Ali Banisadr

Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Milan
Acquired from the above by the present owner 

Milan, Galleria Monica De Cardenas, Visions: Ali Banisadr, Jules de Balincourt, Tomory Dodge, Barnaby Furnas, Ryan Mosley, September - December 2011, p. 10, illustrated in colour 

Exh, Cat, London, Blain|Southern, Ali Banisadr: One Hundred and Twenty Five Paintings, London, 2015, p. 136, illustrated in colour 

This work is in very good condition. The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate with the overall tonality being softer in the original work.
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"There is always motion in the work. I don't like paintings to be still nor have a central point. I want the eyes to keep moving around the work, for there to be time for it to unveil itself...I have a relationship with Persian miniatures too, whereby the work becomes more of an experience as if looking at it under a microscope, moving through the painting to discover different things.  That's what I like in literature–to read something and to be taken to more than just one particular time, place and argument...Between chaos and order; I try to create order out of the chaos.  It begins chaotic and all the figures emerge later." Ali Banisadr, 2015

Ali Banisadr’s wondrous masterpieces engage the beholder in a visual feast of rich color and compositional complexity.  Divinely ethereal and chaotically intoxicating, the artist’s works inspire and reward the viewer. Instead of arranging the work with a central focus point, Banisadr paints decisively to ensure the viewer’s gaze scans across the work. He creates a divine realm through intrepid brushstrokes and delicate detailing that generate an intricate narrative upon each canvas, which emboldens his audience to contemplate the work both in its meticulous rendering of each element and through its cohesion as a comprehensive whole. The artist successfully captures and transmits feelings from his memories as a refugee from the Iran-Iraq war; his fantastical abstract scenes act as a platform for his visual remembrance and personal recollections of the conflict and the violence he observed.

The Shrine’s elaborately painted canvas encompasses various components to create a disorientating and opulent composition packed with dynamic forms, out of scale figures and exotic fauna formed from thickly applied oil paint and indulgent use of pigments and color washes. Amidst this luscious landscape, Banisadr's painterly brilliance sets the scene for embellished mayhem and frantic activity, replicating the chaos of the artist’s childhood memories of violence, confusion and loss. Rendered in rich gold and blue hues–colors often associated with paintings of ancient Islamic funeral processions or European religious scenes—Banisadr bathes The Shrine in a heavenly glow.

Banisadr utilizes the memories of his chaotic childhood alongside a keen art historical awareness that references medieval painting as well as futurism and abstract expressionism. The artist himself has avowed that the subject matter of his paintings "is based on three things: the history of myself, the history of our century, and the history of art. These things aren't going to change much" (Jonathan Beer, "Conversation with the Unnamed: Ali Banisadr," Art-Rated, January 2012).

Banisadr’s exuberant brushstrokes create spellbinding scenes often compared to those of the fifteenth century painter Hieronymus Bosch, an artist who created equally bizarre landscapes imbued with energy and dynamism. Banisadr’s exquisitely controlled brushwork and fantastical subject matter reference that of the Dutch master; while his extravagant textures and vibrant tones present an attack on the human senses, evoking experiences of taste, smell and sound. The intensity of the scene induces feelings of fear and passion in the viewer, encouraging them to interpret the work in the context of their own experiences. The Shrine, with its superb panoply of vibrant color and lively composition, incites feelings of displacement and loss as well as anxiety and excitement in its stimulating visual terrain.