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Aydin Aghdashloo
Should art not
find the new and
the old together
within itself it
will surely miss
the gift of the
messengers of
insight, for
they are
daughters of
memories, and
memory is
possible only
when today and
yesterday are
seen as
connected.
Those who
haven’t denied
themselves such
gifts are not
many; few are
those who know
that history is
not limited to
calendars — it
shapes cultures
in such a way as
to form human
cosmogonies, and
becomes a
necessary tool
for constructing
a meaningful
biosphere by
cosmopolitan
human beings.
I
believe that at
least in the
current cultural
climate of
modern arts —
where the
dominant
tendency is to
stage a
rebellion
against the old
— those who
value traditions
tend to be few.
Aydin Aghdashloo
is perhaps one
of the
trailblazers and
at the same time
most influential
of this select
group. We can
say, based on
his oeuvres,
that he doesn’t
see the need to
follow
fashionable
artistic or
philosophical
tendencies of
the day that
invite an
ill-affected and
rebellious
culture.
“Emma Bovary is
me,” said Gustav
Flaubert to a
journalist. This
statement can be
taken to mean
that the work of
an artist is
often a
reflection or
outline of
his/her own
self. In the
same way,
Aghdashloo is
depicting an old
and dilapidated
door and calling
it “Portrait of
the Artist at
Forty Eight.”
The self that
Aghdashloo shows
us is always a
historical self,
taking form
within a
meaningful
landscape of
events.
In addition, we
can say and
understand that
this historical
consciousness
benefits from a
forthright and
ironic discourse
that employs a
disciplined and
consummate
rhetoric. As
such, I argue
that his
interventions
are among the
most lucid
artistic
expressions in
the world of
Iranian arts,
the way his
favorite poet,
Sa’di, figures
among major
classical
Iranian poets.
Emphatic
deformations,
obstinate
deployment of
repetitious
patterns in
decorative
forms, have
created rhythmic
layers that have
in turn lead to
rhyming
structures. This
requires a
special
methodological
approach to
technique.
Those in the
know will no
doubt agree that
a masterly twist
of brush can
show the
lightning bolt
of intelligence.
I mention this
to remind
readers that
developing taste
and sensibility
is one of the
pre-conditions
of this
profession. To
me, Aghdashloo
fulfills
requisites of
technique and
aesthetic
sensibility
seamlessly.
Art in many of
its
manifestations
is the staging
of a battle
between Eros and
Thanatos, an
unjust and
always inequal
battle.
Aghdashloo’s
works also speak
to this
thematic, but in
his more recent
works the battle
has become more
mysterious,
introducing
parody in
aesthetic
expression.
What is shown is
what is known as
tragic
aesthetics. This
is an ephemeral
beauty doomed to
death and
discontinuity,
of which history
speaks
endlessly.
Beauty standing
at the shores of
history, this is
what the
daughters of
memory have
brought to and
inspired in us.
Babak
Roshaninejad
August 2014
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