Ramzi Ghotbaldin
Born to a family of photographers, from childhood Ramzi Ghotbaldin participated in the activities of his father’s and grandfather’s studios, in Khanakine, Kurdistan, the city of his birth. The world of photography influenced his first artistic endeavors and naturally inclined him into a career in fine art.

Of his fine art education, Ramzi Ghotbaldin only displays a technical influence, especially engraving. The construction of his personality and his culture are transmitted to him essentially by his national identity. He is Kurdish; his history is strong and painfully gained across an exquisite natural landscape, but which demands a fight for liberty which eventually pushes him to exile.

His story determines his singularity and the richness of his memory continually feeds his work. Ramzi Ghotbaldin, who arrived in France ten years ago, has found his mature style. He expresses a synthesis between the marks left by his culture and the fruits of this new environment.

Interview with Ramzi Ghotbaldin - A Life in Pictures
by Hannah Rumsby, Kurdish Media, October 25, 2001.

"Since I was a child I felt there was dirt on my shoulder and when I paint I feel I am removing the dirt. When we were in the mountain we did the same and we took off a lot of dirt, but painting is different", says Ramzi Ghotbaldin.

Ghotbaldin’s life as an artist is fed by a wealth of memory tied to his identity as an Iraqi Kurd. He shares the history and collective experience of his people to whom he says he feels a responsibility.

In the early 1980’s Ghotbaldin became a PUK peshmerga. He worked in a publishing base in the mountains Northeast of Sulaimaniya until the height of Saddam’s Anfal campaign, when in 1988 civilians and peshmergas alike were forced to flee Kurdistan into Iran.

Ghotbaldin exhibited his paintings in Tehran shortly after his arrival, which led to an invitation to show his work in France. He came to Paris in 1990 and admits that he was lost for two years. But he was determined to succeed as an artist. He told himself "I have to be recognized as an artist and nothing else otherwise I’m going back."

Today he paints in a modest studio on the top floor of a residential block in a Parisian suburb and his paintings spill on to the landing outside his door. He is well established in France and, with plans for an exhibition in London, he now seeks a wider audience abroad.

In a series of recent paintings Ghotbaldin revisits his mountain days and tells of dark times. He describes the weight of night over day when everything stopped in the mountains. He says he creates his colors from darkness and works layers of oil paint and pastel to give a tangible sense of depth.

In his paintings pools and paths of moonlight illuminate scenes of furtive night time activity, while, in the background, phantom figures slip through the shadows.

"In a dream I was at the sordach. That is a dangerous place. We (peshmergas) were about to cross when a huge figure came through the night at us", recalls Ghotbaldin.

The PUK peshmerga bases were in the eastern mountains and fighters had to cross the sordach, the Ba’th controlled main road, to the lowland region where fighting took place.

The tension of expectation, which he remembers in his dream is felt in many of his paintings. Whatever the subject matter Ghotbaldin works from memory. He says he expresses himself according to his life.

Ghotbaldin was born in Khanaquine in Kurdistan in 1955. He completed his training as a graphic artist at the Institute of Fine Art in Baghdad in 1975 where he was known as "Ramzi Pastel". The nickname still applies, though he mixes oil paint with pastel these days.

At the publishing center at the Marta Ebraheem Azo base at Bargalu the peshmergas used a stencil technique to produce printed matter including books of poetry and novels. Ghotbaldin advised on the layout of the newspapers Al Sharara and Rebaz Neo (New Way) and contributed paintings.

His work, at this time, was inspired by the drama of life in the mountains. He drew everything, and his vigorous black and white drawings reflect a robust energy. A comrade remembers how he enlivened the camp, occasionally rousing his comrades from sleep by beating on metal containers.

"In the mountains there were responsibilities to be social and involved with friends", says Ghotbaldin. But despite his clear commitment to the peshmerga cause, he felt restricted artistically.

"I feel I have lost a lot from my artistic life and have to catch up now. After I came (to Paris) within four years I felt like I had done twenty years work because I was full of experience."

When Ghotbaldin paints he becomes a child with a bursting need to express himself free form responsibility and restriction. "When I come (to my studio) I put my colors (on the palette). I sit and I want to talk. I have a lot of things I want to talk about. I know my colors very well. I know the color of the night. I sit like a child who wants to play, who wants to talk."

An image of a group huddled together around a large table at night reoccurs throughout Ghotbaldin’s recent paintings. "Making decisions was huge to us", says Ghotbaldin referring to his peshmerga days.

He saw Raphael’s "Last Supper" when he came to Europe and the image of Christ surrounded by his twelve disciples resonated with his own memories of a bonded brotherhood. However, his recollection darkens as he draws attention to the absent member, the Judas figure, and suggestion of betrayal.

While he was a peshmerga, Ghotbaldin exhibited in mountain villages together with Ardelan, a fellow artist from Sulaimaniya. Ardelan made photos of the villagers, and both artists were widely known and much appreciated. The peshmerga leaders, who funded the supply of materials bought from nearby cities, supported their artistic activities.

Today Ghotbaldin looks elsewhere for encouragement. Though he is aware of the Kurdish community in Paris, he says no one has visited his studio and, rather surprisingly, claims their lack of appreciation as the reason.

Ghotbaldin describes Paris as his oxygen. His work has garnered considerable praise in France and he pulls apart a package to show us a collection of small pastel and chalk drawings intended for a gallery in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ghotbaldin has deliberately cut himself loose from associations which he thinks will smother his identity as an artist in his own right. He tells a story about exhibiting at the Museum of the Arabic World in Paris, where he was asked to provide a picture for an art magazine. He refused knowing that he would be labeled as an Iraqi artist.

Ghotbaldin wants his audience to come to his paintings with an open mind. He says, "I have a message, but I don’t expect everyone to understand. I hope one day people will understand what I am trying to do."

One Man Exhibitions

• 1976 Khanaquine, Kurdistan
• 1979 House of Guedja, Soulaimaniya, Kurdistan
• 1983 Helledin, Kurdistan
• 1989 House of Perouzi, Sakez, Kurdistan
• 1990 Albi, France
• 1995 Cultural Center, La Clef, France
• 1996 “Discovery”, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Feb 26-March 16)
• 1996 “News Works”, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Sept 25-Nov 2)
• 1997 Gallery Gery Spriet, Bondues-Lille (October)
• 1998 House of Berry, Issoudun (Oct 2-Nov 3)
• 1999 Contemporary Art Center of Saint-Cyprien, Perpignan (Jan 23-Feb 28)
• 2000 Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Feb 26-April 1)
• 2002 Museen der Stadt, Wien, Austria (March)
• 2002 Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (April 6-May 18)
• 2002 “Les Trois Epis”, Cultural Center, Brive (Oct 15-Nov 2)

Group Exhibitions

• 1979 Kurdish Institute, Baghdad and Rome
• 1981 Gallery of Museum, Soulaimaniya, Kurdistan
• 1988 Teheran, Iran
• 1989 Senna, Kurdistan, Iran
• 1990 Kurdish Institute, Paris
• 1990 Hall UVA 18 and AAPKF, Paris
• 1991 “Artists In Town”, Sarcelles
• 1991 “Painters”, Albi
• 1991 “Art Show Mosaic”, Gallery Wazemmes, Lille
• 1991 Castle of Baillen, Conde
• 1991 House’s Associations of Paris, Paris*
• 1992 Generation 95, Forum of Cholletes, Sarcelles
• 1992 “Kurdish Painting”, Gallery La Seranne, Montpellier
• 1992 Hall of International Conference Center, Paris
• 1992 “Kurdish Contemporary Art”, Artists House of Graz, Austria
• 1996 “Nudes: Yesterday and Today” (drawings, photographs, and sculptures), Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (June and Sept)
• 1997 ST’ART 97, Contemporary Art Fair of Strasbourg, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris, (Jan 31-Feb 3)
• 1997 XVIeme Angers Exhibition (Oct 18-Nov 23)
• 1997 “Partage”, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Nov 6-Dec 6)
• 1997 “Pleiade of Christmas”, Gallery Gery Spriet, Bondues-Lille (December)
• 1998 “Halabja”, Kurdish Institute of Paris (March 16-28)
• 1998 “12eme SAGA” (FIAC Edition), Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (April 22-27)
• 1998 Gallery Creatys, Montelimar (July-August)
• 1998 Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (March 19-24)
• 1998 Europ’Art 98, European Contemporary Art Exhibition (Nov 6-15)
• 1999 “13eme SAGA” (FIAC Edition), Gallery Callu Merite, Paris, (March 19-24)
• 1999 “Art Paris”, Carrousel du Louvre, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Sept 17-20)
• 2000 “Art Paris”, Carrousel du Louvre, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris (Oct 19-23)
• 2001 Gallery Callu Merite, Paris, (Feb 1-March 31)
• 2001 “80 drawings to XXe”, Gallery Callu Merite, Paris, (May 17-July 21)
• 2002 “White Exhibition”, Tokyo, Japan (Nov/Dec)