Born in 1944 in Basra, Iraq, Ali Talib spent his entire childhood and adolescence in his home city before moving to Baghdad in the early 1960s, where he was part of the first batch of students joining the newly opened Academy of Fine Arts. Talib had come from a strict, traditional family, experiencing many restrictions during his early life.[1] On the basement walls of his family home, he found drawing as a way to express his frustrated emotions, creating a connection between his internal world and his external expression. While still a student, his initial artistic experiments developed, with the artist exploring ways in which to manifest his inner thoughts and struggles on canvas, eventually finding solace in mysterious and cryptic signs and symbols as a form of communication, often inspired by the rich ancient and folkloric visual traditions found in Iraq.
The 1960s were an interesting time for young artists in Iraq. Rejuvenated by the achievements of the Pioneers generation and other art groups, alongside increasing international interactions with European professors at the Academy and local artists returning from their scholarships abroad, as well as rising Arab nationalist activism, artists were living through a period of creative upheaval.[2] In 1965, he and other students formed a group called The Innovationists, a collective focused on progressive expression, not limiting themselves to any medium or topic. They held their first exhibition at Baghdad’s National Museum of Modern Art that year, and a second, in 1966, graduating the same year. Talib then moved back to Basra, continuing to paint his sensitive compositions, laced with a combination of darkness and dreamlike magic.