1.
The years 1912–25 and 1947–70 are often seen as the two golden ages of abstract art. But how can one believe its death after more than forty years, while there are numerous, brilliant, contemporary examples that still appear vibrant and influential? The answer to this question is not be found in the formal mutations— surely, that is not related to theoreticians’ favorite linear models—but in the contents of the works.
Formal characteristics of an abstract painting or statute does not carry implications in and of itself, but find significance as part of the expressive message of a work. Artists exploit the revival and transformation of the subconscious prototypes of the modern culture. So, it seems more appropriate to raise another question: what themes are they borrowing from the tradition of modern art? And how they alter them to express their contemporary experience of the social, the political and the spiritual?
With that in mind, abstract art can be divided into six categories, three of which are considered as reactions to nature (cosmology, perspective, anatomy) and the other three as reactions to culture (textures, architecture, signs). However, the lines between these categories can become vague and an amalgamation of two or more of them can be observed.
Textures such as cloths, mats etc. became an incomparable sources of inspiration for artist as they turned from nature to abstract, man-made models. Although male, abstract artists had been reluctant to compare their works to decorative woven fabrics throughout the last century, in the 1970’s, female artists, such as Miriam Shapiro and Joyce Kozloff, showed strong interest to decorative art, making it a point of departure for a new, feminist form of abstract art. Thus, male and female artists of the Pattern and Decoration movement, often made use of representative, architectural elements in their lively, polychromatic compositions.
2.
The first time I had the chance to see Amir Babaei’s works, they reminded me of the works of an artist from the heart of Pattern and Decoration movement: Valerie Jaudon who is still faithful to all the abstract achievements of the movement. By removing virtually all the colors, she only uses black and white, or just white, on linen, monochromatic brown canvas. But she makes this prosaic, limited color palette come to life by repeating the interwoven pattern reminiscent of Alhambra’s arabesques. Her compositions, echo recurring patterns of cloths or wallpapers, without getting caught in dreary disciplines and regulations.
Amir’s compositions display such traits. These general similarities, however, does not mean there is imitation or duplication is his works. It seems that Amir Babaei’s patterning, with a similar approach, save a few cases, is done with the choice of colors that are limited to black, white, silvery and golden on a cardboard or paper support. More than being the result of calculating and geometrically dividing the pictorial space, and aiming to create a conscious density of patterns and designs, the patterning is the embodiment of a form of meditation and revelation of the artist, vis-à-vis the two-dimensional surface of the support, which is dominated by the staggering invasion of lines.
As to employing visual elements, Amir Babaei’s paintings have explicit and minimal structures, but in constructing the painterly space, they evoke a complex, austere finish. With a hint of eastern, traditional ornamentation such as tiling, carpet weaving, and gilding, his designs and patterns result from the growth and the process of lines that are flowing from the tip of different, influential tools on paper, and in a procedure that looks like to be only confined by the boarders of the background, as they sprout, weave together, and grow organically.
An appreciation of Amir Babaei’s patterns and designs requires contemplation and meditation, and that of a kind used by the artist himself. The mandala-like structures of his compositions necessitate the audience to float in the endless, interwoven fluidity of the lines, inviting the eyes and the mind to an exquisite feast of the familiar curves and twists, as old as the eternal memory of the oriental man.
Hamid-Reza Karami