Muslim artist Mahbuba Maqsoodi makes history in Germany – DW – 12/01/2024

We meet Mahbuba Maqsoodi in her Munich studio, sitting among sketches and colorful mockup drawings. One of this year’s special Christmas postage stamps issued in Germany features one of her artworks. “I’m happy. I feel honored,” she told DW.

Maqsoodi says that while making art, she “always tries to stimulate ideas and encourage the viewer towards contemplation, and also reflection, to move them. In this case, with respect to the subject of birth. It would be nice if this stamp made people think about this heavenly light again.”

She was unaware that she is the first female artist ever to be chosen for the special Christmas stamp — and that it is also the first contemporary artwork to be featured.

In fact, since the German postal service Deutsche Post began issuing Christmas stamps in 1969, they have never printed an image by a living contemporary artist, nor an artwork by a woman. So this is a milestone in both respects.

Vanishing point: A murder in Herat, Afghanistan

Mahbuba Maqsoodi, now 67, was born in the western Afghan city of Herat. As an adult, she worked there as a secondary school teacher. Her sister Afifa ran the city’s largest girls’ school — and was shot dead on the street by an Islamist in 1979.

Following the killing, Maqsoodi quickly left the country with her husband, Fazl Maqsoodi. She moved to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in Russia, where she had received an art scholarship. After graduating, it was impossible for Maqsoodi to return home to Afghanistan due to the civil war.

The Maqsoodis and their two young sons arrived in Munich in 1994 as refugees, and were quickly granted asylum. They have long been German citizens, “But my foundation is Afghanistan — the early years,” she says. “That was instilled in me.”

In Munich, Maqsoodi’s artistry was discovered by experts working in glass workshops. They encouraged her to start designing stained glass windows for churches. That eventually led to her shaping one of the most spectacular modern art projects in German ecclesiastical spaces in recent years, at the Tholey Benedictine Abbey, in the federal state of Saarland.

The 13th-century abbey is Germany’s oldest monastery. Once dark and sooty, its monks undertook a 15-year-long renovation, and it is once again shining.

The abbey church’s most important elements are its stained glass windows, which characterize the interior space. Three were designed by Germany’s world-famous artist, Gerhard Richter and Maqsoodi designed 29 of them.

Her colors now dominate the nave of the church. This outstanding glass artist’s work was practically unknown in Germany before the project, even though she had already produced commissioned window designs in the US — in Tennessee, Texas and Nebraska — and for a church in Austria.

Following the completion of the Tholey Abbey church windows, Maqsoodi has become better known in Germany and has been engaged to complete stained glass windows for other churches and church institutions.

‘Heavenly light’

Maqsoodi is Muslim — and an avowed humanist. She paints for all people, regardless of their religious beliefs. For her, the “Christmas window” of the Tholey Abbey church series — now just five years old — is an image of “heavenly light.” It is this window that was chosen for the special Christmas stamp. “The path of interpretation is free. That’s the beauty of any artwork,” she says.

Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance has been the official issuer of stamps in this country since 1995. The Protestant Church alternates annually with the Catholic Church in proposing a motif to the Ministry. Two years ago, it contacted Maqsoodi to ask if it could recommend the Tholey “Christmas window” as a motif.

Following her approval, the massive image of the window which is more than four meters tall, was reduced to the stamp size by graphic designers Susanne Wustmann and Dieter Ziegenfeuter, whose practice is based in Dortmund.

Maqsoodi’s typically powerful colors and the image’s dynamic scene are clearly visible in the tiny stamp format. She was certain the large design would translate well to the smaller format because she always considers different vantage points while working: “So that you can view a work up close and also from far away — and it is still effective.”

Over the past ten years, the special Christmas stamp has had a circulation of between 2 to 4 million. “It would be great if this stamp would encourage people to become re-engaged with this heavenly light,” says the artist. “And perhaps they will also visit Tholey and experience the complete cycle of artworks, to see the windows in all their glory, and be touched by them.”

Maqsoodi hopes her own life and work will also be an inspiration to young artists who have recently come to Germany, including those from crisis regions. “Art is my language and medium — which is why I have never given up hope,” she says. “Carrying several cultures within you, and being open to them, is a wonderful asset.”

This article was originally written in German.

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