A painting exhibition of Iranian kilim and gabbeh, by veteran artist Shirin Alizadeh opened at Shokouh Art Gallery in Tehran on February 19.
The exhibition, titled ‘Sensational’, includes items portraying ancient motifs and designs of ‘kilims’ and ‘gabbeh’ and symbolizes the customs of Iran tribes and nomads on canvas, ILNA reports.
Pure and bright colors in paintings are inspired by hand-woven artworks by nomadic women, creating attractive forms in 17 modern-style oil and acrylic paintings in different sizes.
Kilims are flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs that can be purely decorative or can function as prayer rugs. Modern kilims are popular floor-coverings in western households. They are produced by tightly interweaving the warp and weft strands of the weave to produce a flat surface with no pile. Persian kilims include many types including ‘gunny’ (coarse), ‘suzani’ (cotton or silk fabric base), needlework, ‘jajim’ (two-sided flat weave), ‘zilu’ fabric and ‘gilimcheh’ or small kilim.
Gabbeh is a traditional type of Persian carpet. It is a hand-woven pile rug of coarse quality and medium size, characterized by an abstract design that relies “on open fields of color and playfulness with geometry.” This type of rug is popular among the people of the Zagros Mountains of Iran, including Kurdish, Luri and Qashqai tribes.
Gabbeh is usually crafted by women. Its patterns are of a very basic kind with only a limited number of decorative, mostly rectangular objects resembling mainly animals. In gabbeh usually bright colors, such as yellow and red, are used.
Alizadeh, 55, has several years of experience in numerous styles of painting. She has been instructed by veteran artists like Jahanbakhsh Nezam.
She was conferred a commendation plaque by the California-based Zia Art Center in 2015. ‘Sensational’ is her second solo show.
The exhibition will run through February 24 at the gallery, located at No. 19, Amir Nouri St., North Salimi Ave., Andarzgou Bldv., Farmanieh neighborhood.
