What is Modern About the Ancient Art of Iraq?
CHAT will present Maureen Drdak: EX VOTO, a lecture provocative in form, contexts, and intellectual richness. Reception to follow.

Drdak’s works are large and dynamic with highly polished black surfaces, a severely restricted chromatic palette of reds, blacks, and ivories, and crushed mineral and metal particles result in an imagery that bridges the atavistic and the sublime. Psychology, origins of religious impulse, contemporary social and political concerns, as well as formal contemporary aesthetic vocabularies are all addressed within Drdak's work corpus.

The lecture showcases two major works. The Killing of Lions, a War Meditation, is a compelling reinterpretation of the famous Ninevah bas-reliefs of Iraq. Intensely gestural running forms race across black fields as Drdak pays homage to the psychoanalytical work of literary critic Leo Bersani and film scholar Ulysse Dutoit in their seminal exploration of Assyrian art and modern culture, The Forms of Violence. Drdak's paintings establish the aesthetic relevance of ancient Iraqi art to the contemporary viewer and enhance cultural understanding and appreciation between peoples in conflict. The second major work, The Akedah Triptych presents the mythic core of the three Abrahamic monotheisms: the theme of the sacrifice of the Beloved Son, the paradigm matrix of contemporary notions of Martyrdom.

A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and University of the Arts, the recipient of numerous awards, her work is in public and private collections, including the King and Queen of Jordan, Lynda and Stuart Resnick, the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum, the Florida Holocaust Museum, and Yad VaShem Holocaust Memorial, Israel.

THE AKEDAH TRIPTYCH (2003) Details at mdrdak.com