The Monument of Liberty & Jewad Selim

I have mentioned Jewad Selim "or typed Jawad Selim" in my last post. I called his monument as the Freedom Monument, but I found lately that it is called as "The Monument of Liberty".

The monument is made up of 14 separate units and comprising 25 human figures together with a horse and a bull.




I found an article about the Munument of Liberty in the journal of Gilgamesh, the first issue in 1987. These following lines are taken from the article written by Jibra I. Jibra:

"He worked throughout 1960 on the clay figures. He sent them to Pistoia to be cast in bronze. Each figure was divided into parts in order to facilitate their shipment to Baghdad in carefully marked crates.
Late that year, Selim returned to Baghdad to supervise the installation of the figures on the complete frieze.
In Baghdad, the bronze pieces were taken out of the wooden crates welded together and raised on to the marble structure.
Selim never stopped supervising the work being done properly. He was always on site, together with his colleagues and a crowd of curious people watching the gradual unfolding of the dramatic figures.
He was busy supervising the erection of the second unit when he had a heart attack. He was hurried to hospital. Around his bed gathered the best doctors in town trying to help him pull through. But the attack was so severe that he died on January 23, 1961, not yet 42."


I found some interesting sites talking about Jawad Selim, and here are some links.

http://baghdadtreasure.blogspot.com/2005/09/treasure-in-baghdad_11.html

http://attawie.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-exhibition-salute-to-jawad-salim.html