Lot 526: SECONDS-BEHTARIN-SECONDS

SECONDS-BEHTARIN-SECONDS acrylic on canvas, framed signed and dated "Zenderoudi 78" (bottom right), executed in 1978 211 x 135cm (83 1/16 x 53 1/8in).

1978211x 135cm

: Property from a private collection, France

The present work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from the artist and will appear in Zenderoudi's forthcoming catalogue raisonné "My words are dark, but I can not unfold The secrets of the station where I dwell..." – Omar Khayyam Consummate calligrapher, prodigious artist, and one of the visionary founders of Iranian neo-traditionalism, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi's name looms large in the pantheon of Iranian modernism. Breaking the stylistic formalism of traditional calligraphy with his effuse, free-flowing letterforms, and capturing Irans popular religious aesthetic with his vibrant, populated canvases, Zenderoudi's works are a fitting testament to a calligraphic tradition spanning over ten centuries. Zenderoudi's subversion of the traditional values of Persian calligraphy is a key tenet of his artistic agenda; by emphasizing form over meaning, and by stripping the written word down to tis aesthetic, structural fundaments, Zenderoudi frees calligraphy from the constraint of linguistic limitation, resulting in an artistic lingua franca which, whilst compositionally vernacular, is in essence, universal. Zenderoudi's early works focus on dense talismanic imagery, mixing iconography, freehand script and numerals. The density of these compositions sought to capture the visual intensity of popular religious expression in Iran, where banners, standards, altars and votive offerings exuberantly adorn the urban landscape. Works from the present series, composed in the mid to late 1970's, mark a shift towards a more measured, technical and calligraphically robust approach to the letterform. Crowded cursive is replaced by greater emphasis on singular and recurring words which exhibit a formal refinement lacking in their earlier counterparts The present work is a peerless example of Zenderoudi's mastery of the Persian letterform, executed in an impressive scale. SECONDS-BEHTARIN-SECONDS is also noteworthy in its intentional inclusion of empty spaces within the composition, a technique which Zenderoudi is not traditionally known to employ. Often favouring a dense, layered canvases populated by calligraphy, Zenderoudi's present inclusion of negative space is a sophisticated visual demonstration of the creative significance of emptiness and draws inspiration from the philosophy of Eastern artistic traditions. Lao Tzu astutely observed that "empty space contains the possibility for transformation" and the Zen art of "sumi-e" recognises that it is the relationship between form and void which lends reality to forms themselves. The interplay between composition and emptiness is therefore key in accentuating the impact of Zenderoudi's calligraphy, and underlines the notion that form derives its existence from its opposition to void, a point tersely echoed by the great Michelangelo when he described the creation of his magisterial sculpture as "simply removing everything that was not David." It is the combination of these seemingly opposed stylistic geneses; the minimal, terse, Eastern aesthetic, and the exuberant, abundant calligraphic tradition of Iran which Zenderoudi so deftly unifies in one harmonious visual schema. Astutely configured and masterfully composed, the present work is an example of Zenderoudi's finest work, executed in an imposing scale.