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Resurgir
Khosro Berahmandi
From October 4 until November 16 2008
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1. Le dernier hymne
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The MEKIC Gallery, which hosted Iranian artist Khosro Berahmandi last year with the exhibit Argile étincelante (Sparkling Clay), offers an opportunity to rediscover him with his new exhibit Resurgir (Re-emergence). Last year, the Earth shone under the dazzling, magical strokes of Khosro’s brushes. This time, the artist presents a spring-like collection of colors and forms, a renaissance of nature’s vital forces bursting on the canvas with great strength and passion. Influenced as much by Paterson Ewen and Norval Morrisseau as by Indonesian pictorial art from the 11th to 16th centuries, the creative work of Khosro Berahmandi demonstrates an original aesthetic that immerses the spectator in an infinite maze of enigmatic creatures that question and fascinate the eye.
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n fact, Khosro’s work is the reflection of his life path. One can discern multiple influences in his work, from the rich Persian tradition of his childhood in Iran, to lessons gathered during his travels in Italy and France and his years of study in Ontario. At the convergence of these influences, Khosro Berhamandi’s paintings weave ties between the classical East and the contemporary West, between the tradition of miniatures and the exuberance of abstract art, between the square motifs of traditional tapestry and the fantastical creatures that populate his paintings.
One can even sense, here and there, the influence of the genius of the Italian renaissance which profoundly marked Khosro when he stayed in Rome. Are the curves of those feminine bodies reminiscent of the callipygian goddesses of the great Masters? Or is it not rather his so particular use of golds and reds to illuminate his scenes which evoke the same delicate use of colors by his illustrious predecessors? Beyond fantastical appearances, there is something eminently classical in Khosro’s paintings.
Indeed, the artist has reached an obvious maturity, characterized by a perfect mastery of composition, a goldsmith’s precision in the fineness of the line and the assertion of the recurrent motif that appears suddenly again and again, while never repeating itself.
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2. Bête épatée
3.Tour de cendres
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4. Ondulée
5. Charge de miroir
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His unique style, recognizable among all, rests on his golden lines that meticulously contain the space to disrupt the darkness of the black wood surface. His omnipresent lines are as much roots as they are wings of Khosro’s unusual universe; they are like those threads that cross and intertwine to plait the motifs of traditional tapestry. They are the origin and the culmination of his universe, the unique and vital link of life on which everything hinges. A genuine leitmotif of his painting, the white and gold lines multiply and weave themselves into the darkness of our imagination — a fantastical bestiary imbued with the symbolic.
In that world of all possibilities, essentially populated with animals (Khosro deeply loves animals, believing that all living beings have equal value), it is the imagination that rules. Animals, the exemplary symbols of nature as it was before civilization corrupted it and the bond between all living elements, are the point of anchorage of each of the compositions of this series of paintings. The exhibition is composed of three “passages”. The first two, Vie de l’oeil and Iris de la vie, display a series of diptyques and triptyques inhabited by these animals whose poetic appearance weaves the thread of love from conception through birth all the way to the ultimate disappearance of the living. As for the third “passage”, it includes paintings that served as a source of inspiration for the multidisciplinary show Eclats nocturnes shown last spring as part of the Accès Asie festival.
Khosro’s imagination extends beyond the animal kingdom and transforms completely all the other components of his universe. Therefore, the moon that turns red or green according to its mood, but shines and bursts with as much ardor and sometimes becomes blue, splits up into two spheres that crash against each other.
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The bodies can spare a head and opt for an evanescent posture, while the flames of the candles can become blue just for the time of a meal and the candelabra on the edge of the painting can suddenly turn into a library full of tidy books. However, this profusion of imagination is not disorderly, on the contrary, it is framed either by a multitude of lines that surround and define the area of colors or by an abundance of multiple frames and circles that mark the boundaries of his imagination. Because if there is still the enthusiasm of youth in the artist’s work, it travels now accompanied by the wisdom of Khosro’s many years of experience.
Khosro Berahmandi imitates a naïve style with his lines that refuse to copy nature and prefer to take the audacious path of symbolic representation. Indeed, on his canvas what is important is not so much the merely figurative representation of an animal as the exact idea of the animal that allows us to reach the universality beyond the visual reality. In this collection, the characters presented have no specific identity, there is no specific historical reference. The abundance of details aims at freeing the painting from its particular features to better reach the universal.
In addition to striving for the universal, the refusal of pictorial mimicry allows Khosro to open wide the paths of interpretation and forces the visitor to dive into the pieces to feel rather than understand. He compels us to put our senses first before our reason. Instead of lingering near the entrance door like our coats, he wants us to allow ourselves to be swept away by the arranged chaos that he created. And to better mystify, Khosro entertains himself with the genre’s conventions that are the titles of his paintings. Rather than fulfilling the need of the visitor eager to find a reference point for his interpretation in the words found in the name, the artist denies us that semantic crutch and pushes us toward our own craving for meaning. He chooses his titles in such a way that the visitor is more confused after reading them than before; it is his way of saying: trust your feelings and dare to look beyond the black surfaces and the images and learn to examine the intervals and what is left unsaid.
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 6. Taureaux cuivrent
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