Lot 2: Faramarz Pilaram (Iranian, 1937-1982)

Faramarz Pilaram (Iranian, 1937-1982)
Untitled
signed and dated 'PiLARAM 74'(lower left)
oil and metallic paint on canvas
43 1/8 x 59in (110.5 x 150cm.)
Painted in 1974

Faramarz Pilaram was one of the first Iranian artists to experiment with free Persian letterforms to create abstract compositions. One of the prominent Saqqa-khaneh artists of the early 1960s (see lot 51 and introduction before lot 51), from the late 1960s he began to strip his work of representational features, to focus purely on colour and calligraphy-inspired line. Unlike the works of his contemporary Zenderoudi, who would often combine the two (ie, as brightly coloured letters), instead Pilaram would often separate them, with many of his works having calligraphic black lines laid over bright fields of colour.