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Lot Essay
As a leading Iranian avant-garde poet, Sohrab Sepehri was interested in the
representation and portrayal of simple life and as a result many of the central
themes of his poetry carried over as thematic bases for his paintings. Experimenting with various artistic manners, each with their own characteristic,
the highpoint of his artistic career came in the 1970s. Sepehris Abstract series,
painted in 1968-1969 and from which the present lot is a striking example, are
amongst his most distinctive compositions and comprise only of approximately
ten or twelve works, the majority of which are held in public institutions
including the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Fine Art Museum at the Saadat Abad complex. In this painting, as in his poems, the artists interest
lies with the simple, the serene and the ravishing. The viewer is exposed to
the emphasis on a two-dimensional space through simple geometric forms, coupled with the definition of form through flat, primary colours as opposed
to light and shade.
This seminal work from the series incorporates six coloured lines, a restriction
the artist imposed on himself, perhaps as a personal challenge. The harmonious
flat, oblique coloured lines, painted next to each other, are set on a plain dark
background, thus creating geometrical and rational segments - a characteristic
that is unseen in Sepehris other paintings. This structural development from
a flat surface would stay with him throughout the remainder of his life as an
artist. The thoughtful selection of angles and cohesion of lines in the Abstract
series eventually resulted in the creation of his well-known Tree-Trunks series,
inspired by a very rational yet abstract aura for recreating a very realistic tone
well depicted in the close-up of the trees.
As the shapes whimsically settle amongst the horizontal dark background, the
geometric patterns have a running commentary to his celebrated poetry - to
this end, his artistry lies in the ability to create a bare, explicit and lucid tone
denoting an almost musical experience. As a result of the artists constant travel,
one can also distinguish the impact that works from Theo van Doesburg and
Kazimir Malevich bore on the artists interpretation of spiritual harmony and
order. The present work elevates the viewers experience to one of pure artistic
spirituality beyond the simple depiction of objects.
The Abstract series of Sepehris art, like this work of the late 1960s, express
a link to Taoist and Buddhist concepts; their philosophies provided Sepehri
with the idea model in his strive to express in painting the same notion of the
undifferentiated primal unity of the cosmos. Within the composition, what may
seem an excessive abstraction by extension proves an intentional expression of
the Taoist principle of the inexpressibility of an absolute truth that can only be
suggested through abstraction and composition. That which is not painted thus
reflects the imperceptible, indiscernible mystery of unified universe and that
which is painted reflects the boundaries of our perception.
representation and portrayal of simple life and as a result many of the central
themes of his poetry carried over as thematic bases for his paintings. Experimenting with various artistic manners, each with their own characteristic,
the highpoint of his artistic career came in the 1970s. Sepehris Abstract series,
painted in 1968-1969 and from which the present lot is a striking example, are
amongst his most distinctive compositions and comprise only of approximately
ten or twelve works, the majority of which are held in public institutions
including the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the Fine Art Museum at the Saadat Abad complex. In this painting, as in his poems, the artists interest
lies with the simple, the serene and the ravishing. The viewer is exposed to
the emphasis on a two-dimensional space through simple geometric forms, coupled with the definition of form through flat, primary colours as opposed
to light and shade.
This seminal work from the series incorporates six coloured lines, a restriction
the artist imposed on himself, perhaps as a personal challenge. The harmonious
flat, oblique coloured lines, painted next to each other, are set on a plain dark
background, thus creating geometrical and rational segments - a characteristic
that is unseen in Sepehris other paintings. This structural development from
a flat surface would stay with him throughout the remainder of his life as an
artist. The thoughtful selection of angles and cohesion of lines in the Abstract
series eventually resulted in the creation of his well-known Tree-Trunks series,
inspired by a very rational yet abstract aura for recreating a very realistic tone
well depicted in the close-up of the trees.
As the shapes whimsically settle amongst the horizontal dark background, the
geometric patterns have a running commentary to his celebrated poetry - to
this end, his artistry lies in the ability to create a bare, explicit and lucid tone
denoting an almost musical experience. As a result of the artists constant travel,
one can also distinguish the impact that works from Theo van Doesburg and
Kazimir Malevich bore on the artists interpretation of spiritual harmony and
order. The present work elevates the viewers experience to one of pure artistic
spirituality beyond the simple depiction of objects.
The Abstract series of Sepehris art, like this work of the late 1960s, express
a link to Taoist and Buddhist concepts; their philosophies provided Sepehri
with the idea model in his strive to express in painting the same notion of the
undifferentiated primal unity of the cosmos. Within the composition, what may
seem an excessive abstraction by extension proves an intentional expression of
the Taoist principle of the inexpressibility of an absolute truth that can only be
suggested through abstraction and composition. That which is not painted thus
reflects the imperceptible, indiscernible mystery of unified universe and that
which is painted reflects the boundaries of our perception.