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Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan, 2018 August 10
Overview of the Collection
- Interviewee
- Hassan, Farooq, 1939-
- Title
- Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan
- Dates
- 2018 August 102018-08-102018-08-10
- Quantity
- 69.3 megabytes, (1 online resource (3 audio files (1 hr., 14 min., 53 sec.))) : MPEG-4
- Collection Number
- SR 12282
- Summary
- Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan conducted by Sankar Raman on August 10, 2018, for The Immigrant Story. Hassan was born in Iraq and became an artist and art instructor. He immigrated to the United States in 2010.
- Repository
-
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
97205
Telephone: 503-306-5240
Fax: 503-219-2040
libreference@ohs.org - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research.
- Languages
- English
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Farooq Hassan, also known as Farouk H. Al Tamimi, was born in Basra, Iraq, in 1939. In 1960, he earned a certificate of fine arts from the Fine Arts Institute in Baghdad, Iraq, and in 1963, he earned a certificate of handicrafts from UNESCO. Upon returning to his hometown of Basra, he met Haifa Al Habeeb, and they married in 1968. He taught art from 1960 to 1976. In 1980, he earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Rome University in Italy. Beginning in 1980, political turmoil in Iraq disrupted his art career. Many of his paintings were lost during the 2003 looting of the Iraq Museum. In 2010, he immigrated to the United States and settled in Portland, Oregon.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
This oral history interview with Farooq Hassan was conducted by Sankar Raman on August 10, 2018. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In this interview, Hassan discusses his early life in Basra, Iraq, including the history and culture of Iraq before 1958, and his early art education. He then talks about studying art at universities in Baghdad, Iraq, and Rome, Italy. He discusses returning to Iraq in 1980 and his experience during the Iran-Iraq War. He describes some of the atrocities of Saddam Hussein and how he managed to evade the militias. He also talks about his marriage to fellow artist Haifa Al Habeeb. Hassan discusses his artwork, including his influences and methods, and his career after the end of the Iran-Iraq War. He also talks about designing stamps for the Iraqi government and giving some of his works to the Iraq Museum. He describes his life after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Hassan and Raman discuss an exhibition of Hassan's artwork planned for later in 2018. Hassan talks about his reasons for immigrating to the United States in 2010, and discusses his daughter and her family. Hassan talks about the materials he uses in his painting and drawing, the development of his art technique, and the loss of several of his paintings during the looting of the Iraq Museum in 2003. Hassan and Sankar look at some of Hassan's artworks and discuss them. Hassan closes the interview by talking about his career as an artist in the Pacific Northwest.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan, by Sankar Raman, SR 12282, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Restrictions on Use
Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and The Immigrant Story. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Educational Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Acquisition Information
Gift of The Immigrant Story, July 2020 (Lib. Acc. RL2020-018).
Bibliography
An article about Farooq Hassan, "A Lifetime Across Canvases" by Monica Salazar, was based on this interview and published on The Immigrant Story website at https://theimmigrantstory.org/canvas/.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
Description | Dates |
---|---|
Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan | 2018 August 10 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Artists--Oregon
- Immigrants--Oregon
- Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
- Iraq War, 2003-2011
- Iraqi Americans--Oregon
Personal Names
- Al Habeeb, Haifa
- Hassan, Farooq, 1939-
Geographical Names
- Iraq--History--1921-
- United States--Immigration and emigration
Form or Genre Terms
- interviews
Other Creators
-
Personal Names
- Raman, Sankar (interviewer)