The exhibition ‘Steel and Silk: Comic Reflections’, featuring the works of Kambiz Derambakhsh and the late Ardeshir Mohasses is underway at Shirin Art Gallery in New York.
The exhibit, which opened on Dec. 10, brings together works of Iran’s prominent cartoonist, Derambakhsh, and Mohasses, who was a leading satirist. Their different styles have influenced decades of Iranian comic and satire. Referenced to the Qajar era, their artworks are symbiotic in dialogue to reflect the struggles of oppression, Honaronline reported.
The display features a range of works of both artists, including pieces from the Ardeshir Mohasses Trust, an educational, cultural, and charity established to honor his works, which explore social issues and individual predicament, through the comic lens. They allude to more specific events and figures, historical and contemporary, eastern and western.
Mohasess describes the experience of life in diaspora through his works. The figures are etched in energetic and caustic lines. Contemporary history of Iran takes the form of a collage that narrates the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Through the burdened, caricatured figures, he whimsically reflects on the nature of the revolution.
Derambakhsh’s careful and clean cartoons are about wandering through obscure space, where the subjects exist in a geographical void. They suggest a sense of universality as they question relationships between humans.
A skillful observer, he points to the flaws of society through sarcasm, wit and jest. His cartoons feature minimal, decisive lines, with an absence of detail and ornamentation. Derambakhsh gives the simplest image, and the widest space to breathe.
“My stories are short and will not take much time from you. Through minimum lines, a big concept can be transferred,” he says in an introduction to the exhibition.
A majority of his drawings are based on the loneliness and singularity of the illustrated figures. Derambakhsh masters the sarcastic cartoon by lingering between hysterical humor and hysterical fear.
The show runs through January 2, 2016.
Leading Illustrator
Derambakhsh, 73, has worked for four decades as a leading cartoonist, graphic designer, and illustrator. He is the recipient of France’s highest decoration, the Order of Legion d’Honneur. He was also honored at 2008’s Aydin Dogan International Cartoon Competition in Istanbul.
He has written and compiled a number of books, including the self-titled ‘Kambiz’, and ‘Without Words’, published in Italy and Iran, respectively. His works have been displayed at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts; Caricature & Cartoon Museum, Basel, Switzerland; Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Japan; Cartoon Museum, Istanbul, Turkey; and the Museum of Cartoon Art and Caricature, Warsaw, Poland.
Mohasses, (1938-2008), established a career as a satirist for nearly six decades. His first published work was in 1951. His work in multiple anthologies, have been shown in several international exhibitions, including the 2008 retrospective at Asia Society in New York.
Columbia University and The American Institute of Graphic Arts, both in New York have exhibited his works, besides the Persian Arts Foundation, Los Angeles; the Louvre and Musee d’Art Moderne, both Paris; Musee des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux, France, international art fairs in Basel, Switzerland, and Dubai Modern in the UAE.
