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Exhibition Details

13 June 2014 - 01 July 2014


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General Information

Name: Cantata from Long Past

Content: Painting

Date of Exhibition: 13 June 2014 - 01 July 2014

More about the exhibiition

The perplexity of Hajizadeh’s paintings may confuse the viewers or at least discourage them from making an effort to enter the world of the artist… and this is indeed reinforced by the lack of soft and pleasant elements in the works (that may in fact be a positive factor in them). The works generally have an “anti-viewer” quality. Violence and ambiguity (in spite of the artist’s precision to create them) not only disappoint those who seek soft beauty, they cause an obstacle in the entrance of his world for the exploring eyes and the inquiring mind. Yet, a more attentive look may reveal the conception of a painful tragedy hidden behind the enigma. And I will now explain the reason for what the tragedy is and why it is difficult to see.

The mystery in Hajizadeh’s work is mainly caused by his defect and failure to get across his message. He uses many forms and colors, but they are made ineffective by the disconnected and contradictory way they are actually utilized. It is as if everything loses color on the canvas, as though everything is seen from far far away and as if nothing has the power to expose or reveal itself. His ideas are poorly conceived by his obsession with delivery and this makes things appear rather eroded, banal and vague.

Knowingly or unknowingly, Hajizadeh recounts the tragedy of our hesitance and reluctance as well as the tragic clash of a sick mind with reality - and there is an element of honesty in this. He is among painters who do not wish to imitate others but simply attempt to explore things themselves. Living in the purgatory state of uncertainty to distinguish between right and wrong, can he free himself? The answer is not to be found in any of his latest work.

Ruyin Pakbaz

Hajizadeh confronts his viewer with a turbulent contradictory world. The world is an illogical amalgam of objectivity and subjectivity, materialism and spiritualism, naturalism and abstractionism, movement and stillness, heat and cold.
Seeking to open doors locked within, Hajizadeh is in quest of freedoms that go beyond. He begins his early works through an internal dialogue, and with abstract subjects, intertwined lines and colored spaces. They resemble nothing but the hesitant birth of a creation. He creates, but what? Is it himself, his surrounding world or a string of connections and fusion of the existent and the non-existent? I believe he seeks to create the “non-existents” intending to offer them life and teach them to “exist”.

Hajizadeh begins with lines and colors that rise from a weary inner surface but gradually, in his later works, considers his surroundings. Is there now an opening outside his confined inner self? He expands the trembling, hesitant, and disconcerted amoeboid drawings over the people of his surrounding, over nature and over life. But the nervous lines in his drawings do not conform to actual objects and people. Something in his mind does not conform to his surroundings. A foot outside the floor, a hand stuck in the sleeve or a tongue tied in the mouth; they all seem abnormal in our normalized world.

A man, with his worldly face suddenly takes the bulged form of Samsa; or a woman with only a pair of eyes and a body offered for pleasure. Hajizadeh shows uncertainty in the unanimity of his thoughts with the outside world. In his state of mind nature is transformed: an extremely blank space bordered with abundant lines.

People and objects go beyond their God given shapes, as though having a malignant growth; but why? The artist rejects the creation as it is, he wishes to add or perhaps take something from it; is he successful?

These are your observations as a viewer, as they are mine. If I make a judgment, I deprive you of your imagination, imposing limits on the artist and the viewer, contrary to what the artist has escaped from: a place under the control of fixed definitions and the restraints of lines and borders.

Hajizadeh’s message to dreamer is to simply fly high.

Javad Mojabi - May 1974

Artist

Ghasem Hajizadeh

Art Works