Untitled 1974

Curator: Immediately striking, isn't it? The texture alone grabs your attention. Editor: Indeed. The physicality is undeniable. What is the story of this object? Curator: This "Untitled" piece, dating from 1974, is the work of Iranian artist Behjat Sadr. Her matter paintings broke with traditional Iranian artistic norms of the period. Editor: Matter painting...interesting choice of phrase. The artist really pushed at the limits of paint here. I wonder what tools she employed to build up these stratified textures... some kind of squeegee, maybe? Curator: Sadr incorporated unconventional materials and techniques. She wasn't afraid to experiment. This piece emerged during a time when Iranian artists were grappling with questions of national identity and modernism, often underrepresented in major western art publications at that time. Her abstract style allowed for a departure from the prevalent, more representational styles favored in some academic circles in Tehran, freeing up her peers at the time. Editor: It almost has a sculptural presence to me; something emerging out of a solid, shifting and unstable surface. You see a connection between materials, labor and a society looking to create something fresh. Was her embrace of abstraction viewed as subversive at the time? Curator: Absolutely. Rejecting conventional narrative elements pushed boundaries. As art was getting weaponized globally in that decade. There was a tension and, quite literally, layered meaning found within her gestures. She refused the dominant aesthetics, instead opting for what was materially present in order to, I suppose, give herself her own vocabulary. Editor: So the surface tension and visible marks embody a societal resistance rendered through raw, exposed process? A potent mix. Curator: Exactly! Sadr was at the center of a progressive avant-garde scene and helped form spaces for artists to exhibit this tension publicly. Editor: This granular texture and restricted palette... there is such a unique blend of constraint and boldness, isn’t there? The horizontal gestures read almost like waves of energy suppressed yet ready to erupt. Curator: I completely agree. I am struck by its visceral impact and historic positionality to Sadr and other global abstract artists in this turbulent decade. Editor: A powerful expression through a striking arrangement of surface and act, embedded in such complex social times... very good food for thought, I will never think about waves or stripes quite the same way.