A prominent figure among the first generation of Iranian Modern art movement is Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam. His works is highly personal and subjective and employs a wide range of unconventional materials as well as unique and innovative approaches to making art, which remains fresh and original to date.
A series made by black sand on wood and canvas signifies the summit of his career. A prominent Italian art critic has indicated that these pieces are prior in date comparing to the similar series by Jasper Jones. Vaziri Moghaddam mentions the amazing contrast of black marks made by sand on the light tone of human skin as the source of inspiration for these works, which marked him as a pioneer artist in the course of art history.
The abstract patterns made by sand are a reflection of artistic exploration in the collective unconscious human mind. The dance of fingers on the canvas surface is a deep experience of ‘being’ and making marks on the nature by the mankind, which takes the viewer’s mind back to prehistoric cave art, and rituals practiced in the dawn of human existence. The symbolic act of making marks with hands and the gestural act of paint application is associated with Action Painting movement in the context of Abstract Expressionism.
A recent achievement of Vaziri Moghaddam is his being registered in the database of Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA). He has extensively exhibited worldwide and his work is included in major international collections.
