Karim Nasr
Audio of the Entire Interview
Interview Transcript
Part 01
I was born in Rasht and then the cloudy atmosphere there left a deep impression on me
I grew up in a family that did artistic work in their own way
And maybe one of my lucks was that I never faced resistance to pursue my art
I was very young when we immigrated to Tehran, 3-4 years old
But, well, one of my brothers did calligraphy, one of them followed the theater very seriously
Someone else was doing printing, and in this way, I was faced with the story of the picture from the very beginning
I was 12 or 13 years old when Qobad Shiva’s work was in my room, which was still not that well known
I can say that the first job that I encountered and was faced with was a job from Parviz Kalantari.
I entered a movie theater and then I saw how strange straw was rubbed on the screen and it was very interesting to me
The work that impressed me the most was the work I saw by Farshid Moghali, who had worked for the Little Black Fish book.
That work had such a great impact that I wrote an article called Chale Siah Kochulu to analyze the works of Farshid Moghali.
In fact, I compared it to a small black hole that was so elastic that it pulled me into it.
My teenage years were spent with visual works that I could come across, and they were generally good works that were published by Kanon.
And well, the various exhibitions I saw, I painted, and my family was very welcoming, and my works were always on the wall.
And then I decided to study architecture, I was in England for 4 years and I followed architecture
Then I returned to Iran and took the entrance exam again and was accepted again in decorative arts
We were a very small group in the decorative arts, there were a number of our friends who wanted to discover anyway what to do with these visual elements.
Whether or not what you are doing is design at all, whether what you are doing is color or not, we used to argue a lot.
There were a lot of differences and I think that the same set, the same differences and discussions made everyone discover a way for themselves.
It can be said that I did not agree with any of them in terms of design
I don’t mean that my way is right, but I think that it is a special way
Because even my thesis was actually emphasized on the meaning of design
And the fact is that I followed, I followed the same impressions that I was drawing on the verb at that time
And the results I got were not negative or even positive in my opinion
The person who had the most influence on me was Mohammad Ebrahim Jafari
He was someone who broke many academic limits himself
In fact, the student realized that yes, as if it was going to happen like this
We are not supposed to move within the limits of traditional behavior and paint in the same way, we can work much more freely.
In this case, I learned a lot from Jafari and he influenced me a lot in this sense
My direct teacher was Mr. Mehdi Hosseini and I learned more from Mehdi Hosseini in terms of understanding the structure
But, technically, I probably learned more from Borojni
Well, seeing how an artist deals with color itself had a great impact on me
But I think I could recognize the characteristics of my color
For example, in terms of color darkness and lightness, my work is very different from Mr. Borojni or the rest of my friends.
I learned painting from the landscape and for the landscape I was almost always with Ahmed Vakili
And Jamshid, the realist, who of course joined us later and he was at Tehran University
But anyway, we were the ones who used to go a lot and work on the landscape
And we threw away almost all of the works that could be said, maybe 4-5 of that collection are still left for me.
And the discussions we had together there, the analyzes we did about why it was good, why give, many of the discussions we had were baseless.
But all in all, I can say that those failures made us have a very good experience regarding the expression of color and the structure of the work.
I can say that I independently reached the conclusions that I followed the story from then until now
After that, there was no post-graduate degree, there was no gallery either.
Mainly with the same magazines that existed, like Mihan Children, like Roshd, we did illustrations for them and earned money.
And there, of course, I myself encountered someone like Mohammad Ali Bani Asad, who also had a very active mind.
And he was added to the group of people we met with every week
Every week we were angry with each other, every week we reconciled with each other and we moved forward with our work that way.
But rightly or wrongly, these things activated our minds
I myself took the entrance exam again in the first course of postgraduate studies at Tehran University
I think it was 1974 and 10 years had passed, I went to college again, but I didn’t study painting there
In fact, there was an illustration course for a master’s degree, but they still gave us a graphic degree as someone who, for example, completed that course.
In fact, I spent 2 years there, 2 years which were not good at all
Because, for example, as someone who had done photography for a while, I had won several world awards in photography at the same time.
For example, I had received the Bratislava prize, which is very prestigious, but there were people there who I thought knew nothing about the story.
The most prominent person I met was Morteza Mamiz
And the interesting thing was that even though he said what is your name and I said Nasrullahzadeh, he said you are not Nasr?
Because my family is Nasrallahzadeh, he knew him completely
I said that I have a notebook in which I write the things I learn, Mr. Mamiz, I write very important things in it.
And I wrote one sentence from you in it and it is enough for me, he said what was that one sentence?
I said that one day you said that medium colors are conservative colors, this one sentence changed my color, the contrasts became much more in my work after that.
In the years after the war, when there was no gallery and we used to have scattered exhibitions here and there.
Or we made a living through illustration
But the publishing situation became so bad around 74 that it was no longer published at all
And the day came when I thought for the first time, I don’t know what to do tomorrow, I remember this story very much.
Because my money reached zero, maybe it was the only time I panicked
But it was surprising, I went home and the phone rang, it was Khalili’s cousin
He said that we want to start a magazine called Aftabdaghandar, will you take over the art management there?
I said yes, but I didn’t last more than 6 months there, but at least I was saved.
Part 02
The first works I did were about the city and in fact I was looking at the city from above
And although the work there is abstracted, but if you focus on things
And if you turn the work in different directions, you will see that there are different objects that have penetrated each other and are not distinguishable.
They create a cold network-like collection that I named the city
It quickly occurred to me that I am working on a two-dimensional surface anyway
Of course, it wasn’t personal at all, because I knew that this discussion had been around since the impressionists, and I naturally got involved.
I worked on the 2D structure for a while, after finishing college and maybe 3-4 years and I think I solved it
Little by little, the issue of the so-called critique of modernity was reaching our ears and that, well, anyway
We can definitely question all the impressions we made regarding the integration of the work and integrating it on the two-dimensional surface.
In this case, I tried for a while to see what kind of contrast I could bring into the work.
For example, something equivalent to green and red, which we also call contrast, can I do this in design or not?
In this way, I said that I will come and do something, and I will mix the two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces together and see what happens.
I think I did my first steps in this field in 1971-1971, which gradually had a volumetric surface placed next to a two-dimensional surface.
Since then, I have developed it in the same way
It was influenced by a trend that I think was common in Iran, and it is natural to be influenced by today’s events.
And all I tried was to connect these two so that I could present my position
For example, from the 80s to the 90s, it can be said that all my works are partly two-dimensional and partly three-dimensional, and they were merged together.
And now these include very broad topics, urban topics that I am usually involved in
People in different situations and different personalities, one more religious and one more non-religious
I was actually trying to show these with two-dimensional and three-dimensional surfaces
And I can also talk about the general people around me, by general people I mean a student, not Hassan or, for example, Manouchehr.
The situation of a student is a general situation without a story in it
After I started talking about specific characters, friends or those who had a relationship with me
In fact, their existence was shown with two-dimensional or three-dimensional surfaces
I tried to express the contradiction that I see in their existence, turn it into a kind of visual expression
For example, I have things that you don’t know whether this person is material or immaterial
And this work continues until now and it can be said that two-dimensional is equivalent to the mental world in my opinion
And the three-dimensional equivalent of the existing world
I think that the collection that was reworked after these, I again dealt with my position and those around me in the world
What is our position in the world now, can we really give an opinion or show ourselves as an independent personality?
Of course, if I want to be honest, I don’t agree with this because in my paintings the people are completely fragmented.
According to the definition of two-dimensional and three-dimensional, one part of their body is three-dimensional, which means it is materialized, and the other part is two-dimensional.
Some of them can be brands at all, they are influenced by brands
Some of the objects penetrated, which means that a kind of sofa can also be seen in the body
The last exhibition I put on was delayed because I had finished my work after 2 years
And I didn’t want to continue with the gallery I had been working with for 10 years
All the works, in fact, indicate a kind of coldness and freezing that has completely overcome them
I think the years that these things were done and of course I still think that events went completely sideways.
In terms of our social relations, we became more isolated from each other, our communication became much less
In my opinion, we have become much more insensitive, we have abandoned each other
And a kind of emotional coldness took over the society and I did this under its influence.
He found some plants by chance in the morning when I was running around my house
I found some plants and put them in the water and then they stayed here for a few days, a few months.
And then I saw that they stayed and are feeding, then I made a small dish for them like this.
Then my friends would come and see these, and then you know, all these stories reminded me of the first story I read as a child.
Because this cold feeling that was produced in me was due to the lack of deep emotional relationships
I’m doing something that not many people do, I’m keeping something that I think is rare.
I have a plant, for example, a total of 5 cm, and I keep it here
I remembered the story of my childhood called “He is still alive”.
It was the story of 2 village children who set out to go to a place that I don’t remember exactly where
And in the middle of the road they get caught in the snow and one of them freezes and the other one returns to the village to get help.
When he comes back, in fact, the frozen child is taking his last breaths, but he screams that he is still alive.
I thought that this is really like my own story, I feel like I have been in this series all these years.
I was just alive, you could just say it’s still alive but it’s really like I’m in pieces
Every corner of my body is somewhere and it’s living for itself, like I’m not a coherent whole.
In this way, I thought that the dishes I made for the plant, now I can make a person at all.
that the parts of a person is a ton that has been cut into pieces and now it is preserving this plant
Based on this idea, I created images that I used to work on, well, it was a portrait, it was a landscape
I did these things, but now they are completely frozen and like they are taking their last breaths.
I thought that now the bourgeoisie is freezing in shame
In this way, the works I did based on this were paintings that are generally bourgeois
They were commissioned by the bourgeois and are so-called works that are important and have the status of art history
And they are the ones who are at least frozen
In the exhibitions, the interactions of different people have their own special trainings and have their own special effect.
I can’t say that it will make a major change in me, I give it the possibility that the audience’s interaction with me will change me, it has never done that.
In short, I said that I have goals, things are interesting for me and I find my own ways
But definitely the opinions and reactions of others do not affect me at all
Many times it is possible to reconsider the way I am going
I used to try to make others like my paintings
I gradually came to the conclusion that it didn’t matter at all, firstly that it was not practical at all, it was not practical for anyone.
Da Vinci also said that Michelangelo’s designs are like pillows, Michelangelo described his works in a different way.
In this way, even Michelangelo could not convince da Vinci, this is also true for others.
I came to the conclusion that I cannot convince everyone, so I will do my own thing
There is no reason for me to convince others at all
And this completely showed itself in my behavior
Why, if someone asks me a question or if he is aggressive or asks something, I say, what is the reason for wanting to convince him?
I don’t want to convince many people at all, I know that he tells me something and 5 minutes later he forgets it.
My answer has no effect in his life either, so let him speak and go, I will remain silent.
I’m not always like this, but it can be said that in 90% of cases, yes, I am like this
I have even committed self-harm, I will let him speak and the discussion will be over
Self-deprecating to say that I hadn’t thought about that aspect at all, I think you’re right, let’s talk about something else.
I’m not saying that bitter criticism is sweet for me, no, bitter criticism will definitely make you bitter for a few days
But then when you see that he really saw an important aspect that you didn’t, it can help a lot
Part 03
I’m just looking at humans and I’ve tried hard not to offer solutions because I think all solutions have failed.
In a series of my works that I actually worked against the brand, those that usually have English writing or a brand in it.
In fact, it is a person who is doing an action and it is only part of the sensory work
For example, I wrote like I usually do, I want to make a sensory impression, for example, you can see the highlight of the color or, for example, you can see the quick movement of the brush.
I worked on the other parts that I wanted not to affect, for example, with an airbrush
This lampshade is completely airbrushed, it will not affect you at all
But the hand of someone who is talking on an iPhone or talking on a mobile phone is designed to have that behavior on it.
I want it to be clear from the contemporary person that much of it is just feeling, the rest is becoming something close to a lampshade.
Or parts of my work are 3D and completely highlighted, and parts are completely 2D, painted like a wall.
You see 1 person in almost all my works, there is 1 person to whom this situation happened
It’s like only that forgiveness is related to materiality, the rest is either an illusion or a myth or something like that.
Especially me, who totally thinks this way
Small parts of our existence are related to the 21st century, the rest are still left in the past centuries
The issue of religion is very present in my works, but I only examine it
I am not a promoter of religion, but I fully accept that part of our being is material and part is religious
A part of us is the myth reformer, it has not been able to get out of there yet, we all have this.
That’s why I have portraits, well, only a part of it is 3D, in the other part, you can’t even recognize his eyes at all.
It’s like it has become a mythical sign
As more centuries pass, people think less about each other, which means they are decaying.
At one point, our family was all around us and we had a good time
And now we don’t know about each other at all, that means we are disappearing, we are completely alone, why are we complimenting each other?
All people are me, now one of them is more inclined in one direction than me, one is less than me.
But I am not exempt from those reactions, if one’s identity is important, it is because I really want to know myself.
Although now I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to know myself
But it’s an interesting game for me and I’m having fun with it, because as the tradition goes up, your answers will be different, in this sense it’s a game, a game that continues like this.
My subjects have always been urban, which means I have always worked purely figuratively
And anyway, I am interested in the events that happen around me, I react to them and
It can be said that I don’t look for subjects too much, anything can be my subject
From a person who is sitting and I believe that he is inducing a history anyway, even the way he sits
to issues that are perhaps more social and involve wider groups of people
I am more involved in the design of that subject than the subject itself
In general, I think that anything can be expressed visually, the subject can be very subjective, it can be very objective.
A series of my works have general themes, in fact, like events, they do not have a story
Like Valiasr Street, in this street, someone is picking up, someone is walking, there is a tree somewhere.
I put these 5 together, I don’t want to say that the one who is picking is better or the one who is walking.
I saw this event, I believe that if someone comes across this, he can decide what kind of street this is.
That is, there is no need for me to say what kind of street this is
In this way, I can say that my goals are general events
I don’t want to turn my goals into a single sentence in my works, I don’t want to say that you can see that this man I drew is a positive and good person.
In fact, I always talk about a general event
Those events exist outside of me, same for others
They encounter an event, then it is experienced and analyzed in their mind and they find an answer for it.
It is possible for a person who is very religious to find a completely religious response to an external event
And not another person, prefer to find an objective answer, for example, look for the obstacles of this consequence in the community.
What happened before this?
I never responded religiously to social events
I analyze in my mind anyway, but my kind of analysis I think is a bit more objective.
In many of my works, there is either a bicycle or a place for a bicycle, as an example
This was because I never had a bicycle when I was little
My parents didn’t buy it for me and it’s like a longing for me until now
Part 04
Most of my friends raised the issue of color effect
Or, in fact, it can be said that it was brought up for all of us with many discussions we had together
I can even say that the professors did not discuss this story much in college, but it was very common among my friends.
Friends who had active minds in this field, like Ahmad Vakili, like Ariasb Dadbeh
There were 7-8 of us, almost all of whom are active now, and this discussion was brought up to us more at the faculty level
But the fact is that I think that in terms of color, I have a kind of use of color
In the sense that everything I did was not in accordance with academic education
I did thousands of things in the landscape, there were other friends and we were together
I made the conclusions that way, that is, assume that I didn’t follow Etan’s color because I didn’t accept Islaq and I thought that his period had passed.
The amount of darkness and lightness of my work comes from my childhood, because generally the darkness in my works is more and it’s like everything is cloudy.
Anyway, I was born in Rasht and the weather there was mostly cloudy, overcast, rainy and so on.
It is not possible to decide on the color in advance, the way of working is that the colors are applied many times.
And if the required result is not reached, all the colors are changed many times
When the work is very colorful, I believe in color contrast
And not as a cry, as I think the contemporary world is a world of contradictions
That is, I am reflecting it as a part of current realities
It can be said that the monotony of life before that time has almost disappeared
And extreme contrasts entered human life, I see this much more in recent centuries
My actions are usually fast during the performance, for example, I put one hand with a pencil with color in it
The hand of all of them is stretched together and at the same time, and all of them are corrected together at the same time
Because this was another method of painting, in fact, they made a design and then added color to it
No, I don’t believe in that, I believe that everything should change together
In this way, it makes the action fast, unless I reach the place where I want that speed is not reflected.
In the end, the way to solve it was, for example, airbrush, which removes my own existence from it, from that part of the work.
I think that the goals I have, I can discover the technique like I have never used airbrush before.
But he thought that this part of my work should be mechanical, so how can I find a mechanical pen so that I can quickly get to the airbrush?
But I have a thematic conflict because I think I prefer to react to events today
I mean, I think my personality is such that I don’t act too closed
For example, maybe one day I would say no, I have to find a social response for this event
But if I think that no, I have to find an emotional answer for him, I will go after his affection
What happened that this event happened and I showed this reaction to it
I think that when I leave myself open, it is always possible to find a new answer to a new event
Even if this event has happened in a completely similar way before
In this case, the new answer means that you have a new topic for the same event
I think the most important problem of any painting is design, how to show things
First, find out how he thinks about things, because it is a problem for you to sit down and say to yourself, how do I see people?
People have the same appearance, they are generally similar, but I don’t see people like that at all
For example, I think that some of them have a defect that is not visible in their appearance at all
I think the most important thing for every painting is to discover the issue of how to show this person, which I think is partially incomplete.
Because I have to do something to induce this
In this way, for me, like other painters, the most important problem has always been design
How a thought should be designed, how these lines and levels should be organized in the design to induce this.
The way I work is, I choose a topic that interests me
In this way, the goal is clear to me, but the fact is that I don’t know how to reach that goal, but I will start working.
For example, let’s say that my problem now is war or peace
Well, I know that ultimately the work should visually inspire peace
But I don’t know if I should draw a horse or a plane or a tree in peace, but I will start to draw them all.
Everything that comes to my mind, everything that I think in relation to this, I start to draw and establish a relationship in this collection.
It is possible that many of these may be removed or other things may be introduced
For example, it happened in a big project that one and a half meters of an object was removed from it
I continue the work so much, I do so little and so much that I think that yes, now I have reached my goals, and I hold my hand and the work is finished.
The work is not engineered from the beginning because we have 2 types of paintings
A painting that is completely etched, the elements are clearly defined, it is defined that this thing should be placed here and that thing should be placed there.
It is even etched and then that etude is actually executed in larger dimensions
I have never worked like this before
I just set the goal and when I reach the goal, I finish the job
In this case, my type of painting is purposeful, the tools and materials must be discovered while moving
I have thrown away a lot of work because I couldn’t solve it, it happens to everyone
It is possible that the work will be solved after some time, and it is possible that I will come to the conclusion that I have to work on it, and I did so.
But the fact is that it was not as fresh as the first time
Now, either I have grown or that issue has faded completely
I come here every day and paint, but I have a definition for painting, painting is not just writing for me
That is, I read a novel, write something, draw something, and consider all these as paintings.
Because when I read a novel, I actually said that I make a kind of equation of how we do this in the picture.
I learned the rhythm in painting from Mahmoud Dolatabadi, I learned it from Seluch’s empty place
Where a drunken camel follows the character of the story and it goes into a well
And the sentences are written in such a way that the reader is breathless
It is completely clear that Dolatabadi arranged these sentences in such a way that you can hear the footsteps of this camel and this person.
And I completely equated it there and then painted it, so the rhythm should be like this, and I got the result perfectly.
I want to say that when I read Seluch’s Vacancy and enjoyed it a lot, then I learned from Daulatabadi.
Because it was also important for him what the rhythm is, what should I do to make those sentences produce a sound in the viewer’s mind.
In this way, when I read Seluch’s vacancy, I was painting because it helped my painting.
Part 05
Regarding the influence of physical characters, I think that if I want to name one person, I will name Ardeshir Mohassas.
He discovered what design is, he discovered what the effect of line is, and he had ideas, and he was able to convey these ideas very clearly.
I think that it got a very good result, I don’t believe that Ardeshir’s position is universal
Although I know that there were people in Europe who worked under the influence of Ardeshir Mohass, which is excellent but not universal.
It means that Ardeshir Mohassas is not bigger than Lautrec compared to, for example, Lautrec
Compared to Picasso, it is not bigger than them, but it has a very good position in Iran
That is, he is someone who was able to discover something specific to himself in those collections that were active in Iran
What does it mean when I say it is unique to itself? It means that you can see that we can learn abstract painting from abstract painting itself
It means that we should have nothing to do with what happened before, which I think is not very good
That is, Kandinsky did not reach abstract in this way, Kandinsky worked so much with objects and then saw that he did not want objects at all.
He doesn’t like it and objects were gradually removed from his work, that is, abstract was discovered in Kandinsky’s painting, it was not chosen
But we can now choose abstract painting, say no, I don’t want to work with objects at all.
I start putting colored surfaces and there is nothing in it
Of course, it is good, it saves the painter himself, but it does not save others, because he did not add anything new to abstract painting.
I think many of our professors followed the story like this before the revolution
But Ardeshir Mohassas did not follow this way, he discovered
We really owe all the teachers who worked before the revolution
Because at least they showed us that this story still exists
It means that if you pursue something, follow a profession that is not accepted at the social level, you want persistence.
In this way, we all owe them, when I say that if I had to choose one person, I would choose Muhass.
In fact, I am evaluating our professors in a global situation
If I want to choose one of them, maybe none of them will be ranked in the world
But this does not deny that we owe them all and that they were important people
Many of them were important, many of their discussions were important, but many times they were not helpful in my opinion
Pathfinder means that they at least help to open the path a bit more
When I say the solution, I don’t mean the key for our own professors
The key that solves our problems is not the problems that are piled up
I say that there could be a discussion that would take us one step forward and this mere choice does not solve this issue.
What does mere choice mean, i.e. to say that Mr. Kamal al-Molk was working realistically, which of course is wrong, but I am saying the common discussion that existed.
And because we know that the situation of the world is not like that anymore, we want to work in a different way
Now, for example, cubism is popular in the world, we want to work cubism
Well, this is just a choice, nothing happened in between
What happened here that our conclusion was that now we don’t want to work like Kamal-ul-Molk anymore
And we want to work like Picasso, what was the discussion?
It didn’t happen like this in Europe, in Europe these reactions were adopted step by step according to the events that happened there, no.
It was a reaction to an event, I want to ask which event did we react to?
I believe that there was no discussion to convince us that it is possible to go this way, we just chose
Education means that history should be passed on to you anyway, and you should actually be disciplined
First find that discipline, that knowledge will be transferred to you, then you can act freely
Otherwise, if you act freely from the beginning, you cannot produce art
That’s why the great artists you see have an important educational background behind them
And they slowly walked, learned and finally reached the point where they could learn everything
and take the previous one a step forward
I believe in education that children must move forward step by step
All the discussions should be done, the concepts should be completely open to them, they should see what concepts we use in this field.
When I say design, at least they understand what I mean
When I say color, let them understand what I mean
When we agree on common concepts, then we can talk
Then I can tell him to see that all these things that I told you are training, I am not saying that if you repeat these things, you will reach the goal.
I don’t know what you want to do with these, but these should be in your hand like a crutch so that you can take the next step.
I think this has happened a lot in singing now, right?
How many people come who have no knowledge at all and think that, for example, if they read in a certain way, it will be fine.
Then they say, look, we are freer, we are very free, we want to break all restrictions.
You don’t know at all what the bond is that you want to break
It’s the same with visualization, you say, look, I’m a deconstructed free person
I say it’s very good, but you have to know what the structure is to break it, don’t you?
You see, deconstruction has nothing to do at all, you just don’t know anything, the structure is broken
The structure is broken, but whoever says I want to break the structure, says I am breaking the previous structure, then I know what I am breaking.
And then I add a new structure to it, if you don’t know what it is before, you can’t break it at all.
Maybe you can break it, but you can’t add anything to it, that’s the problem
After the revolution, painting in Iran grew a lot and painters’ understanding of their own position and world painting became much different
And it became much, much deeper, much better discovered, much more serious and basic work
And I think we achieved a lot after the revolution
You see, before the revolution, theoretical debates were not so widespread in Iran at all
And even the academic work was not so advanced, after the revolution, maybe one generation could say that everything related to visual language was studied.
At least if I don’t say that they got a definite conclusion about it, they conducted a course, important things were discovered and they put it into their work.
They could express their opinions visually
Some failed, some succeeded
In this way, I evaluate the position of Iranian painting very positively
Although it is natural that in the course of our movement, unfortunate events will happen anyway
There are those who help in this field, there are also those who do not help
I hope that as the atmosphere becomes more serious, those who do not help will be left behind little by little
That aspect is really bitter, we know today that, for example, many events in visual arts are protested, painters protest a lot.
I think that if serious work is followed, these issues can be solved
Part 06
Art is very dangerous, so this plays an important role because it raises expectations
And when the expectations are high, you don’t want yesterday to be the same as today, you want it to change
Millions of hours affect people and change millions of behaviors
People get in the car from here and go north, they don’t see a single tree, they don’t think of a rock.
But they stand in front of Van Gogh’s work, it is a kind of meditation for them
And as soon as he thinks about something, be sure that he will be promoted
In fact, his expectations from life will rise, in this case we will participate in improving the future
The meaning is not reflected in the way it is in the author’s mind, it is not reflected objectively
I go beyond this, I say that it is even possible to assume that the author himself does not know the depth of the meaning of what he is saying, it is all acceptable.
Whoever takes from it in one way or another, it is acceptable, but he takes it in any way, he stands in front of the work and takes it.
I call that standing and pondering culture, I say standing and thinking.
Someone has seen another aspect of life and put it in front of you and made you stand at its feet for 1 minute
The painter’s job is to do cultural work, the painter actually works to save himself
All artists do this, they want to save themselves
From all the problems that exist, from all the barriers that are in front of me
I must be able to save myself first, this story is not today or yesterday, it has always been
Every artist who is working, definitely, when he enters his studio, he says that he is revolving around this studio now.
Azad is free, he has no conflicts, he says that I want to be the master of the universe and I am, in this case he has saved himself.
But the more artistic it is, it will help and others will be saved
Painting can have different purposes, but I must say that many people are completely against this opinion, they believe that art should not have any purpose at all.
I believe that this may be true, but I am not a fan of it at all
I believe that art can be produced with any opinion, it can be said that it doesn’t matter what the artist’s opinion is, what matters is how he expresses it.
What makes culture is how the artist expresses his opinion
I can’t say that this painting is fascist, and because it is fascist, I don’t like it
Carlo Cara or the Futurists supported fascism but are now part of Italian visual culture
In fact, the goal can be said to be a motivation for the artist to move
You cannot condemn the artist for the goals he sets
Because in any case, every artist grows up somewhere with certain tendencies
He did not decide to be in that situation, but he decided to be an artist
And I think this is what makes an important cultural impact
which provides an effect that can now affect another
But I think that art cannot be pursued for profit, especially material profit, which will definitely destroy art.
I am not saying that an artist should not get material benefit, it is very good to have material benefit, but if he has saved himself first
It is great if the artist saves himself first and then others take advantage of him and give him material benefit
But not that he himself has been destroyed at the cost of the fact that he has found material benefit
As for me, I think I looked at art very generally, like I believed in good art
Over the years I have come to the conclusion that good in general has no meaning at all
You can tell whether an art, a work of art is appropriate or not, that is, whether it has reached its goals or not
Traditional Iranian painting is good for religious view, not good for modern view at all
Good does not exist in general, if good does exist in general, then you will come to the conclusion which is the best work of art in the world.
We don’t have such a thing, a work that suits its purpose is great for that purpose
But it ends there, it has no meaning at all for other purposes
For example, if you think that Michelangelo’s painting is very good, then let’s bring it and put it in our mosques, then it will be very irrelevant.
It is good for the Protestant view, it is good for Protestant churches
But not for the oriental view, the orientals don’t look like that at all
There is a feature about painting that no other media can use
In my exhibition, I heard from a group who came to visit and did not know anything about painting
First of all, I told you to ask me a visual question, ask what you can do with all the visual possibilities that exist now
What is it about painting that you spend hours to finish an image that is in your mind, why do you do this?
I said, look, now there is a type of painting called action painting
It is one of the very superficial and wrong names that are given to many things these days
Because they probably saw someone, for example, spraying some kind of paint on the work with a special device
And its mobility is very high and it rotates around the work and produces something like this
They said, well, this action is interesting, let’s call it painting action
I said, but that person did not know that the rest of the paintings are also actions
But you don’t understand that act, wasn’t that person who was doing ablution and painting, not an act?
Why was that a religious act, a religious act is peaceful, you have to be submissive for it to proceed
You can’t be active there because religion doesn’t accept that kind of activity at all, religion wants to invite you to calm down.
Painting is the art of behavior and moment by moment the behavior of the artist with color, line and surface recorded on the work
It means that one day all of these can be read cent by cent
All the vibrations of time, history, geography are transmitted from the heart, from the soul to the hand
And from there, it is like a needle recording events in seismography
The more painterly a painter is and the more directly connected he is with existence, the less control he has over these vibrations.
In any case, this is a feature of painting and if this feature is lost
An important part of what could reflect the psyche of a human is gone
Copy a Rembrandt work now, why you took Rembrandt’s work is a historical necessity, isn’t it?
The fact that you can’t do that is a historical necessity because Rembrandt did it in a special situation.
All these are recorded, why you have this desire is a historical necessity and of course geographical
That is, all these indicate the history that has acted on your mind
In fact, what is important is the sign, not your awareness
It is possible that your awareness is completely false, that is, you have drawn conclusions from the events that were not true
It doesn’t matter at all, it is a fact that it is not true
Part 07
Whether there is a conflict between traditional art and modern art or not, I say that there is no conflict in terms of solving the problem.
Because both traditional and modern artists are faced with the problem of how to visualize what they believe in
The solutions are always the same, that is, when they master their own expression, they find the solution.
In this case, there is no conflict, the couple reached their own solution
They know that they have to find a solution to express this problem, the solutions are always the same
In fact, the tools are similar, the reflection is completely different, so there is no conflict in this field
But is there a conflict between traditional thought and modern thought? Yes, I believe that they are incompatible.
These are completely 2 different planets
The type of education that relies on repeating the experiences of the past, which is completely mastered by the tradition, you are going to repeat the old belief over and over again.
And the modern type of belief is that you should not adhere to it at all and do something else
As a modern person, you must deny your own education
And how are these two not in conflict with each other? are completely contradictory
Friends who believe that there is a conflict between national identity and modernity, because they take identity as fixed.
That is, they think that we came from a place that is stable
Apparently like it’s a stone that doesn’t change, of course stones change
But it is a stone that does not change, so our identity has also changed, isn’t it?
Our identity has also changed, yes, we came from another world with different beliefs
But little by little we have been polished, we have other demands
Our answers to existence are not at all the answers we used to give before, the answers to what is existence are not the answers we used to give.
Our answers are completely different, and now we have entered a period that has made our desires and goals different.
We are not the kind of people who think that we have to answer the same questions even now, those questions have changed at all
That is to say, I believe that when our task with modernity became clear, our inevitability became clear
The answers we will give to the tradition will be completely different from today
And then we will be completely convinced that the answer is the same
Because they did this in Europe, the same thing happened in Europe
Take your position on Christianity. From the 12th century to the 20th century, every century was different
Everyone was convinced that yes, it was like this at all, we had misunderstood Christ
Painting came to Iran for the first time, in fact, a type of Byzantine painting came to Iran
And the first Iranian Islamic paintings were made under the influence of Byzantium and with almost the same shape and image
The cut lines that were very, very common in Byzantine painting and rightly so
So, the beginning of Iranian painting was actually influenced by a kind of religious painting, there is no doubt about that
But slowly, as several centuries pass, the issue will be resolved, as you can see that the type of view of a Muslim is different from the type of view of Christianity.
Therefore, the painting itself must also be different, and slowly the curved lines in Iranian painting became more and more
In fact, in Islamic painting, that religious view was replaced by another type of religious view, it was adapted
And they went completely right, that is, they changed the type of design, changed the type of color, and changed the type of composition.
For example, in Iranian paintings, the elements rotate around each other in a circle, while in Byzantine paintings they are horizontal or vertical.
The characteristic of Islamic art is that its performer must be a Muslim
Not that he only prays and does his deeds, no
He has come to the teaching of religion that says don’t be so dependent on the material world to be able to make an Islamic work of art.
See, for example, the first level Islamic paintings you see, you do not see any material elements in them, everything is 2-dimensional.
Implicit metaphors to something similar to a human, which is very different from the human you see around you.
Maybe this is a reference to what I have from this world, but all material things have been taken away from him
You have no similar experience when you look at a good Islamic work
Now they hold exhibitions as Islamic painting
For example, see the way women sit, which is worked with, for example, a miniature style
See, doesn’t that type of sitting remind you of certain sittings that you experienced before?
In this case, this type of painting is inviting you to this world
If that type of painting invites you to another world
They really approached the religious teachings with their heart and soul in visual language and through that they reflected their own point of view.
In my works, I try to say that this visual expression came from somewhere
And now I am in another situation and now both of these are working on me
So, I definitely have an opinion about the past, but I do not believe that reflecting this solution of the past can work in the current situation.
For example, if I put a slimy in my work, now this is the extreme and worst type that happened after the revolution.
I didn’t do this before the revolution either, in fact I introduced the traditional motifs into the work
Patterns that were more mythological or completely abstracted
I think that this is not the solution, in fact it can be said that the solution of Adam that day is not to solve the visual problem.
They just chose something that is a sign of the past
I wanted to tell you that this is our past, but as an Iranian person living in 1340-45.
They did not show a solution for the event of that day, a human solution of that day
They just made you understand that yes, this was done by someone in Iran
In the Qajar era, when these issues did not exist, in fact, European printing presses entered Iran and painters also saw them.
These discussions did not exist and were completely influenced by it
They said yes, let’s do something so that the dimensions are known, for example, people have volume in the paintings
They knew that much and started working
The solution they offer is exactly the solution of an Iranian who is in the position of Qajar
It means that he has no knowledge of volume, he invents volume himself, he does not discover it, he invents it
He says that, for example, let me see if I want to show a hand that it is like this cylinder
Therefore, more light falls on this surface which is closer to the light, then gradually more shadow should be produced and it becomes dark at the end.
I mean, maybe I can show a cylindrical hand like this
All the work is done on this basis, in fact, this is the invention of Qajar art
He did not discover anything, in reality it is not like this at all, that is, look at European painting, it is not like this at all
Michelangelo knows that if light shines here, then it’s a little dark, and then it’s a little light.
At all, we do not reach the extreme darkness in the direction of light
Why? Because he researched, in that particular Renaissance situation, Michelangelo sits down and discovers.
Yes, this is really happening, he pulls thousands of times and sees, no, the end of the light is not darkness.
But since we are not in that position, we sit and imagine for ourselves, research that we do not know because it was not common at that time.
We sit and imagine and then we start to draw
In fact, we start drawing our own invention with our own limited knowledge
That is, Qajar painting really reflects the mental situation of Iranian people at that particular time
But later we made a choice, we said this is Cubism, let’s work like this, we choose this.
We didn’t really react, there they reacted honestly, here it wasn’t too honest, here it was just chosen.
In the current situation, do we see innovation in Iranian painting? I believe that we do not see
Because a new event does not happen here, I have to face a new event to give a new response.
No, it can’t happen, it doesn’t happen and it can’t happen because that event is not here at all
I can only give a new and new answer to something that is new itself
Here, events are always second-hand, the only way we have is to talk about our own situation, which is a second-hand situation.
It might be new because they don’t face this situation at all
But you can’t react to what’s happening in New York right now, and you don’t even know what it is.
You read a book by Murakami, well it’s Japanese, then you see how strangely he reacts.
You realize that there must be some kind of things happening there, very first hand, that I don’t see at all to show this reaction to it.
Only Murakami can show this reaction to the event that happens
I can’t show because I didn’t face that event, if I do, I might show a completely new reaction.
In this case, because the event in Japan is new, because it happened at the top of these events
There is a new solution there, but not here, the event is always second-hand here
Part 08
We always discussed with our friends about what the brief of design is
Some of my friends emphasized the correctness of the design
But immediately I realized what it means to be right
To be right can implicitly mean to be in conformity with something
For example, if someone said that your design is correct, I would tell myself that it corresponds to what is in front of me.
Or it’s the same reflection and that’s why it says that your design is good
And then the results I got were that even if they have this opinion, then if I accept this, I have to leave a major part of art history aside.
I’ll have to search more and see if I can come up with a definition that fits all of this.
Iranian painting should also fit in it, even though I like Iranian painting, Byzantium should also fit in it, Michelangelo and Picasso should also fit in it.
And then I came to the conclusion that a design should be much more than adapting to something
And the definition I came to was that design is actually a relationship between lines and surfaces, the painter establishes this relationship.
But according to the painter’s view of things or his worldview, the type of this relationship changes
It is natural that a painter or a design that has a religious view establishes this religious relationship
Or the painting, which has a materialistic view, looks for this relationship to leave its material impact, but this relationship must always be established.
The one who draws an identical body according to what is in front of him
Is this definition also true for him? Yes, it is true
That is, when I kill someone who is sitting in front of me, I am actually entering a known relationship.
The relationship we know as experience is balanced in the sense that if you kill someone who is in front of you or standing in front of you
And for example, if you draw the rostrum longer, the viewer will understand that this bone cannot belong to a normal person.
This bone, this organ collapses, then it says that your design is not good
Fix your design, that is, according to my experience, put this
And when you cut his bones in a way that matches his life experience, he says that your design is good.
Design is a product of the mind anyway, it doesn’t make any difference, when everything is being done, conformity makes no sense at all.
Even the photo does not match because something happened at the moment the shutter opens and closes and it is not recorded.
Or it happened so little that the eye is not able to notice the difference and we see its constant, but it is something that happened anyway.
This is my definition of design, this definition does not exist anywhere else
Without exception, the definitions are all poetic, they talk about the effect of that design
For example, they say that it should leave a good impression on you or convey a good feeling
that the definition I give actually takes away all those aspects
Because I came to the conclusion that, well, we have designs that work at all in order not to affect you.
And when you consider impact as part of the definition of design, it’s like you’re discarding that kind of design, right?
For example, let’s assume that the design of the Courbet is done so that it does not affect you
Because he says that my work is a purely reporting work, in fact, realists believe so
So I can’t say that feeling must be a part of design, but I can’t exclude Courbet as a designer either.
I come to the conclusion that what is common to all types of designs must be the structural relationship between them.
In this case, the design is more than the transfer of the feeling, it is the transfer of the structure
In the training, we have an alphabet that you should be familiar with, in any case, with what tools you have and how to look and how to see the relationship between things.
that this is the alphabet, when you see, for example, that there is a distance of 3 centimeters between my hand and my body, and the vision of a triangle is created
In fact, your eye is training to be able to see this first, because if it doesn’t have this training, it won’t see at all.
For example, if I make my hand like this, someone who has not painted sees my fingers
But the person who has painted sees the triangles in it, in fact sees more of its negative space.
When you do that, it’s a design exercise, not the design itself
Now you can start designing based on this ability
Yes, when you were able to do this with all the features that are in the positive and negative space of this
I understand that yes, now your eyes have the ability to see, but then the discussion starts that, well, now you want to kill all this? Because it’s all meaningless
I mean, do you want to leave all the darkness and light of this or not? If you leave all the darkness and light that is changing so fast, what do you want to do with the rest?
The light is not constant, so you have to choose, right?
And choice means what balance you establish, what is that relationship? How do you establish the relationship between this collection?
Or to give a clearer example, for example, if you want to draw someone’s hair, how many lines do you want to put here?
Do you want to count his hair? Or you choose not and say that I will put 12 lines
How these 12 lines fit together and what is their relationship is a design work.
Good design is an image that produces a relationship between lines and surfaces that serve their purpose
Now what do goals mean? It means that you can do something completely structured, but it does not reach its goals
For example, you wanted to make a religious painting or design, you end up with an anti-religious design, in my opinion it is not a good design.
But a good designer achieves his goal, for example, he says, “I want to draw a very material jar.”
In this case, he puts the surfaces and lines together in such a way that it completely conveys to you that this is a being that you encountered.
It is on the ground, on the contrary, it is possible for a design to say no, I want to draw a jar that you will encounter completely in the sky.
When it achieves its goals, it is a good design