After that, I started studying the dot and the configurations it leaves behind during its path and movement.
Described by Jabra I. Jabra as one of the most significant Optical artists from the Arab world, Hashim Samarchi’s career is a tale of two halves.
After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 1966, he was awarded a scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal. From 1967-69 he lived and worked in Lisbon, producing experimental paintings and prints, which would lead him ultimately to his optical works of the 1970s.
He returned to Baghdad in 1969, whereupon he co-founded the ‘New Vision’ group with Dia Azzawi, Ismail Fattah, Saleh al-Jumaie, Muhammad Muhraddin and Rafa Nasiri. Following his return, he created posters, poetry books and various advertising materials, later working with the Iraqi Minitry of Information to design of the magazine Afaq Arabiyya. He exhibited extensively throughout the Middle East and participated in print biennales throughout Europe.
He moved to London in 1981 and worked for many years in the studio of Dia Azzawi, working only very infrequently on his own practice. In 2023 Grosvenor Gallery started working with Hashim and his family to archive and exhibit his work.