First Scottish show for renowned Iranian artist
Iranian artist Hassan Meshkinfam is set to have his first exhibition in Scotland next month as part of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival. Opening at The Sutton Gallery on Dundas Street on 7 February, The Art of Hassan Meshinfam will survey a wide range of the artist’s works from early watercolours of his native Shiraz to a suite of ambitious collages based around the poetry of the great Persian poet Nima Yushij.
Born into a family of gifted artists, Meshkinfam (b. 1954 Shiraz) studied in Iran and at the School of Fine Art in Besancon and Paris. He has exhibited his photographs and paintings nationally and internationally and several monographs of his work have been published. In 1981, Meshkinfam established the Gallery of Contemporary Art in Shiraz where he continues to teach painting in the School of Visual Art. In an ambitious endeavor, he founded the Meshkinfam Museum of Visual Arts in 2003, the first private museum of its kind in Iran dedicated to preserving and promoting the cultural heritage of Shiraz, widely considered the cultural capital of Persia.
Meshkinfam’s oeuvre can be divided into two periods. The first is a period of colourful, watercolour paintings of nature, stylistically leaning towards impressionism and pointillism. The second, taking place after 1991, are more symbolic and interpretative works, many taking inspiration from literature and poetry, including the poetic works of the father of modern Persian poetry and internationally acclaimed Iranian poet, Nima Yushij (1895-1960).
Meshkinfam’s mixed-media illustrations of Nima’s poetic motifs of Yush village tell of a simple and pure existence. The villagers, birds, animals and trees in the wind and moonlight resonate equally with a sense of loneliness and melancholy and the exuberance of life. Meshkinfam has represented the essence of the poet’s words within the profundity of his dream-like, layered, inky imagery.
This exhibition furthers The Sutton Gallery’s commitment to staging international exhibitions. In the past year, the gallery has shown work by artists from Russia, Japan and Norway alongside celebrating the finest contemporary Scottish artists. Showing the work of Hassan Meshkinfam continues this tradition and expands the international outlook of the gallery. Alongside the exhibition itself, there will also be a programme of poetry and music events taking place at the gallery to celebrate Iranian culture. Full details can be seen on the Edinburgh Iranian Festival’s website.
“It is a great pleasure to be able to introduce the work of Hassan Meshkinfam to a Scottish audience. He is a leading Iranian artist, whose beautifully rendered works reflect his passion for artistic expression across music, literature and visual art. We are especially pleased to be showing the important series of screenprints and collage based around the poet Nima Yushij as they are the meeting point between two incredible artistic talents – when you combine the images of Nima Yushij and the artistic imagination of Hassan Meshkinfam, sparks of magic were bound to fly and the result is fantastic!” – Reuben Sutton, Director, The Sutton Gallery
This exhibition also features a number of portraits and self portraits. These ambitious pieces may take subject matter such as the artist’s own family and circle of associates as their subject matter, however, as in works such as Meditation, a diptych oil painting, Meshkinfam introduces a breathless intensity to a portrait of his son, managing to convey a sense of enormous scale in spite of the domestic subject.
Meshkinfam’s works are held in private and public collections in Iran, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Japan, the United States and France. He is an invited special guest of the Edinburgh Iranian Festival in February 2015.
The Art of Hassan Meshkinfam opens at The Sutton Gallery, 18a Dundas St, Edinburgh (www.thesuttongallery.com) on 7th February and continues until the 28th February 2015
Submitted by Colin Herd
