BERTINA LOPES (MOZAMBICAN / ITALIAN 1924–2012)
Untitled
signed, dated and inscribed (translation) to the Iraqi artistic centre. With a lot of affection and as the president says, 'honourable Iraqi son from the Iraqi nation' and I also include the artists of Iraq. / Jrak, 3/6/81 (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
98 x 117.5 cm (39 3/4 x 46 1/4 in)
painted in 1981

PROVENANCE
Gallery Jawdat Khan, Baghdad, 1981
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2001

EXHIBITED
National Museum of Modern Art, Baghdad, 1981

Bertina Lopes was born on July 11, 1924, in Maputo, formerly Lourenço Marques, the capital city of Mozambique. Her mother belonged to a distinguished local family, while her father was a Portuguese colonist who worked in the field of commerce. She attended school in Maputo, but after her second year of senior high school, moved to Lisbon to complete her secondary education. It was here that she began to study painting and drawing. A talented artist, Lopes was influenced by the Avant-garde painting of Portuguese Modernism, whilst in her personal life, she joined antifascist circles and was enormously inspired by Marxist and liberal ideals.

Moving between Mozambique, Portugal, Italy and the US, she remained politically engaged, and her work was informed by her experience of the socio-political environment of the time. In 1981, after gaining recognition by world leaders, Lopes was invited by the Culture Minister of Iraq to exhibit her artworks in the National Museum of Modern Art of Baghdad and it is for this seminal exhibition that the present work was created.