Al Rahal Kalid Biography
Khalid Al-Rahal (1926 - 1987) was an Iraqi sculptor born in Baghdad in 1926. He graduated in sculpture from the Fine Arts Institute and became one of the leaders of the Baghdad Modern Arts Group in the 1950s, whose manifesto was that of creating a national identity for modern Iraqi art by combining the legacy of their past with modern-day innovations. He is best known for his infamous work Al Jundi Al Majhoul, or the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Baghdad, which cemented his place in the history of modern Iraqi art. After studying with Jewad Selim, Al-Rahal also worked with the Directorate of Antiquities in Baghdad and as a result was greatly influenced by the sculptures of early Mesopotamia, particularly those of Babylon and Assyria. In his output he displays a fusion of ancient Sumerian sculptures with a European sensibility that is the result of Al-Rahal's exposure to Western art during his studies in Rome at the Academy of Fine Arts. Although best known as a sculptor, Khalid al-Rahhal, was an accomplished painter, whose works can be found in numerous museum collections. Khalid al-Rahhal's body of work included a number of large-scale monuments in Iraq. It has achieved great critical acclaim both at home and internationally, including five national awards in Iraq and three in Italy. Important works are now in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Baghdad, in Moscow, New York, Shanghai, Paris, Rome, Venice, Lucca and Messina.
