Jawad Saleem was born in 1919 in Ankara to an Iraqi family. He began his artistic education in Baghdad before continuing his studies in Paris and Rome, ultimately completing his training at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, where European modernism had a profound influence on his artistic development.

After returning to Iraq, Saleem became head of the Sculpture Department at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. Drawing on the artistic heritage of ancient Mesopotamia, he sought to create a distinctly modern visual language for Iraqi art. In 1951, he co-founded the Baghdad Modern Art Group, a landmark movement in the development of modern Iraqi art. His international reputation grew in 1952, when he became the only Arab artist to participate in a major exhibition at the Tate Gallery in London.

Jawad Saleem is best known for the Nasb al-Hurriyah (Freedom Monument), commissioned after the 1958 Iraqi Revolution. Combining the story of the revolution with visual elements inspired by Assyrian and Babylonian art, the monument has become one of the most iconic symbols of modern Iraqi art.