Untitled 1978

This untitled work is by Manoucher Yektai, and made with oil paint on canvas. Look closely, and you’ll notice something special. Yektai didn't just apply the paint, he sculpted it. The impasto technique gives the painting a three-dimensional quality, where the tactile materiality of the paint is as important as the image it creates. You can see how the heavy brushstrokes build up layer upon layer, defining the forms of the plant and the table. The texture isn't just decorative. It’s deeply integral to the viewing experience. In a way, Yektai is challenging the traditional idea of painting as illusion. Instead, he foregrounds the labor, the sheer physicality of the artistic process. Each stroke is a record of the artist’s gesture, transforming industrial paint into something deeply personal and expressive. It’s this tension between material and form, process and image, that makes Yektai’s work so compelling, bridging the gap between craft and fine art.