures speak to that , that one similarly as Ali Latif is sensitive. They herad the rest at, that is there even if we do not have it in ourselves yet. Because the reality has always new forms, to load our soul. For that Ali Latif, who adorns the walls of our soul and privides rest, must paint ever new pictures which become hepl of our brain and our knowlede of life in us thorugh our eyes for the picture. So one recognizes the quality of the pictures Ali Latif's by one feeeling well in theri proximity. However, one must become accusomed to everything first - if it does not happen at first sight already. One mus become accustomed also to the friendliness of the life.

Johannes Jourdan 2006

Martin Jourdan , German drummer, poet and writer of childrenbooks, writes about Ali Latif

Since I've got in contact with Ali Latif in 1998, his skills in art constantly developed and changed. He always tries new techniques and forms on canvas and paper to express his feelings.

As far as Ali Latif started his paintings since he was five, his art developed parallelly tho his life. It matured with him and changed itself according to the circumstances of his life.

Again and again, as Ali show me his new paintings, tears come to my eyes, and I get the feeling, that I am touching the very truth with the tips of my fingers.
There is nothing false or useless in his paintings, and it is a question of optimal epression for him, with help of colour and technique, and nothing else. It is completely new form of expression. You can not compare it with something else.

As the technique of Ali Latif is very special, that means he works in multi-layer manner, his pictures might not open themselves at the first lance. Only careful observance and consideration may open you the real sence. And for some the stay closed forever.

Martin Jourdan  20.Oct. 2006