Ala Bashir is a physician and artist who earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the Iraqi College of Medicine in 1963, alongside his studies at the Baghdad Institute of Fine Arts from 1959 to 1962. He obtained his Fellowship from Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1971 and became Head of the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Surgical Emergency Hospital in Baghdad, achieving numerous accomplishments in the field of medicine and surgery.
In his artistic practice, Bashir is renowned for his portrayal of the human condition. His works have been widely exhibited in cities including in Baghdad, Belgrade, Bonn, Cairo, Doha, Dublin, London, Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, Rabat, Rome, Tunis, Vienna, and New York. He designed two historically significant monuments in Baghdad: "The Union," a stone statue depicting the love between a man and a woman; "The Cry," a bronze statue depicting the tragedy of the Amiriya shelter, where an airstrike killed 400 women and children in 1991 during the First Gulf War.
Bashir received the Gold Medal at Baghdad International Biennale in 1988, and the second prize at the International Poster Exhibition in Paris 1983. In 2003, he was awarded the State Award for Fine Arts, Iraq's highest art prize. His works have been acquired by important institutions such as the D. H. Lawrence Museum, UK; the University of Nottingham, UK; the National Museum of Iraq; Mathaf: the Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar; the Jordan Museum; the 6th District Town Hall of Paris; the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; and the Corvus Art Center, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
In his artistic practice, Bashir is renowned for his portrayal of the human condition. His works have been widely exhibited in cities including in Baghdad, Belgrade, Bonn, Cairo, Doha, Dublin, London, Moscow, New Delhi, Paris, Rabat, Rome, Tunis, Vienna, and New York. He designed two historically significant monuments in Baghdad: "The Union," a stone statue depicting the love between a man and a woman; "The Cry," a bronze statue depicting the tragedy of the Amiriya shelter, where an airstrike killed 400 women and children in 1991 during the First Gulf War.
Bashir received the Gold Medal at Baghdad International Biennale in 1988, and the second prize at the International Poster Exhibition in Paris 1983. In 2003, he was awarded the State Award for Fine Arts, Iraq's highest art prize. His works have been acquired by important institutions such as the D. H. Lawrence Museum, UK; the University of Nottingham, UK; the National Museum of Iraq; Mathaf: the Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar; the Jordan Museum; the 6th District Town Hall of Paris; the American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland; and the Corvus Art Center, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.