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Lot Essay
One of the most successful and popular female Iranian artists of today, Parvaneh Etemadi employs a relaxed recusant work style across five decades of artistic practice, emanating a sense of light while heeding both the exotic and mundane zeal and taste. Born in 1948, Etemadi studied at the Tehran University beginning her career with a tendency towards constructivism and abstraction based on European art principles at the time with the painters of the Ghandriz gallery, evading figurative art. However, when she began studying under the great Bahman Mohasses, Etemadi expanded her scope of practice that because inspired by ancient art forms.
Following her group exhibition at the Ghandriz gallery, Etemadi started the second phase of her artistic practice in 1968, producing works that were a synthesis of constructivism of her first period with a return to figurative art. Known as cement paintings, these series of works were executed on a rough cement base, comprised mostly of still lives that employed a minimal use of line and colour. Inspired by the cement walls of the famous art museums that were built in Iran during the 1970s, the artist's use of cement draws a deep reference to her cultural and historical heritage opening a new way of interpreting her works. Whilst they formally draw inspiration from Japanese woodcuts, their subjects - plants, bottles, and simplistic depictions of figures - give these works a sense of familiarity yet with their non-descript compositions, appear unrelated to a specific place, transcending any notion of time.
Woman and Urn is a seminal example from the artist's oeuvre from the 1970s that combines both a human figure and still life elements. Depicting a female figure with her back turned to the viewer and the details of her face hidden by her voluptuous hair, Etemadi manages to instigate a sense of mystery and sensuality using the simplest of forms. Seldom appearing on the market, Etemadi's cement works are rare jewels that truly are collector's pieces.
Following her group exhibition at the Ghandriz gallery, Etemadi started the second phase of her artistic practice in 1968, producing works that were a synthesis of constructivism of her first period with a return to figurative art. Known as cement paintings, these series of works were executed on a rough cement base, comprised mostly of still lives that employed a minimal use of line and colour. Inspired by the cement walls of the famous art museums that were built in Iran during the 1970s, the artist's use of cement draws a deep reference to her cultural and historical heritage opening a new way of interpreting her works. Whilst they formally draw inspiration from Japanese woodcuts, their subjects - plants, bottles, and simplistic depictions of figures - give these works a sense of familiarity yet with their non-descript compositions, appear unrelated to a specific place, transcending any notion of time.
Woman and Urn is a seminal example from the artist's oeuvre from the 1970s that combines both a human figure and still life elements. Depicting a female figure with her back turned to the viewer and the details of her face hidden by her voluptuous hair, Etemadi manages to instigate a sense of mystery and sensuality using the simplest of forms. Seldom appearing on the market, Etemadi's cement works are rare jewels that truly are collector's pieces.