Museum of Fine Arts at Sa’dabad Cultural-Historical Complex in north Tehran has opened a new wing with an inaugural exhibition of paintings by a renowned veteran painter.
The new gallery opened with a show of selected works by Iranian-American painter Nasser Ovissi, 84, according to the Persian website of Onlineartgallery.ir.
Forty paintings are hung on the walls of the new gallery. The influence from Saqqakhaneh art movement is evident in Ovissi’s works. Saqqakhaneh took its name from the votive fountains installed for public drinking and congregating mainly in the older quarters of Iranian towns and cities.
This particular school of art took Iranian folk art and literary tradition beyond their original environment, producing a style of intermediary art incorporating western and Persian artistic conventions.
Ovissi’s works are characterized by stylized figures of women and horses. Visual motifs such as Persian calligraphy, wild horses and women wrapped in shawls are seen as elements of Oriental art.
Set amidst geometric patterns and decorative elements, his figures seem to merge in and out of the space behind them.
The trotting horses with exaggerated curves that are decorated with calligraphy evoke thoughts of the lyrical world of Persian poetry. Ovissi has his own style of romanticism swaying all the way between painting and illustration.
“My work is dedicated to the beauty of life and I hope those who see my work will depart with an experience of beauty,” Artnet quoted Ovissi as saying.
Ovissi lives and works in Reston in the US state of Virginia. His works are included in the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum in Madrid and the National Art Gallery of Greece in Athens, and now the Museum of Fine Arts in Tehran.
The present exhibition will run for two months. The venue is located at the northern tip of Sa’dabad Street but is accessible through the western gate of Sa’dabad Complex on Taheri Street.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints