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Mohsen
Vaziri
Moghaddam
Autonomous
Forms
and
Articulation
of
Space:
Mohsen
Vaziri
Moghaddam’s
Art
Dr
Hamid
Keshmirshekan
For
seven
decades
during
the
most
crucial
periods
of
Iranian
art
Mohsen
Vaziri
Moghaddam
has
been
active
as a
vigorous
artist,
educator
and
writer.
He
also
witnessed
the
decades
of
radical
changes
and
transformations
in
Western
art,
including
the
eclipse
of
modernism
and
the
birth
of
contemporary
art.
Having
looked
at
his
vast
variety
of
artistic
practices,
although
it
seems
that
he
has
absorbed
the
contextual
preference
of
these
shifts,
he
has
deliberately
chosen
his
own
path
and
artistic
strategy
which
is
not
precisely
complying
with
any
of
the
pre-existing
formats.
Vaziri
further
played
a
significant
role
in
promotion
of
modern
painting
and
sculpture
as
forms
of
artistic
expression
thorough
his
teaching
activities
and
writings
in
the
1960s
and
1970s.
It
was
in
fact
in
line
with
the
earlier
attempts
of
pioneers
of
the
previous
generation
who
succeeded
in
formulation
of
modern
poetry,
literature
and
art.
During
the
years
when
he
taught
at
the
Faculty
of
Fine
Arts
and
Faculty
of
Decorative
Arts
he
trained
a
number
of
modernists
from
the
new
generation
who
were
extremely
influential
all
through
the
next
decades.1
The
decades
of
the
1950s
and
1960s
also
witnessed
appreciation
of
national
and
cultural
identity
coupled
with
celebration
of
‘national
art’
and
its
representation
in
Iranian
culture
and
art.
This
idea
was
then
manifested
in
the
works
of
many
modernist
artists.
It
is
in
this
very
context
that
Vaziri’s
art
seems
quite
self-governing,
taking
distance
from
any
popular
movement
or
tendencies
within
the
country.
Unlike
many
artists
of
his
generation
who
were
deeply
involved
in
the
issue
of
cultural
identity
in
line
with
appropriation
of
Western
stylistic
formats,
he
deliberately
distanced
himself
from
reflection
of
any
local
theme.
Perhaps
he
more
than
many
other
Iranian
modernists
has
avoided
reflecting
narrative
or
literary
reference
to
specific
Iranian
mythological
or
mystical
implications.
He
rather
believes
any
attempt
to
make
an
‘Iranian
art’
is
condemned,
as
it
would
impose
limitation
to
art
and
its
origin.
Although
Vaziri
used
elements
from
traditional
Iranian
art
and
architecture
in
his
early
works
in
the
1950s
–
reflecting
the
familiar
modern
styles
such
as
Matisse’s
Fauvism
and
geometric,
stylised
and
colourful
forms
of
Paul
Klee
– he
never
came
back
to
this
in
his
later
periods.
His
later
stages
of
artistic
career
demonstrate
that
although
he
has
never
abandoned
his
interest
in
modern
masters
–
Klee
in
particular
is
discernible
– he
has
moved
to
pure
abstraction.
Hence
abstract
values
of
forms,
colours,
lines,
rhythm
and
spatial
movement
are
among
the
most
notable
elements
in
his
works
throughout
his
long
career.
Using
two-dimensional
geometric
shapes
with
bright
colours
in
his
later
works,
he
created
various
experimental
works
with
the
use
of
various
materials
and
media.
In
these
works
(Sand
Paintings
in
particular)
he
was
influenced
by
European
Informal
Art
and
American
Abstract
Expressionism,
specifically
Action
Painting
and
its
spontaneity.
His
informal
material-oriented
and
gestural
works,
however,
seem
playful
and
calculated:
they
are
intuitive
but
at
the
same
time
are
intellectual
treatments
of
material
on
two-dimensional
canvas.
Vaziri’s
continuous
interest
in
experimenting
with
unconventional
materials
led
him
to
work
on a
series
of
rhythmic
reliefs
made
up
of
aluminium
and
iron
sheets
in
the
late
1960s.
Shortly
after
he
developed
his
style
through
a
unique
series
of
articulated
mobile
sculptures.
During
the
1970s
he
developed
this
approach
through
Fear
and
Flight
series,
the
colourful
version
of
the
mobile
sculptures
but
now
attached
to
the
two-dimensional
canvases.
In
turn
these
sculptures
inspired
a
series
of
paintings
that
marked
a
return
to
the
well-defined
shapes
of
his
three-dimensional
works.
What
would
be
discerned
from
the
artist’s
involvement
in
all
these
sets
of
works,
both
painting
and
sculpture,
is a
constant
appreciation
of
the
essential
theme
of
‘space’.
Vaziri
is a
sincere
advocate
of
modernism
as
an
international
language
and
vividly
promotes
this
belief
both
in
his
writings
and
works.
His
ahistorical
works
are
materialisation
of
this
certainty
and
his
insistence
on
formal
values
of
an
artwork
is
an
attempt
to
defend
autonomy
of
art
and
its
independence
from
any
external
agent,
being
narration,
literary
references
or
social
implications.
It
is
according
to
this
belief
that
his
art
does
not
depict
any
political
or
geographical
dependence.
If
the
language
of
modern
art
is
globalised,
this
art
is
rather
liberated
from
geographical
determination,
free
from
cultural
dependencies
or
local
traditions.
Creating
apolitical
paintings
and
sculptures
without
reference
to
any
ethnic
or
environmental
icons
or
pre-existing
formula
is a
distinguishing
feature
in
Vaziri’s
artistic
career.
This
would
be
reminiscent
of
the
most
influential
definition
of
the
concept
of
Abstraction
–
perhaps
the
dominant
aspiration
of
20th-century
art,
both
in
the
West
and
other
lands
where
modernism
was
appropriated
–
formulated
by
Clement
Greenberg.
In
‘Modernist
Painting’,
he
suggests
that
‘each
art
would
be
rendered
“pure”,
and
in
its
“purity”
find
the
guarantee
of
its
standards
of
quality
as
well
as
of
its
independence.
“Purity”
meant
self-definition,
and
the
enterprise
of
self-criticism
in
the
arts
became
one
of
self-definition
with
a
vengeance.’2 An
attempt
at a
consensus
definition
of
abstraction
might
be
that
an
abstract
work
of
art
is a
production
that
creates
a
highly
singular
and
effectively
unprecedented
visual
experience.
Vaziri’s
almost
entire
body
of
works
represents
this
self-definition
and
singularity
of
an
artwork.
His
works,
both
paintings
and
sculptures,
show
a
strong
sensitivity
towards
pure
and
autonomous
forms,
colours
and
articulation
of
space
that
accompanied
him
throughout
his
entire
career.
Vaziri’s
art
suggests
an
alternative
but
solid
and
masterful
modernism
in
Iranian
context
which
avoids
any
kind
of
nostalgic
return
to
the
familiar
stereotypes.
October
2015
1In
those
years,
he
started
writing
a
number
of
art
textbooks
which
all
showed
his
deep
interest
and
belief
in
modern
art
and
its
foundations.
2Clement
Greenberg,
‘Modernist
Painting’,
in
Art
in
Theory
1900-2000,
eds,
Charles
Harrison
&
Paul
Wood
(Malden,
Oxford:
Blackwell),
p.
775
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