Jafar Rouhbakhsh (Iran, 1940-1996)


Telesm oil on canvassigned "Rouhbakhsh" and dated "1992" (lower left), executed in 1992167 x 123cm (65 3/4 x 48 7/16in).
|Provenance:Property from a private collection, DubaiDubai, Christie's, International Modern and Contemporary Art, 30 April 2008, lot 188"Painting without color is like poetry with no words. I believe painting amounts to an expression of colors. Design in painting has the same function as words in a language, and color is the meaning that words can convey. In poetry, a poet lifts the words to the highest pinnacles of meaning, just as a painter gives expression to colors, revealing their true stature. Painting is my language. I created, as much as I could, such a language in my work. The language of painting is the language of color and design. In other words, painting expresses colors, in the same way that colors express a painter." - Jafar RouhbakhshJafar Rouhbakhsh was born in Mashhad, Iran. In 1974, he was honored with an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris at the invitation of the 'Fondation Maeght'. During his stay in Paris, he visited the studios of Chagall, Miró and Tàpies; yet he also gathered experience in the field of lithography.Rouhbakhsh was a key member of the Persian Saqqakhaneh School of art. work is punctuated by talismanic motifs which carry strong metaphorical significance. All this is done with an unequivocally modern and wholly abstract aesthetic. Captivated and inspired by the overt, spiritual imagery of the Iranian urban landscape, Rouhbakhsh and the exponents of the Saqqa Khaneh style, like Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, extracted the visual elements of popular religion in Iran and gave them a stylistic framework, synthesizing what once served as a heterogeneous ritual practice into a mature artistic language