Moshen Vasiri Commentary

The Drawers - Moshen Vasiri Commentary by Julie Oakes for Summer Guest Curator, Pooyan Tabatabaei

exhibitions in the drawers in the gallery commentaries artists catalogs contact

Six Weeks Of Iranian Art

Mohsen Vasiri is a Real Artist. It is the term of recognition given to one who has found new frontiers in art. These are words of respect paid to a master technician. He is a Real Artist, a statement of fact realized through a lifelong practice. Reviewing the work of Mohsen Vasiri, I am impressed by the leaps and bounds of his visual enthusiasm as he moved from depiction to abstraction. He was evidently pushing the boundaries of his materials and by comparing the dates to those of the abstract expressionist movements in the west, Vasiri was experiencing the same sense of total freedom, divorcing his work from any ties to semblance, right in the front lines of the avant-garde. The changes flow from series to series, a natural progression of discoveries and with each new leap, there is vibrancy. The energy extended from artist to viewer is infectious. It is exciting work.

The aluminum relief work from the sixties seems to have set the stage. Vasiri brings together clear curvilinear impulses while still giving an intimate expression of his hand. The amoeboid shapes that contort in jagged repetitions of the sculpture from the 1968 to 1975 have an elegant purity that is carried through into the paintings. It is brave work.

Big sizes and complex compositions attest to a confident methodology. The work seams to be bursting with a mature humor, a sense of purposeful play. Then it evens out, becomes more spiritual in the muted colours and objective with the cut paper collage.