Bita Vakili; Dancing Woman and $45,000 "Dreaming New York"

Bita Vakili, an Iranian female painter, sold her most expensive work to date, "Dreaming New York," for $45,000 at Christie's Dubai auction on April 18, 2012. Vakili's departure from her previous genre of painting, for which she was well-known up until that point, distinguishes this piece.

IranArt : Born in 1973, Bita Vakili pursued further academic studies in painting. With six 100% sales at Christie's Middle East in Dubai, she has earned a name for herself and has spent the last ten years painting in three dimensions.

A closer look of "Dreaming New York" reveals some of its unique qualities, including Vakili's foray into the realm of three dimensions in painting.

1:

The painting "Dreaming New York" is 230 × 200 cm and was done in 2011 using the mixed media on canvas technique. Vakili's first visit to New York and her observations of the city's machine world, complete with its recognizable skyscrapers, gave rise to this massive piece of art, which serves as a warning that humanity is under attack and is encircled.

2:

Bita Vakili had already begun to depart from the two-dimensional realm of painting by including small collages of natural components such as tree leaves in various paintings, but "Dreaming New York" marked a big step forward in this regard. The audience is drawn in by the collage of metal objects, beads, glitter, and staples that are inserted at the top and bottom of the piece. Selecting an appropriate title for the piece will enable the viewer to connect with the artist's intentions.

3:

Without a question, the most significant visual component of the piece is the dancing woman in red who is at the center of it. In the middle of this chaotic world, she struts with sarcasm and joy. Vakili's use of warm hues and gentle brushstrokes contribute to the female character's tranquility. She drew inspiration from Iranian painting traditions when designing this woman, and she did an excellent job of maintaining the abstract texture of the face design, which adds to the piece's significance.

4:

Vakili has been painting for thirty years. She used to be considered as an exotic Iranian woman who was deeply attached to her homeland. She demonstrates the painting movement in "Dreaming New York," which serves as the introduction to her new generation of works.

In contrast to the ultramodern, fast-paced, and tumultuous atmosphere of the West, it appears that the East's traditional and indigenous motifs are under attack and pressure from all sides. However, the woman in the center of the shot teaches how to remain indoors amid this global disturbance by communicating, preserving, and caring for one's cheerful mood.

5:

The intriguing color scheme, as well as the thickness and depth of the hues, are quite successful in expressing the work's intellectual substance. By using colors that she has generated, Vakili has managed to bring together various hue tones. She encourages the viewer to discover a new image in each segment of this massive painting. "Dreaming New York" also has a nice balance and composition.

6:

Christie's Dubai has recorded six notable Vakili sales. Apart from the record-breaking $45,000 sale of "Dreaming New York" on April 18, 2012, one of Vakili's nameless works sold for $40,000 on October 21, 2014, and another untitled piece was purchased for $35,000 in October 2011. Furthermore, she sold her artwork "This Is Me" for $31,000 in October 2010. Meanwhile, on April 27, 2010 and April 2011, two of her unnamed paintings sold for $25,000 and $26,000, respectively.

Vakili's artworks have been featured in ten editions of the Tehran Auction so far. At the 20th edition of the art event in July, a three-panel piece from the collection "The Garden of History" sold for $130,000, setting a new record for her.

Vakili's paintings are held by prestigious institutions such as Bank Pasargad, Tourism Bank, and the Farjam Foundation of Dubai, in addition to well-known Iranian collectors like Professor Firouz Naderi.

After a three-year hiatus, Vakili will showcase a few of her most recent works at the Nian Art Gallery in Tehran in the last few days of September. This time, she offers a bolder, more inventive interpretation of her own abstract, and each of her figures has a unique expression.