Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Series
Title
Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan
Date(s)
- 2018-08-10 (Creation)
Extent
69.3 megabytes; 1 online resource (3 audio files (1 hr., 14 min., 53 sec.)) MPEG-4
Name of creator
Biographical history
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 and structure elements
Scope and content
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.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
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/
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Gift of The Immigrant Story, July 2020 (Lib. Acc. RL2020-018).
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Publication notes
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/.
Notes element
General note
Preferred citation: Oral history interview with Farooq Hassan, by Sankar Raman, SR 12282, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition.
Sources used
Archivist's note
Sarah Stroman
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Raman, Sankar (Contributor)
- Al Habeeb, Haifa (Subject)