A Review of "About Golestaneh" Solo Show at X Homa Gallery
20 Aug 2022Original text in Farsi by Tarannom Taghavi
Translated to English by Omid Armat
"About Golestnahe" is the title of Ali Golestaneh's solo show running from July 22 to August 22, 2022, at Homa Art Gallery's new space, X Homa. According to Hengameh Moammari, collector of the works and director of the gallery, the show includes the artist's rarely seen drawings and paintings created between 1975 to 2020. (1)
Natural landscapes, blue Irises on a red background, colorful jugs put on a table and workshop stool, a view of Toghrol tower and an old mansion, three portraits, two chairs abandoned on the porch, and an image of a yard full of trees from behind its fencing are just a part the artist's works presented in "About Golestaneh" show. The wide range of subjects depicted with different methods of execution, including oil paint, colored pencil hatchings, Siyah Qalam, and watercolor, suggests that the works are created at the moment of seeing the outer reality by appropriating and turning the internalized reality into a form of color, body, and light. Ali Golestaneh spent more than half of his life searching the world's artworks. The result of his thorough search is not a simple influence by the world's modern art but is intuitive wisdom in seeing the world and producing artworks. "In his work, searching has the meaning of wisely choosing a new viewpoint, digging to explore and use new colors, experimenting with different subjects and compositions, and going deep in expressing feelings and inner moods." (2)
Golestaneh always remained a figurative painter. Even when not representing, his paintings remind the viewer of trees, mountains, and natural landscapes. He adhered to the separating borders between objects and carefully dealt with the issue even with the flowing watercolor. The viewer understands the moment by looking at his paintings, just like in impressionistic works; the improvisation in the movement of the brush and what the artist is attempting to portray. A light cast on a building, vast tree shades, and the colorful world of hatching for representing cars passing a street are all events recorded in his frames and living there forever. Unlike frozen images of photography, Golestaneh's paintings reveal the atmosphere of mountains, sea, streets, buildings, and trees. The empty chair that he has painted is not just a regular chair. This magical chair makes the viewer feel the weight of the atmosphere and the memories of the people sitting on it.
Ali Golestaneh is a painter whose individuality is summarized in depicting his surrounding exclusive world: his personal world, interests, the porch and yard of his house, his favorite chair, the street, the natural landscapes of regions that he liked, and friends that he had painted their portraits. To create images of his world, regardless of new artistic approaches and media, he always remained loyal to his own style. This necessity had emerged from the artist's feelings and thoughts; it was not induced by the world's demands of the time. This is why despite having no time, his works collocated with that time.
Footnote:
1. This is the third solo show of Ali Golestaneh at Homa gallery. The two previous shows were held in 2006 and 2007 when the artist was alive.
2. Amirebrahimi, Samila (2003), "Freedom and Contentment in Works by Ali Golestaneh", Herfeh Honarmand, No. 4, Spring and Summer of 2003.