[13] Al Said had previously been a founding member of the Baghdad Group for Modern Art (Jama'at Baghdad lil-Fann al-Hadith) together with Jawad Saleem (1919-1961) and Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (1919-1994), but he along with several high profile artists, had withdrawn from that group when it lost its sense of direction, following the death of its founder, Jawad Saleem in 1961.
[15] One Dimension's objectives are complex and sophisticated; it is philosophy, technique, style and a relationship between time and space, between the visual and the non-visual.
[19] Al Said explained:[20] "From a philosophical point of view, the One-Dimension is eternity, or an extension of the past to the time before the existence of pictorial surface; to the non-surface.
[21] Arabic calligraphy was charged with intellectual and esoteric Sufi meaning,[22] in that it was an explicit reference to a Medieval theology where letters were seen as primordial signifiers and manipulators of the cosmos.
[23] Al Said, and members of the One Dimension group, searched for a new artistic identity, drawn from within their own culture and heritage and successfully integrated Islamic visual traditions, especially calligraphy and Arabic motifs, into contemporary, abstract compositions.
"[27] In focusing on the Arabic letter as the central element of his work, al-Said soon was collaborating with Madiha Omar (who by then was living in the US) and Jamil Hamoudi, who both joined his group.
[33] In Sudan, artworks took on a slightly different form - since artists rejected Western art traditions and included both Islamic calligraphy and West African motifs.
[35] Original members of the One Dimension group include: Rafa al-Nasiri, Mohammed Ghani Hikmat, Nuri al-Rawi, Dia Azzawi, Jamil Hamoudi, Hashem Samarchi (b.