A note for the as familiar as foreign' exhibition; featuring artworks of Masoud Sadedin at LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn in Germany
In 2016, the eighth Rheinische Kunstpreis art award was given to Masoud Sadedin and recently he was honoured with an exhibition featuring his work at the LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn in Germany.
In September, the exhibition of one of the famous and successful painters of Iran was highly welcomed in Bon, Germany. Masoud Sadedin artworks exhibited under the title of "as familiar as strange" discusses through an ontological study of the current paradoxical status-quo of him as an immigrant who is presumed as a stranger.
From my point of view, there is similarity between the man dropped out of heaven to earth and the man who has emigrated from homeland to roam. The Iranian Human has always been in movement due to geographical pressures and existential reasons. Once the destination had been India and during minor dictatorship era, Ottoman and now the West. Of course, life insurance and job opportunities have always been the most important reasons.
I must confess that I like Sadedin works not because he was the student of Hannibal Alkhas and developed another style, but since I have rarely seen these realistic forms of the contemporary artists engaged to inner being.
The origin of most of them is a photographic action and I am not saying that as a reviewer but as a person who has had actual experiences as a painter and a photographer. Painters like Khalili, Afsarian, Hamid Reza Emami, Taherpoor Heidari etc. all have started from photography with no intention to show the interaction of texture, feelings and design but the only of having painting tools in their works. This quality is not represented in their human interactions. And the result is creation of poetic works within a realistic representation atmosphere. They are subdued by the philosophy of theological emblem of photography as we are living in the era simple thinking while pretending the complexity. The proof can be found in social network virtual media. The innate meaning of this famous sentence "Reading this article, takes only five minutes of your time" underneath many of the posts in cultural websites and social channels, determine what I mean.
Watching this painting does not need even five minutes. You will see wall, water, old backyard, an old thing "¦ and you notice what is that. Of course, it is important to say that I am not blaming these artists as this is the current existing social condition and the dominant discourse which is imposing itself to the artist. The buyers of the contemporary art are not experienced enough and do not feel good against complicate concepts and pictures and when they find their intellectual destitute not enough, their presence in galleries and intention to buy will be lessened. That is the same in the area of critiques writing. Compare the article of Greenberg "Towards a Newer Laocooen" with articles of Pulitzer Prize winner, Jerry Saltz.
But you do not see that photographic moment in works of Sadedin. Although he starts with a photo, but the distance between these two media, from my point of view, is that very internal moment. Although his works have the same realistic form, but the image is a complete construct of his mind. It seems that the scene and its elements are impacted by his conception. In fact, visually and structural concerns of modernist artists are not important to me but the level of painter adherence to solidarity of meaningfulness and timeless internal clarity which I believe determines the function of painting in the nowadays time. In Sadedin paintings, human is the main object and the scene shapes in a blunt timeless manner. Also, from another aspect, this is the same connection of the historical existence of the artists to his era. Therefore, I do not see these two aesthetical experiences apart from each other, Pictures that are familiar in the horizon of history but strange at this time being.
From my point of view, he is a painter that transforms the images towards conceptual modifications in a process, starting with minor changes on the scene after imaging. Caring about solid material and living objects and considering both in the process of creating the artwork first happens in a phenomenal manner and then gets separated from its identity and usage form. This deep de-familiarization is the main difference in Sadedin masterpieces.
Masoud Sadedin, was born in Semnan in 1956 and graduated from university of Tehran in 1980 in painting. He learned painting from masters such as Vaziri, Shabahangi, Azargin, Momayez, Grigoorian, Hamidia and Hannibal Alkhas. He has been resident of Germany from 1984.
From my point of view, there is similarity between the man dropped out of heaven to earth and the man who has emigrated from homeland to roam. The Iranian Human has always been in movement due to geographical pressures and existential reasons. Once the destination had been India and during minor dictatorship era, Ottoman and now the West. Of course, life insurance and job opportunities have always been the most important reasons.
I must confess that I like Sadedin works not because he was the student of Hannibal Alkhas and developed another style, but since I have rarely seen these realistic forms of the contemporary artists engaged to inner being.
The origin of most of them is a photographic action and I am not saying that as a reviewer but as a person who has had actual experiences as a painter and a photographer. Painters like Khalili, Afsarian, Hamid Reza Emami, Taherpoor Heidari etc. all have started from photography with no intention to show the interaction of texture, feelings and design but the only of having painting tools in their works. This quality is not represented in their human interactions. And the result is creation of poetic works within a realistic representation atmosphere. They are subdued by the philosophy of theological emblem of photography as we are living in the era simple thinking while pretending the complexity. The proof can be found in social network virtual media. The innate meaning of this famous sentence "Reading this article, takes only five minutes of your time" underneath many of the posts in cultural websites and social channels, determine what I mean.
Watching this painting does not need even five minutes. You will see wall, water, old backyard, an old thing "¦ and you notice what is that. Of course, it is important to say that I am not blaming these artists as this is the current existing social condition and the dominant discourse which is imposing itself to the artist. The buyers of the contemporary art are not experienced enough and do not feel good against complicate concepts and pictures and when they find their intellectual destitute not enough, their presence in galleries and intention to buy will be lessened. That is the same in the area of critiques writing. Compare the article of Greenberg "Towards a Newer Laocooen" with articles of Pulitzer Prize winner, Jerry Saltz.
But you do not see that photographic moment in works of Sadedin. Although he starts with a photo, but the distance between these two media, from my point of view, is that very internal moment. Although his works have the same realistic form, but the image is a complete construct of his mind. It seems that the scene and its elements are impacted by his conception. In fact, visually and structural concerns of modernist artists are not important to me but the level of painter adherence to solidarity of meaningfulness and timeless internal clarity which I believe determines the function of painting in the nowadays time. In Sadedin paintings, human is the main object and the scene shapes in a blunt timeless manner. Also, from another aspect, this is the same connection of the historical existence of the artists to his era. Therefore, I do not see these two aesthetical experiences apart from each other, Pictures that are familiar in the horizon of history but strange at this time being.
From my point of view, he is a painter that transforms the images towards conceptual modifications in a process, starting with minor changes on the scene after imaging. Caring about solid material and living objects and considering both in the process of creating the artwork first happens in a phenomenal manner and then gets separated from its identity and usage form. This deep de-familiarization is the main difference in Sadedin masterpieces.
Masoud Sadedin, was born in Semnan in 1956 and graduated from university of Tehran in 1980 in painting. He learned painting from masters such as Vaziri, Shabahangi, Azargin, Momayez, Grigoorian, Hamidia and Hannibal Alkhas. He has been resident of Germany from 1984.