[6] However, other scholars have suggested that the movement began somewhat earlier with the work of the Iraqi-American artist, Madiha Omar who exhibited huryifiyya artwork in 1949 in Washington.

[9] In 1971, he became a founding member of the One Dimension Group, started by his friend and colleague, artist and intellectual, Shakir Hassan Al Said.

[10] In 1971 he joined the One Dimension Group when it was founded by Shakir Hassan Al Said and which sought to use art as a means of developing a sense of national identity.

In time, however, he distanced himself from Surrealists, claiming:[13] "A dark, saturnine atmosphere emanated from [their canvases] the effect of which was to arouse a feeling of despair in human beings."

His paintings are brightly colored and make use of geometric shapes like circles, triangles and arches, often in repeating patterns, a reference to Arabesque.