نقد شماره 3

" گربه و قفس قناری" اثر کمال الملک

به نگارش احسان مالکی

کمال الملک در بیش از چهل پرده پرندگان را نقاشی کرده است و در اکثر این اثار به تفصیل به جزییات پرو بال سوژه پرداخته و با استفاده از سایه روشنهای دقیق ویژگی سه بعدی به اثر خود بخشیده است. اما دراین پرده قناری سفید با حد اقل پردازش و قرار گرفتن در امتداد دید بیننده در موقعیتی دوبعدی و ایدال کیفیتی غیر زمینی یافته و دست نیافتنی جلوه می کند. فقدان سایه روشن در اجزاء کلیدی به سیاق نگارگری و به پیروی از نقاشی ایرانی توسط ترکیب جفتی رنگهای محلی جبران شده است: برای نمونه سبز تیره و سفید در بدن گربه، قهوه ای تیره و سبز روشن در پس زمینه، و ابی و سفید در گلدان.

قفس طلایی رنگ قناری از دیگر عناصر مهم تابلو می باشد که همچون چلچراغی سنگین و محکم به فضای اطرافش دوخته شده و در تضاد با عدم تعادل گربه نشانگر ضعف شکارچی در برابر پرنده است. قفس در این اثر کارکردی کنایه امیز و دوگانه در بر دارد: از یک سو پرنده را محسور و محروم از ازادی کرده و از سوی دیگر او را از گزند گربه محفوظ کرده است. ظرافتی شاعرانه که کمال الملک به مدد ان  بیننده را از نظاره صرف به مکاشفه در اثر ارتقا می دهد. انچه که شکار و شکارچی را به هم پیوند میدهد رنگ سفیدی است که کمان وار چشم بیننده را از گوشه پایین تابلو به نقطه ایدال ان، یعنی محل قرار گرفتن قناری، هدایت می کند.

بر خلاف سنت نقاشی ایرانی نقش و نگارهای روی دیوار، مبل و گلدان به قدری خفیف کار شده اند که هیچ مزاحمتی برای جلوه مضمون اصلی پرده که همان تقابل نمادین یک موجود زمینی با یک موجود غیر زمینی است، ایجاد نشود.

 معانی ست در زیر حرف سیاه           چو در پرده معشوق و در میغ ماه

سعدی  

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تحلیلی بر دو تابلوی " فالگیر یهودی " و " رمال " اثر کمال الملک

 به نگارش احسان مالکی

 بدون شک تابلوی "فالگیر یهودی" اثر کمال الملک نقطه عطفی در تاریخ هنر معاصر ایران محسوب میشود. این اثر از حیث پرداخت و ترکیب بندی دارای ویژگیهای منحصر به فردی است که نشان از پختگی هنرمند و تسلط بی سابقه اش بر عناصر بصری در مکتب ریالیسم دارد

انچه که به وضوح به چشم میاید انست که کمال الملک در این اثر از ناتوریالیسم پیشین فاصله گرفته و به دور از فشارهای درباری و موضوعات سفارشی، به خلق یک اثر تماما اجتماعی با ساختاری واقع گرایانه پرداخته است چهار شخصیت حاضر در تابلو در ترکیبی دورانی به یکدیگر پیوند داده شده اند. فضای اتاق ارام و بی ارایه همچون خلوتگاه تصویر شده است، که چیرگی عناصر انسانی بر فضا را به خوبی انعکاس می دهد
نگاه شخصیتها به یکدیگر به گونه ای توزیع شده است که نگاه بیننده را به چرخش در می اورد. هر چهار نفر لبخندی بر لب دارند که به طرزی بی نقص بر چهره ها نقش بسته و حکایت از سر درون انها دارد. پیر مرد فالگیر حریص و طماع به نظر می اید و دختر جوان خام و ناپخته و به ظاهر فریفته پیش گویی رمال مینماید پشت سر انها زن و مرد میانسالی نشسته اند که نگاه معنا دارشان به دو شخصیت اصلی تابلو، انها را در چشم بیننده جذاب تر می کند. زن میانسالی که لمیده و اسوده خاطر می نماید ،در تضاد با دختر جوان، ظاهرا فقط به دید سرگرمی به موضوع می نگرد و مرد میانسال با نگاهی براق و شهوت الود چهره نقاب بر کشیده دختر را نظاره می کند

تابلوی " رمال " اثر دیگریست از کمال الملک که در ان دوباره به موضوع فالگیری پرداخته شده است. اما این بار در قیاس با پرده " فالگیر یهودی " سوژه در ساختاری کاملا متفاوت تصویر شده است. اگر پرده فالگیر را دارای یک ترکیب بندی دایره وار و چرخشی و سیال بدانیم، متقابلا پرده " رمال " را باید در قالب ترکیب بندی مثلثی، زاویه دار و کمی خشکتر بررسی کنیم. در این پرده سه شخصیت به گونه ای حول یک میز چهار گوش نشانده شده اند تا ترکیب بندیهای هندسی مورد نظر نقاش، یعنی مثلثهای زاویه دار، به خوبی شکل گیرند. حال و هوای این تابلو و احتمالا موضوع مورد بحث رمال و مشتریانش جدی و خشک مینماید، و همه عناصر پرده در همین راستا و کاملا هدفمند طراحی شده اند. برای مثال عمق فضای اتاق با دیواری محراب مانند، و همینطور حالات چهره ها و پوشش سیاه و سنگین هر دو زن از دیگر عناصری هستند که به خوبی فضای حاکم را القا می کنند. رمال نیز پیرمردی فرتوت ، اما با صلابت، جلوه می کند که ، بر خلاف فالگیر یهودی، به ظاهر از روی تعمق و همدردی لب به سخن گشوده است


در مقایسه این دو اثر انچه که بیش از همه توجه مرا به خود جلب کرد نگاه متفاوت و دوگانه کمال الملک به یک سوژه اجتماعی ست. این بیانگر ذوق سرشار هنرمند در بهره گیری از تمام امکانات بصری جهت نمایش این دوگانگی و تضاد در پرداختن به یک سوزه واحد است که او را در زمره بارزترین نقاشان مردمنگار قرار می دهد

The Art World Cup!


A while ago I saw a post on Facebook about an art competition where a so-called master had challenged another to a painting contest, or better to say a duel, to decide which one of the two was better! It struck me as a quaint idea.

Ludicrous as it may sound, it is amusingly indicative of the nature and motives behind some, if not all, artistic endeavours! But why not? If sprinters and chess players can have championships, why should artists deprive themselves of the excitement and exhilaration that accompanies any competition! after all isn't art all about seeking admiration! Isn't it all about Wows, FB Likes and Comments! Well you may logically contend that art is transcendent, cathartic and spiritually uplifting: It may well be all of these, yet it can hardly be denied that all artists, deep down, seek audience and praise in the wake of it.

I have a confession to make here, throughout my artistic life I have struggled to reach a point, high and beyond in artistic terms, but where or what that point is I don't have a clue. So if I don't know where I am going, can there be any enjoyment in walking the path? Definitely yes, I would say; It is people's admiration that spurs me on, yet I've often pretended not to care about people's admiration. Now the question is why should people admire artists. Is it all about beauty? much artwork that is being praised today is anything but beautiful!  My opinion is that it has more to do with mystery than beauty. the artist is the village idiot who is being emboldened by claps and hurrahs to go and check in the cave up in the mountains simply because nobody knows what's in there.

Therefore there is this unwritten agreement between the artist and the audience for one side to bestow admiration and for the other to foolishly accept it. The artist thereby has fallen victim to his avarice for admiration. In one word the artist has morphed into a praise-thirsty biped.

Thanks to Facebook, now there has opened myriads of opportunities to win admiration from friends and strangers alike. The more likes you get, the better an artist you are. But even that does not satiate our instinctive desire for praise. How about a formal contest where artists may compete against one another, beat their way up to the championship. Then national champions can  vie for the Art World Cup in painting, for instance, or any other field. In 5 years we can have our Art Olympics. Here are a few of my suggestions for various fields of competition for painters:

1. Speed painting ( the winner is one who can create the largest painting in the shortest)
2. Jumping over easels
3. Fencing ( instead of swords artists use mahlsticks)
4. Palette cleaning ( speed matters)
5. Running uphill with all painting tools ( exclusively for landscape painters )
6. Brush throwing

As you can see the list is inexhaustible and the variety is amazing. I wonder why such competitions were not organized earlier. Possibly past artists weren't as clever as we are, or maybe not as competitive and praise hungry! It's a pity the likes of Rembrandtt, Vermeer, and Rubens did not have this opportunity to become art champions of their time!

One Person Show in Esfahan

Ali Ghapu and the Shah Mosque in Naghshe Jahan square

 My Upcoming Painting Show in Esfahan


It's a rather chilly October morning in Tehran, and I'm doing this post from my studio apartment where I created most of my recent still life paintings that are going to be on exhibit in my hometown Esfahan next week. I am so excited about showing my works in the city where I started learning art about 20 years ago. The show will,hopefully, give me an opportunity to meet some local artists in an old architecturally rich city where, even, the lay person is said to be appreciative of art. The city is known to have been an arts and crafts hub for hundreds of years. The building you see in the foreground is Ali Ghapu, a 400-year old royal mansion, overlooking the whole of the square underneath. The square itself used to be a polo ( chowgan ) playgroud, and the second floor of the building presumably provided the VIP seats for the shah and his royal family. The blue dome in the background belongs to Shah mosque, one of the two large mosques in the square. The other mosque, that is located  right across from Ali Ghapu on the other side, lacks minarets and was mainly used by the harem residents.

Drama in Still Life

Below is a sample of the paintings on the show. My purpose was to create as much drama in a still life as possible, hence the dramatic lighting and the stark contrast of colors and values. I lined up a few apples against the wall and threw in a couple of tiny red roses to go with the band, the set-up was meant to look like a stage, and I did my best to give equally important roles to all the items. Yet the dappled apple with the hard edge along the right side seems to stick out as the leading actor and the red rose to the left of it as the supporting actress!

Dappled Apple ( oil on board )

a painting a day a story a day: Still Life

a painting a day a story a day: Still Life: Motion in Still Life It's been not quite so cold this winter in Tehran, yet it's surely cold enough to discourage landscape artists from...

Still Life

 Motion in Still Life


It's been not quite so cold this winter in Tehran, yet it's surely cold enough to discourage landscape artists from venturing out. So I thought I'd better do a few still life pieces as a color mixing warm-up that would hopefully lead to some large-scale figurative work. But I guess I'm sort of hooked. Just cant stop doing it! I've been experimenting with fruits and vases, and I think my next set-ups will probably include more unorthodox items such as dolls, shears, vegetables, etc.


Technically the greatest challenge, so far, has been the lighting: My condo is south-lit which means I have to blind the windows to block direct sunlight. Since the blinds are not thick enough, I usually stick aluminum papers on the panes to get something close to a north-lit studio. Next I cut a hole in the aluminum to let in a dramatic shaft of light over the set-up. The only catch is that there might not be sufficient light over your working area. But that's the price you pay for loving to paint with purely natural light. It does nit mean, though, that an artificial light source does not give in well to still life set-ups. Qiang Huang' paintings are mostly done with artificial lights, and the result is amazing.

Bringing out life and vitality in a still life is the hardest part, and one has to be specifically careful with that aspect, or the painting is very likely to turn out boring and lifeless. Livelihood can be achieved through dynamic brushwork, juxtaposing transparent and opaque colors, and keeping color mixing to a minimum; Just look at Schmid's colors in his still lifes. But I guess the most important element in creating a vibrant still life is the composition. Unlike landscape painting where the artist can only compose by taking up a particular perspective and there is almost no control on the position of say trees and plains, in still life, however, the artist can make composition-savvy decisions as to where each item will sit and why. The key here is to let the viewer's eyes move around from one item to the other all in a meaningful and previously planned way. There is no better place to learn that lesson than Daniel Keys' website. His compositions are so perfect that you never imagine they were actually set up.

The Herdswoman

This woman had a copper complexion and coarse manly hands, she was very funny too. She reminded me of my granny who died when I was 15. I still remember all her stories which were usually about the same character who'd go from a naive little boy to a wealthy merchant. Thinking back I still rejoice at how this character would rise to tremendous wealth and status all thanks to his honesty and simplicity. I wonder if those values make any sense today!

In an early episode this boy walks into a store and ,after handing in his money, asks for a loaf of bread. The store keeper takes his money and instead of bread gives him a lesson," Upon entering a place, first greet" The boy walks home empty-handed, but many years later this lesson saves his life. As a fledgling trader he travels with a caravan, In a sweltering day they get stranded on a desert which has got only one water well inhabited by a man-eating ghoul. Climbing down the well the boy greets first, and then asks for water. The ghoul points to the heap of skulls in the corner, and says "...of all these people you are the first to greet me! your reward is your life, water, and hairs you can burn whenever you need me."

In a world of 3-D TV and X-Box entertainment I wonder if kids today are capable of appreciating stories. I guess I would have never become an artist, had it not been for all those imaginative tales I got to hear from my grandmother. God bless her! I dedicate this painting to her soul.