Agustin Lara

Prof. Sleeper

December 4, 2014

Art 101

Reminiscence

            This was the third gallery opening that I have ever been to and I can definitely say this was one of the most personal galleries I have ever seen.  Of course all art is personal for the artist however the meaning behind Bahareh’s paintings was very deep.  When we were first shown the pieces we learned that Bahareh is from Iran and has lived through the revolution that is taking place against the government.  That being said these paintings just aren’t paintings anymore they symbolize her home and what it’s like, which I respect.  Many people are very closed minded when it comes to situations like these and it is very ignorant of them.  Aside from being beautiful pieces they symbolize the dark and the light, or good and bad of Iran.  Another interesting fact was the medium that was used was tar and acrylic paint on wood panels.  Tar is very abundant in Iran and acrylic is of course a very common medium to use in art but I have never seen it mixed with a substance like tar, not only mixed but work as beautifully as it did. It I didn’t know that tar was being used I would’ve assumed that it was just paint on the panel. I also noticed that for almost every dark there was a light, a positive and negative, the balance was very nice I know art can sometimes go “out of the lines’ so to speak but seeing this piece in a pattern was very nice and I believe that the impact it made wouldn’t have been as great as if it were scattered throughout the gallery.  The tapestry piece or Pardis was a very well done painting.  It resembles a mirror almost as if it wants you to look within yourself and find your true meaning.  I love the strong contrasts that were made within this piece.  They are very sharp and clear yet the work in a way that pushes the center of the work forward onto you instead of just sucking it into the work as most contrasting pieces do.

            The only thing that I can critique, but very slightly, was the color palette.  I would have liked to see just a bit more color throughout the pieces.  I understand their concepts completely and why they were done the way they were, speaking about the wood pallets, there was a lot of monotone going on there which made it repetitive and left me wanting to see more, which is good thing.  The tapestry piece had flowers and what I believe were leaves around the center which gave it a nice pop because we finally got a sense of color, not only that but the green that was used was very subtle, so it wasn’t like the green just jumped out and drew your eyes attention directly to them instead of making you follow them all around the piece and captivating your divided attention. All that aside these pieces were very well done every stroke was done with meaning and passion and it really shows in the artist and the artwork. I would love to be able to see future galleries with this much meaning being held within them, it was a unique experience that stood out strongly amongst the other galleries I have seen.