Visual Dialogues | The Book of Kings | Shirin Neshat & Fereydoun Ave | March 2019
Secret of Words
Mehran Mohajer & Sadegh Tirafkan
November 2006
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Total Arts Gallery at the Courtyard and Massoud Nader Present exhibition of Photography by Sadegh Tirafkan with support of Silk Road Gallery this exhibition is accompanied by photographs of Mehran Mohajer Sadegh Tirafkan is a persevering artist who navigates through time and culture in search of his place and identity as an Iranian man in the contemporary world. The medium of photography has become his main platform to construct powerful visual plays, using a combination of elements that he seasons sufficiently with symbolism.
The significance of symbolism throughout Tirafkan’s body of work comes from his Persian root in which direct dialogue is rarely used, but frequently replaced by symbolic languages. How do you inform a culture that has three thousand years of history, rich in tradition and essentially a homogenous and male dominated society? Tirafkan expresses his concerns through images of numerous self-portraits and portraits of friends. He once said, "I began photography by recording what surrounded me. Now I take what is around me in the studio and make it into what I see through the prism of my life and culture." Tirafkan poses himself and others in the studio time after time to explore the meaning of being a contemporary Iranian. Blending tradition, history and memory, he recreates visually compelling scenes that build visceral connection to his ancient country. And this is where the strength and beauty of Tirafkan's work lie.
In reinventing and revisiting Iranian tradition he is also criticizing and challenging his ancestors' long-standing authority. In spite the highly eloquent appearances; I see two hidden trends in his work, which the artist has perhaps introduced even without realizing it: a theatrical staging of all the historic drama of his country, all the painful events of which he experienced intensely, and a discreet journey towards a spirituality which emanates from his whole vision. Here, Tirafkan surreptitiously rejoins the mystical quest which remains, whether we like it or not, the key-stone of any metaphysical edifice of the Iranian world. Born in Iran in 1965, Tirafkan trained as a photographer at the University of Fine Arts in Tehran. Since the late 1990’s he has participated in numerous solo exhibitions and group shows, in Tehran, Paris and New York.
Tirafkan’s work offers an eloquent meditation on modern Iranian man’s relationship to his past and on his search for a meaningful identity in the present. Identity, history and memory have been central concerns in the work of non-western artists since the era of colonialism. Tirafkan, frequently using himself as a model, revisits and reinvents these themes in his series of enigmatic yet visually compelling photographs. He uses words and symbols to communicate with the audience and
Abstract & Lanscape
Mohseni Kermanshahi
February 2005
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A. Mohseni was born in 1960, in Kermanshah west of Iran. He started painting with Master Rahim Navesi before moving to Tehran. He held his first one-man show in 1994 and has come a long way from his humble beginnings. Landscape, traditional life and nature were always his main subjects to paint and after moving to UAE he found this passion in the local scenery. T
his exhibition would be an exceptional one in Mohseni’s career since he is entering a new period after 10 years of professionally painting landscapes and still life witch is still the close to Mohseni’s heart in a different way. Mohseni has participated in more than 40 solo and group exhibitions in Iran including Tehran Contemporary Art Museum, Australia, Kuwait and the UAE. Mohseni has won a special award from Tehran Contemporary Art Museum as the best Artist of the year in 1996. Mohseni has published 2 books, which are: 1. Nature in the painting of Abdol Hossein Mohseni 2. Painting of Abdol Hossein Mohsenis He is working on two new books at present.
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Landscape Painting: Dubai and Beyond
Nabil F. Safwat
April 2015
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Nabil F. Safwat’s second exhibition at Total Arts consists of his most recent canvases of the desert and the sea of the Emirates. Landscape painting is a theme that has always interested Safwat. The landscape of the UAE has been his inspiration in the last 13 years that he has been residing in Dubai. The dunes and its sweeping plains, majestic skies, and the elusive effects of light, are his most distinctive and fascinating painting subjects.
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In the artist’s words: “During sunrise and sunset (but seldom during the glaring sun of high noon) an event takes place of indescribable beauty. Momentarily, it reveals its beauty and quickly passes irrevocably beyond the veil. Everyday, nature gives us a whisper, a hint, an insight of its wonders, offered to us to savior. But if that intimation is neglected, it will be forever lost. In nature new dreams come to pass every day. As the sun rises and sets it reflects the distance at which the painter stands from his painting. It is a sensation, which is not easily explained in words. Words give only a general impression of how it feels. The mood of the ascending sun from the horizon and the charm of it declining towards the west are invariably mesmerizing.
What I see, then, in my head is what I endeavor to paint. Time at these expressive moments seem to slows down to a standstill. But then in few moments this is followed by the heavy darkness of night.”
Historically, the development of seasonal landscape painting was essentially mastered by the Chinese. Its scenic, contemplative, and nostalgic beauty is considered to have never been equaled or surpassed. Painting was regarded as another word for feeling, and for wandering in the marvels of nature.
In the West, particularly in Holland's Golden Age, landscape painting became an important subject for artists. Even Rembrandt, the master of figure painting, was fascinated by the subject of landscape painting. The stormy skies, the dunes and country roads later amalgamated to became an amorphous background and backdrop in his paintings.
Among the following generations of painters a new pictorial language for the landscape was established; gradually interweaving realistic and imaginary motifs. Today, the various motifs and devices, the startling 'independent' colors, sometimes, but not always, have integrity of their own. In some ways they are regarded as cultivation and an enhancement of that long and fascinating process of communicating personal visions, meanings and endeavors of the artist.
The recording and recalling these fleeting images in Safwat’s painting enhances the indulgent eye and provides the basis to enduring aesthetic experience. “To record what I saw in those seconds – flashes almost imperceptible – has been my task in almost all the paintings that I have painted.”
The artist, working entirely in oils, has developed his own style in private while carving out a career as a noted scholar of Islamic art and the calligraphy of the Muslim world as a celebrated author, broadcaster and lecturer on Islamic art history.
Safwat studied fine arts and art history in the US, and received his PhD in Islamic art history from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. He has written extensively on the subject of calligraphy. His published books are: The Art of the Pen, The Harmony of Letters, Golden Pages, A Collector's Eye, and Understanding Calligraphy.
