Naziha Salim: Facts about contemporary Iraqi artist to know

Naziha Salim was born in Turkey in 1927 to a family of artists. He studied art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and the cole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

April 23 marks a significance for Salim's career as a date as her work featured in the United Arab Emirates-based Barjeel Art Foundation's collection of works of women artists on this day.

Salim's father was a painter and his mother was an embroidery artist. He had three brothers and all of them made remarkable contributions to the arts.

One of his brothers, Jawad Salim, is considered one of Iraq's foremost sculptors.

Surrounded by artists around his home, Salim's fascination for art started from an early age and since then he started creating his own artworks.

She earned a distinction in the course and received a scholarship to study at the cole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

She worked at Baghdad's Fine Arts Institute and taught there until she retired.

Salim founded a community of foreign-educated artists called al-Ruwad and was also one of its founding members.

Salim specialised in fresco and mural painting while in Paris.

Al-Ruwwad is an artists' community that invites artists from around the world and incorporates art techniques into Iraqi aesthetics.

She wrote a book called Iraq: Contemporary Art, which is an important source of information about the early development of Iraq's modern art movement and her artwork is on display at the Sharjah Art Museum and the Iraqi Archive of Modern Art (MAIA).