Art and Architecture between Lisbon and Baghdad

26 OCTOBER 2018 - 28 JANUARY 2019
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation | LISBON, PORTUGAL

From 1957 to 1973, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation developed in Iraq about a hundred of projects: schools, universities, hospitals and museums.

This exhibition explores the little-known history of the Foundation's involvement in modern Iraq, using unpublished original documents from the Foundation's archives and focusing on two major projects: the Modern Arts Center built in 1962 (first exhibition space for modern art in Iraq, still known as “The Gulbenkian Hall”) and the iconic Al-Sha'ab Stadium, built almost at the same time as the Foundation’s Headquarters and Museum in Lisbon.

To mark the inauguration of this important sport complex was organized in 1966 in Bagdad a “Gulbenkian Cultural Week” presenting 70 works by Iraqi, Portuguese and foreign artists, and the exhibition also unveils, for the first time in its entirety, the rare section of Iraqi works held in the Museum's Modern Collection.