Lot 129: - Y. Z. Kami , Iranian B. 1966 Rumi - The Book of Massnavi E Manavi II mixed media on linen

signed and dated 2007 on the reverse mixed media on linen

measurements note 76.2 by 83.8cm.; 30 by 33in.

Y.Z. Kami is a deeply spiritual mystic who has drawn on the philosophical and visual teachings of the East and West throughout his artistic journey. The strong influence of Sufism and Sufi poetry on Kami led him to set out on a path in search of forms with which to express unseen forces and to illustrate the depths of the human soul. Thus far, this voyage has yielded a collection of transcendental paintings, mixed-media collages, and installations. Kami was initially drawn towards the vehicles of figure painting and portraiture, a genre that enabled him to study the human visage and to celebrate it for its close connection to God. According to Sufi beliefs, the light of the divine can be seen in the face of man. In his portraits, the artist depicts men and women entranced in a state of peaceful meditation; Kami's sitters are surrounded by a serenely illuminated aura of contemplation. Stylistically, these mammoth paintings take their inspiration from the stern mausoleums of ancient Persia and the solemn ruins of past civilizations. In the collages that followed, Kami turned to another visual medium through which to give a tangible shape to the holy. In a collection of twenty-four collages entitled Endless Prayers, Kami moulds lines from sacred and poetic texts in Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi into architectural elements derived from religious structures. Phrases act as building bricks or as mosaic tiles that as a whole suggest the shape of a dome or outline of a cross. Abiding by a strict colour palette of white, beige, blue, and brown, the colour schemes of Endless Prayers are inspired by those of heaven and earth. The Book of Massnavi E Manavi II is part of Y.Z. Kami's Endless Prayers. The text that is the building matter of this collage is select verses from Jalaladdun Rumi's Massnavi. Rumi is a famed poet and theologian from the 13υth century who produced some of the most priceless jewels of Persian literature. A Sufi at heart, among the principles most expounded by Rumi was the idea of Tawhid or unity; he preached and wrote about unification with the Divine, from whom all souls had been separated and with whom all souls achingly desired to reunite. The most important text authored by Rumi was the Massnavi. The Massnavi, which consists of six books of poetry that integrate fables, tales from daily life, and revelations from the Quran into their fabric, recounts more than four hundred stories which shed light on man's search for God. Rumi's philosophies inspired the famous Mevlevi Order, known to many as the order of the Whirling Dervishes. The Meylevi Order is most identified with an ecstatic dance called Sema that involves a liberating twirling which brings dancers closer to the Divine. In The Book of Massnavi E Manavi II, Rumi's words are ordered into a spiral that brings to mind the sensation of looking upwards into a dome, the whirling spin of the dervish dance, or the cyclical pattern of daily worship and prayer. The Book of Massnavi E Manavi II also embodies the ideas of the harmonious interconnectedness of the whole, the centrality of inward reflection, and the feeling of being in proximity to God that is achieved through knowing oneself.