Disrupted by unstable politics and turbulent war, 20th-century Iraqi art had trouble flourishing. But in 1951, after spending time abroad, Jewad Selim and Shakir Hassan Al Said established the Baghdad Modern Art Group and an underground power finally began to grow. Patterns from ancient civilizations collided with modernist styles, and local landscapes were captured with abstract techniques. “Their work has been crude but inventive, has had a vigour and boldness which would not have been possible with a more refined technique,” Selim said of ancient Mesopotamian art. This exhibition in Doha examines the group’s legacy through generations. —Maggie Turner