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Lot Essay
‘In every generation one can only find three or four artists such as Sirak. He draws our attention and even annoys us. We are not sure how to categorize him, how to measure him and how to understand him. He is beyond liking or disliking, beauty or aggression.” (A. Bosquet, “Melkonian ou L’Espace Repeuplé”, in Sirak Melkonian: Peintures et Gouaches, exh. cat. Paris, Galerie Hervé Odermatt, 1976; translated from French).
Sirak Melkonian is unquestionably one of the pioneers of Modern art in Iran alongside Marcos Grigorian (1925-2007). Melkonian’s works, since his early figurative paintings to his more recent and well-known abstract natural landscapes, explore the basic elements of art, line and colour. He offers his audience a new landscape which is neither imaginary nor real, neither surrealist nor naturalist, but profoundly personal and trigger deep emotions. Melkonian gained recognition as early as 1957 when he was awarded the prize at the Contemporary Iranian Artists exhibition at the Iran-America Society.
This untitled piece from 1976 epitomizes Melkonian’s naturalist and mystical landscapes. The artist has a very particular skill in distancing himself from any artistic trend, whether Western or Iranian; pure explorations of form, texture and colour, they refer to his experience of migration from the vast plains of Iran to that of Canada, where he currently resides. Through his fascination with dimensions, the compression and extension of space, the exploitation of various colour tones, yet without making any reference to reality or to the familiar, Melkonian creates his very own personal and visual lexicon. As a result, his work is both emotionally engaging, yet at the same time oddly detached. Back in 1976, Alain Bosquet who wrote the introduction to the Odermatt solo exhibition, had also described these landscapes as not being ‘utopian lands [but] rather [but] some inner-real places with no records in the past. Looking from close at the texture of paints and brush strokes one is amazed at the masterly rendering of greens into olives and oranges.’ Melkonian’s landscapes are stripped bare from any hint to the real world, from any recognisable shape or line and from any identifiable colour association.
Sirak Melkonian is unquestionably one of the pioneers of Modern art in Iran alongside Marcos Grigorian (1925-2007). Melkonian’s works, since his early figurative paintings to his more recent and well-known abstract natural landscapes, explore the basic elements of art, line and colour. He offers his audience a new landscape which is neither imaginary nor real, neither surrealist nor naturalist, but profoundly personal and trigger deep emotions. Melkonian gained recognition as early as 1957 when he was awarded the prize at the Contemporary Iranian Artists exhibition at the Iran-America Society.
This untitled piece from 1976 epitomizes Melkonian’s naturalist and mystical landscapes. The artist has a very particular skill in distancing himself from any artistic trend, whether Western or Iranian; pure explorations of form, texture and colour, they refer to his experience of migration from the vast plains of Iran to that of Canada, where he currently resides. Through his fascination with dimensions, the compression and extension of space, the exploitation of various colour tones, yet without making any reference to reality or to the familiar, Melkonian creates his very own personal and visual lexicon. As a result, his work is both emotionally engaging, yet at the same time oddly detached. Back in 1976, Alain Bosquet who wrote the introduction to the Odermatt solo exhibition, had also described these landscapes as not being ‘utopian lands [but] rather [but] some inner-real places with no records in the past. Looking from close at the texture of paints and brush strokes one is amazed at the masterly rendering of greens into olives and oranges.’ Melkonian’s landscapes are stripped bare from any hint to the real world, from any recognisable shape or line and from any identifiable colour association.