There are paintings everywhere in Farooq Hassan’s modest apartment: on the floor, on dressers, on the kitchen table where he drinks coffee every day. His mixed-media paintings, colorful collages that blend abstract and reality, mostly feature women whom he believes are “a symbol of everything good in life.”
Hassan, 79, is a renowned Iraqi artist. He has exhibited abroad in cities such and London and Amman, and in his home country at the National Art Museum. For years he was the stamp designer for the Iraqi post office. Yet, he had to leave it all behind when the political strife in Iraq became too dangerous for him and his family. In 2010, he immigrated to Oregon and started anew.
“At first I was afraid of the future. I didn’t know what would happen. Would people welcome me and accept my artwork?” he says. “Then a friend told me about The Geezer Gallery. It is now everything for me.”
The Geezer Gallery in Portland, Oregon celebrates established and emerging masterful older artists, as well as provides art therapy programs to low-income older adults in the community. Amy Henderson, an interior designer-turned-gerontologist, founded the gallery in 2006 in the hopes of showing how our aging population isn’t as frail as we think.
“I wanted to change the narrative about what it means to grow older because we’re all growing older,” she says. “Older adults are some of the most creative, vital, and productive human beings.”
And they’re having a cultural moment. Just look at MoMA’s recent The Long Run exhibit, which focuses on artists creating well into their later years. Or the sudden fame of 103-year-old artist Carmen Herrera. There’s also the Carter Burden Gallery in New York City that exclusively showcases artists 60 and older.
