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Series III: Writings

III.A. Rafa Nasiri's Journals

Scope and Contents

Handwritten and hand-illustrated diaries by Rafa Nasiri, created within bound journals and sketchbooks throughout his life, spanning 1976 to 2013. These feature sketches alongside observations of daily life, activities, and art events he attended. The almost daily entries were not separate from the art and ideas that were translated as drawings in the same cherished notebooks. They offer insight into the inner worlds of the artist, including his experiences of travels and war events. Nasiri recorded details about meetings with fellow artists and intellectuals in Baghdad, Asilah, Irbid, Amman, Beirut, and in Italy, Spain, the UAE, and other countries, students and teachers he worked with at Yarmouk University and the University of Bahrain, the routes he commuted on, his feelings towards personal and professional engagements, sketches of artifacts he saw in collections, his opinions on the quality of the lectures he attended and their audiences, and more.

1. Paris, 1976

2. Journal that includes notes by May Muzaffar, c. 1982

3. Graphic Center, 1984–1985

4. Journal, multiple dates

5. Baghdad-Roma, 1988

6. Morocco, August 1990

7. Journal, Amman and Irbid, 1992–1993

8. Irbid, Jordan, 1.11.1993

9. Journal of Sharjah and Abu Dhabi Visit, 2000 and 2001

10. Bahrain journal, 2000

11. Bahrain journal, 2002

12. Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, and Lisbon, 2008

13. Beirut journal, 2010

14. Baghdad and Amman journal, 2010

15. Istanbul journal, 2011

16. Jabal al Weibdeh notebook 1, Amman, 2011

17. Atlal, Baghdad + Cordoba, Jabal al Weibdeh notebook, Amman, 2011 (2)

18. Jabal al Weibdeh notebook, Amman, 2012 (1)

19. Jabal al Weibdeh notebook, Amman, 2012 (2)

20. Studio Nasiri, 2013

III.B. Rafa Nasiri's Writings

Scope and Contents

Lectures, texts and notes authored in Arabic by Rafa Nasiri on topics related to contemporary Arab and Iraqi art, graphic art practices, and inspirations for his work, as well as artist statements. Includes versions of texts titled "[Contemporary Arab Graphic Art,]" one of which was presented in a roundtable discussion in Bahrain in 2001, and "[Resistance through Creativity]" published in Al-Majallah Al-Thaqafiyyah [Cultural Magazine] in 2010.

III.C. May Muzzafar's Writings

Scope and Contents

Writings, reviews and notes by poet and critic May Muzaffar produced in Baghdad, Amman, and Manama starting from the 1970s.

III.D. Writings by Others

Scope and Contents

Includes clipped texts about Nasiri by writers and artists such as Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Jacques Aswad, Farouq Yousef, Adel Kamel, Shaker Hassan Al Said, Ziad Dalloul, Dia al-Azzawi, and Abdel Wahhab al-Bayati, as well as texts on other topics and exhibitions that Nasiri collected, mostly from 1990s and 2000s

al Mawrid Arab Art Archive
NYU Abu Dhabi
New York University Abu Dhabi,
Campus Center C2-350, 353-355
P.O. Box 129188, Abu Dhabi, UAE