Jamal Hamid Asaad, known as (Jamal Bakhtiar), was born in the city of Sulaymaniyah in 1925, and studied up to the middle school level in the city of Sulaymaniyah.
In 1942, he joined the ranks of the Hiwa Committee, and due to his work within the Hiwa Committee, he left his studies. In 1943, he was appointed as an employee in the Qaladiza customs administration. In 1944, due to pressure from the government of Iraq, he left his job and returned to the city of Sulaymaniyah, working as a painter for his livelihood. In 1946, he joined the ranks of the Democratic Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad, and on June 20, he went with Mullah Mustafa Barzani to meet Peshwa Qazi Muhammad. In his first meeting with the Peshwa, Qazi promised to send him to Baku to study. In that same meeting, he gave him the title Bakhtiar. After the fall of the Republic of Kurdistan, he returned to Southern Kurdistan and was arrested in the village of Lolan by the Jash and soldiers of the Iraqi Army and they transferred him to the Bapishtian Qishla in the Diana district, then he was transferred to the prison of the city of Kirkuk. In 1949, they sent him as a detainee to the city of Erbil. He remained in the city of Erbil until 1952 and was busy with photography work.
In 1952, he returned to the city of Sulaymaniyah and established a commercial art studio for artistic affairs. In 1956, together with several intellectuals of the city of Sulaymaniyah, they founded the Kurdish Fine Arts Association, and in 1957, Jamal Bakhtiar became a member of the board of directors of that association.
On October 16, 1958, after Barzani's return from the Soviet Union, he went to meet Mullah Mustafa Barzani in the city of Sulaymaniyah. In 1961, after the outbreak of the September Revolution, he began secret activities, and began designing political posters and writing the headlines of publications. In 1964, when Ibrahim Ahmad split from the party, Jamal Bakhtiar supported President Barzani.
In 1957, he was a member of the board of directors of the Sulaymaniyah Fine Arts Association; he was a realist painter and a talented calligrapher. He began painting in the early 1940s; he himself says that I have been passionate about painting since I was 7-8 years old. At the beginning of the March 11, 1970 agreement, he was appointed as an employee in the Sulaymaniyah Education Directorate. In addition to his official duties, at the request of Franso Hariri and Sheikh Muhammad Hersin, he went several times to the political bureau in Galala and Nawprdan to perform his artistic work. In 1974, after the start of the war by the government of Iraq against the revolution, he went permanently to Nawprdan and stayed there. After the bombing of the city of Qaladiza by the planes of the Iraqi Army, he designed a painting of that crime; that work was an expression of the genocide of the civilian population. On the recommendation of Idris Barzani, 15,000 copies were made and distributed among the political and cultural centers of Iran and the world.
In 1975, after the collapse of the September Revolution, he became a refugee in the country of Iran and settled in the city of Kashan in Isfahan province. In that same city, he was appointed as a teacher for a while. On June 17, 1976, he left Iran and migrated to America and settled in the city of Bismarck in the state of North Dakota. He was appointed as a draftsman in the municipality of that city. During the time he was in America, with the cooperation of the Seventh Branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, several exhibitions of his works were held annually. In 1979, at the request of Arthur Link, the Governor of North Dakota, he painted a portrait of the governor, which is still hanging in the state capitol building.
In 1980, he went to the city of Nashville, where, on the recommendation of Idris Barzani and President Masoud Barzani and with the cooperation of several Kurdish artists, he founded the Kurdistan Fine Arts Association. There, he was the president of the Kurdish Fine Arts Association and throughout that period he did not stop his activity; his paintings depicted more of the scenery of nature and Kurdish life in a simple and photographic way.
During the time he was in America, he went to the White House twice. In 1994, he created a painting for US President Bill Clinton and presented it to the White House through the 7th Branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In 1996, through his association, he was able to obtain a television program in the Kurdish language from the Tax company in California and presented it for half an hour on Saturdays. In 2003, he presented a painting to US President George Bush.
Jamal Bakhtiar has designed more than 1000 oil paintings and has many line art works; his works are preserved in the United States of America. Most of his artistic works were destroyed before 1976, and only a few copies remain. He is the first Kurdish artist whose paintings were printed as posters and became a guest in most Kurdish citizens' homes.
On October 13, 1999, at the 12th Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, due to his services to Kurdish art and introducing the Kurds to the people of America through his cultural and artistic activities, by the President Masoud Barzani the Barzani medal was awarded to him.
The following paintings are considered his masterpieces:
1- Painting of Peshwa Qazi Muhammad and Saladin Ayyubi, Mahabad 1946.
2- Painting of a Kurdish girl from Sulaymaniyah, Sulaymaniyah 1954.
3- Painting of Scheherazade's dance, Sulaymaniyah 1955.
4- Painting of the Sulaymaniyah uprising, Sulaymaniyah 1956.
5- Painting of a girl from Hawraman, Sulaymaniyah 1958.
6- Painting of the Kurd and the revolution of Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1958; this painting was given to the Iraqi Presidential Palace in Baghdad.
7- Painting of the liberation of Baghdad 1959.
8- Painting of Mem and Zin in 1963.
9- Painting of Nazdari Jaf, Sulaymaniyah 1967; this painting was printed in a new way with the support of Idris Barzani and is present in the homes of some Kurds.
10- Painting of a girl from Shaqlawa, 1968.
11- Painting of village beauty, 1968.
12- Painting of the Armenian genocide, 1969.
13- Painting of Martyr Aziz Atrushi, 1972; this painting was created at the suggestion of Sheikh Muhammad Hersin for President Mustafa Barzani, but it was lost during the bombing of Barzan. At the request of President Masoud Barzani, this painting was repainted for the second time and is now kept by President Masoud Barzani.
14- Painting of Shirin spinning wool, 1972.
15- Painting of the tragedy of the bombing of the city of Qaladiza, Nawprdan 1974.
16- Painting of the Kashan refugee, 1975.
17- Painting of One Thousand and One Nights, Bismarck 1979.
18- Portrait of Arthur Link, Bismarck 1979.
19- Painting of the Gulan Revolution, Nashville 1984.
20- Painting of the path of the immortal Barzani and his companions to the Soviet Union in 1947, San Diego city in the state of California, year 1999, this painting was presented to President Masoud Barzani.
21- Painting of Clinton and the protection of peace and democracy, San Diego, year 1994.
22- Painting of the waiting of the merciful eagle of San Diego, year 2003.
Source:1- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board.