Mojdeh Tabatabei: The number of fake and copy works is rocketing day by day / Zahra Bahrami: Women’s art potentials have been overlooked

Mojdeh Tabatabei believes the onward trend of painting of the 80s is struggling with a chaos and needs correction.

Iran Art: Recently, an exhibition by Zahra Baharami under the title of “Reveries Woven Writings” was held at Mojdeh Art Gallery. The exhibition was very well received by the audience. To uncover the exhibition and the terms of calligraphy-painting trend becoming more popular with young artists these days, we arranged an interview with Zahar Bahrami, the young calligraphy-painting artist, and Mojdeh Tabatabaei, director of Mojdeh Art Gallery to explore through calligraphy painting in Iran.  

Ms. Baharmi, how did you get involved with calligraphy and why did you choose to set your first solo exhibition at Mojdeh Art Gallery?

Bahrami: I have always been into calligraphy but I had not got the chance to enter this art until I saw Safir Writings back in 2006. I heard Mr. Aryamanesh, the calligraphy master was teaching calligraphy and calligraphy-painting at Kereshmeh Institute. I attended his classes and tried to learn as much as I can and over the time I managed to prepare my very first independent series. I wanted this series to be self-expressive and following this wish I put “Reveries Woven Writings” series together. I had participated in several group exhibitions before but this exhibition shown at Mojdeh Art Gallery was my first solo show.

You applied Iranian traditional woven fabrics together with calligraphy, how did you come up with the idea of mixing these two mediums?

Bahrami:Traditional woven fabrics are highly valued to me and in addition to colors, motifs and forms of hand-made fabrics I appreciate these artists patience. Weaving carpets takes a great deal of elegance and effort and also a big heart to eventually lay it down on the ground when its practicality takes over its artistic mode. I meant to highlight carpet maker and rug maker women who have less been seen as artists and I also wanted to apply rug making art to enhance my work charm and appeal.

The forms and patterns of your works on canvas are inspired by traditional motifs of rug making art, why rugs?

Bahrami:I was after a kind of unique simplicity in my first solo series. Rugs are way more unelaborate and older than carpet making and the former is somehow an introduction into the latter. Rugs have their own plainness which I was trying to include in my first collection. Most of my works are created by pen and ink on canvas.

Are the colors inspired by traditional fabrics too, or did you pick and use them freely?

Bahrami:The color arrangement of most works in “Reveries Woven Writings” is under the influence of traditional woven fabrics; yet some were selected based on my own taste.

Mrs. Tabatabei, considering the fact that recently calligraphy-painting is not very much welcomed by galleries, what made you step up and show Ms. Barami’s artworks at your gallery?

Tabatabaei: Over the last years, so many artists of calligraphy-painting have come to me to have their art exhibited. I saw something different in her works. Most calligraphy-paintings by other artists are weaker and smaller versions of their masters but I was looking for something new and creative which I found in Ms. Bahrami’s artworks. Perhaps because of the limitations in calligraphy-painting not many expect unusual art; however over the last years it has occasionally happened and people like Ms. Bahrami brought their own creativity to this art. When she came to me I saw something beyond calligraphy-painting. There was the technique and drawing of letters. I felt this particular feminine sophistication in her expression and their combination with Iranian hand-made fabrics drew my attention. I think there is music in her art and I could totally feel it in “Reveries Woven Writings” series. The geometry of letters is different from the geometry of rug [patterns] yet she has managed to combine them well. Ms. Bahrami believes she has applied nomadic formats in many of her artworks and you can clearly see this unique simplicity in forms and shapes on rugs. It would be interesting if we could have some of these nomadic ladies to talk to us about their impressions of rugs. Ms. Bahrami has new things to say and I guarantee walking in the same direction, she will come up with a much more mature collection.

Normally men are more active in Calligraphy-painting than women. How do you analyze this?

Bahrami: I think women’s abilities are been overlooked. That is why I deliberately meant my first collection to be obviously created by a lady. Women tend to show more grace and precision in painting. Knitting is an art more practiced by women. They may not be particularly educated for this art but they are really strong and creative. I did not weave anything per se in my series but I implied weaver women through using the medium of rugs.

Tabatabei: there are and have been women who have gained success in calligraphy-painting but by and large this art is rather masculine in Iran. We have more women in sculpture and photography than in calligraphy-painting which I do not exactly know why! I guess calligraphy-painters must initially enter calligraphers’ society and follow up the difficult levels of this skill and then get into the profession and going through this exhausting journey makes this art sort of virile. Not every artist can easily pass through; yet it cannot be said that women are not allowed to enter. It has never been so.

How do you see the feedbacks to “Reveries Woven Writing” exhibition?

Bahrami: It was rather more positive that I thought it would be. It was very well noticed and Mrs. Tabatabaei was very supportive in this matter.

Tabatabaei: I have no idea how other calligrapher fellows and masters evaluate Ms. Bahrami’s works but I witnessed how surprised the masters attending the opening night were. I think the reason was that we saw a movement in calligraphy-painting which was not the copy of the previous ones. The exhibition received excellent feedback from master artists, at least from those who actually came to visit. Mr. Bakhtiari, emphasized on the point that she has fused the two mediums beautifully. Others including Mr. Falsafi, Mr. Nouri, Mr. Shirchi, Mr. Sadeqzadeh and Mr. Mehri have also liked her artworks. It was very interesting for them that a student of art has decided to follow such path in her very first solo exhibition. I wish other artist friends would have the same courage to be different.

Bahrami: I didn’t think the simplicity of my artworks would be appealing to the audience this much. Using the least facilities, I wanted to make an art collection that is plain and also attractive. I knowingly refused to apply special materials and tools because I was looking for plainness and fortunately it was welcomed by the audience.

Were your works independent from what you learned from your master, Mr. Aryamanesh? Or were you following in his footsteps?

Bahrami: I was educated by Mr. Aryamanesh but over the time I tried to find my own way. I minimized my relationships with my friends for three to four years to avoid being affected by others’ works and be myself. I worked on the series for three years, then I showed it to Mr. Aryamanesh and luckily it got his attention. I think an artist must stay in solitary from time to time to be less influenced by others. What visual artists see finds its way into their subconscious and may surface one day in their works and I tried to make it happen less often.

Mrs. Tabatabaei, you mentioned that over the past years, many artists have attempted to present themselves to you while the art market no longer shows much interest in calligraphy-painting. Why is that so?

Tabatabaei: Calligraphy is nostalgic to Iranians and their culture and they always adore writing and calligraphy. There is this certain music and balance in Persian letters when formed as calligraphy-painting, our people enjoy it and get excited. We have a precedent in calligraphy telling us not also we have had prominent calligraphers in both our ancient and contemporary history, but also people’s fascination for this art is timeless.

Our country has always had a great potential in calligraphy thanks to the beauty of this art and its artists’ talent. It seems that calligraphy is not feeling well these days –I am speaking of its market and sale and the professionals must speak of the technical matters. We have had several talks with colleagues and masters of calligraphy and we even had a formal review session right after the exhibition “Neo-Ancient Calligraphy” back in 2016 at Mojdeh Art Gallery to see what is going on with this land’s calligraphy-painting. We started well but it did not come to the right end. I hope more meetings are set up to get to an appropriate conclusion since as a person directly in touch with visual arts, I witness the number of fake and copy works is rocketing day by day and fewer people like Ms. Bahrami try to produce original and innovative artworks. Most of those who come to us do not have the right writings, compositions and nor the correct techniques and textures. Even those who have a good execution copy from their instructors. It was not like this back in the 80s [2000-2010 according to Christian calendar] and this art was soaring high but now it suffers from some kind of inconvenience which must be restored.

What do you think caused this inconvenience?

Tabatabaei: Some years ago thinking calligraphy-painting is a simple task, some young artists set foot in the art and some dealers actually made them famous without being competent enough. They were popular temporarily and they also sold well in the region and particularly in Dubai; but the problem started when other interested young artists abandoned their career and under the illusion of simplicity of calligraphy-painting started it. Some did not even know how to dilute paint or where they are going; yet they tried to buy canvas and paint and write on it. This incident deeply harmed calligraphy-painting.

Many could stop this trend but they did not take any actions. Then the general audience lost the ability to distinguish the original form the fake and there went the trust in calligraphy-painting. For this reason, the society rejected calligraphy-painting as simple as that. While up to five six years ago buyers would ask for calligraphy-painting, it is a shame that Iranian calligraphy-painting got into this situation.  Just when Turk artists and Arab countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and Emirates are standing out internationally and are protecting their social and international status in calligraphy-painting.   

Our country has always had the best calligraphers of all time and it was wanted all over the world. However, lack of management and appropriate planning did this to Iranian calligraphy. I believe this will change but so far Iranian calligraphy-painters have suffered severely. I wish it had not happened. Right now Iranian artists do not sell well internationally and except for two or three calligraphy-painters you do not see others selling abroad.

All of these are due to wrong policies taken by some galleries, dealers and art managers over the recent years. Anyway, this bitter incident has happened to Iranian calligraphy but at the moment the best thing to do is to make it up. Many masters are trying to do their best and this is promising. Still, it takes time to compensate what has happened to calligraphy-painting and we can manage to find our place in the international calligraphy and painting market.

What do you think is the way out of this dilemma?

Tabatabaei: I guess gradually the society will recognize the proper from improper and the competent calligraphy-painting artists will be screened as it was the case for other arts. Calligraphy is blended with Iranian culture and it always has its fans. This art will never disappear not even in this chaos where still so many Iranian buyers residing abroad recognize masterful calligraphy-painting artworks and purchase them. We can change the general taste over the time but the point is to avoid falling into such pitfalls so we will not have to struggle out of it.

I think communities, dealers, masters and auctions can set meetings every 6 month or so and investigate the problems to prevent such happenings to calligraphy-painting and other visual arts. We all know that Iranian art is being monitored closely. Iranian artists’ works are shown at prominent auctions, expos, art fairs and biennials which is an honor and proves Iranian artists’ potential. We did not get this easily and we need to hold on it. Over the last 15-20 years, works by many contemporary artists have been exhibited at world top museums and there is tough competition at well-known auctions for bidding over them. Having such honorable artists we must show more precision at creating art works and think twice about international market before presenting them.

Ms. Bahrami, you entered the professional calligraphy-painting just is this chaos. Did you think it over before presenting your solo collection?

Bahrami: I am aware of calligraphy-painting situation in Iran but I feel I must do my own work and let the time do its magic. I believe at the moment everyone must get in touch with her own personal expression and be herself. I wanted this to happen about my works. I did what I could and I think we should never retreat not even at the worst conditions.

Regarding the increasing number of graduates in visual arts and their desire to show their works, how does Mojdeh Art Gallery view this issue and what are your criteria for selecting young artists?

Tabatabaei: It is fascinating to work with young artists for many curators because they are the future of this country’s art and some day they will be masters themselves. Though it must be considered that every gallery’s time is restricted by the number of artists working with it. No gallery can work with infinite number of artists and nor can Mojdeh Gallery. As a curator, I would love to support the young as much as possible but obviously I am looking for young artists who have something new and innovative to say in today’s contemporary art space. When I find such artist, I represent her/him in Iran and abroad and wherever I see necessary I back her/him up to stand out.

I have not constrained myself to any art medium and I support any artist with a potential in any medium of painting, calligraphy-painting, sculpture, visual art and even installation. In return, I do expect them to act professionally. It is a tough job to be a gallery owner and it is not just setting up exhibitions. A curator must be a guide for the artist, set up exhibitions, arrange interviews, publish books and introduce him/her to auction houses. Albeit, these happen when a curator is doing her job right; as if such supports do not happen most often which is partly understandable because of multiple financial problems of galleries.

Why does Mojdeh Art Gallery have fewer exhibitions in comparison with other galleries?

Tabatabaei: I agree that I am not as busy as my other colleagues. Mojdeh Art Gallery arranges one exhibition a month which is sometimes even reduced due to various occasions. This is because of me being very strict. I would like to dedicate my time to competent artists and I prefer to avoid having repetitive shows and instead put together an original exhibition and introduce brand-new people or arts. We always welcome the young and we do not charge them with admission because we want to support the young art community. That was in fact the reason we had Ms. Bahrami’s exhibition and we tend to continue the trend. We are not done with her and we should introduce her ideas to the public in Tehran and also in other cities. She has the potential to be presented because she is different and inventive and I hope she continues to stay like that.

I have introduced many people through group exhibitions into professional world of visual arts then if accepted well, I set up solo exhibitions for them. At the moment I am working with two very unique new artists. One is from Isfahan and the other is a young lady who just graduated and her works sold immediately in a group exhibition. If god will, I am going to introduce these young artists and others like Ms. Bahrami at Mojdeh Art Gallery.

Ms. Bahrami, would you like to say anything about your collaboration with Mrs. Tabatabaei at the end of this interview?

I am very glad to get to know Mrs. Tabatabaei. I stopped working for some years and then when I entered the professional arena I worked with an absolutely professional curator in any way. I adore her and I am really happy I had my first series introduced by Mojdeh Gallery. She welcomes new artists with open arms. It is very pleasant for a young artist like me. It must be appreciated that she gives the young the opportunity to express themselves.

Translations by: Noushin karimi