Parviz Kalantari’s works bring to mind figurative poetry made of earth. His adobe paintings invoke a utopia, a promised land of peace, equilibrium, and splendor that recur in his work. This has been a recurring theme of his work for many years, an attempt to re-create a land, a utopia that the artist has either dreamed of or given life to in his dreams.
It is sometimes said that Kalantari’s works re-create desert architecture or Iran’s extinct architectural designs. Even though some symbols in his painting may point to Iran’s rural and desert architectural elements, it is evident that his works are exploring a more profound world beyond Iranian indigenous architecture. Locality in his work is too general and too obscure for us to even attempt to look for examples of traditional architecture in them. As one can see in the present painting, the adobe works of Parviz Kalantari that mainly use the same material, have gained a reputation over years, now assuming iconic status.
The pictorial framework of his paintings is tangibly flat, and space connections are in a cubist style, while classic perspective is greatly avoided. Further, color in his work is either non-existent or comes as the natural color of the material. Color is hardly seen in some of his works. Minimal use of color indicates that the artist wishes his work to be monochrome. Both tendencies have their roots in modern art.
Kalantari’s works are deeply connected to his character. This makes his work even more appealing to his audience. His work is profoundly laden with hope and love, a love of life, of earth, of pristine primitivism, and of homeland. His work was never meant to either exert a huge impact or promote despair and skepticism; rather, it eulogizes simplicity while discouraging aggression and imposition. Such qualities make the works sit comfortably on the walls of our house and enhance our zeal to coexist with and connect to Earth. To him, life is easy. Although Kalantari turned to Minimalism during different periods of his career, he has always returned to adobe painting of architectural landscapes. The present collection of his work holds a special place in the heart of collectors. Works of the collection swing between modern art and contemporary art, vacillating between narration and absolute abstraction. His painting is a manifestation of the spirituality of the matter and materialism of the spirit, thus encompassing a broad, diverse spectrum of art, including romantic landscape, geometric abstraction, traditional leitmotifs, and ironic assemblages of Pop Art.
