Abbas Nasle Shamloo b. 1983
Beyond Alienation 18, 2018
Ink on cardboard
28 x 15.5 cm
11 1/8 x 6 1/8 in
Framed
11 1/8 x 6 1/8 in
Framed
Shamloo’s latest series is a continuation of his explorations deep into the heart of nature. He has for years been preoccupied with the reality of humans’ loss of touch with...
Shamloo’s latest series is a continuation of his explorations deep into the heart of nature. He has for years been preoccupied with the reality of humans’ loss of touch with their inner and outer nature and the forms we see in this series continue to appear representational and true to our objective reality; however, what sets Abbas Shamloo’s post-alienation vistas apart from the works of a majority of realistic landscape artists and even from the artist’s own earlier works is his distinctly different process of creation in this series. The origin of this cold and impenetrable nature is not to be found in naturalistic studies or photographs taken from the environment but rather in the artist’s mind. The painterly expedition which has led to the formation of these familiar-looking shores, structures and trees ironically began by making free abstract marks and lines on the surface, developing further through a multitude of constructive and destructive acts without knowing in advance what the end result would look like and was finally completed once the artist had gradually removed all elements deemed excessive; a process which, borrowing from the sculptural technique of the same name, the artist prefers to call “reductive”. What we see is a final visual narrative sitting on a throne of layers over layers of earlier unfinished ones; a quality which not only lends deeper sense to these works but also brings special aesthetic robustness and believability to the images. Thus, through the chemistry of painting, the artist’s inner realm is materialized in the form of seemingly objective external landscapes.