A study of the professional career of Sirak Melkonian reveals that more than being fascinated by color, the artist continually endeavored to study form and geometry. Disregarding diversity of color in this work, Melkonian once again concentrates on composition, juxtaposition of geometric forms, and the significant element of line.
It is hard to see this work without being astounded by its unconventional dimensions. More than two meters in width, the painting leads spectators to a panoramic space and structure; it can be compared to a charming panoramic picture in every corner of which a new landscape suddenly appears. Unconventional background and dimensions in Melkonian’s work tissue paper are not unprecedented, be it this particular painting that he created in 1976 or some of his later works that were produced on small pieces of very fragile paper tissue.
Except for a short period during his youth, Sirak rarely practiced figurative painting. He was fascinated by nature, but not the familiar nature we have seen in works of modernists such as Sohrab Sepehri, Behjat Sadr, or Abolghasem Saiedi. The nature portrayed in his work has a philosophic and intuitive view of the earth and other sublime concepts that lead us to an unknown sacred realm. Like a deep-rooted old tree, the present work has roots in a strong Modernism that Sirak and artists of his generation gave birth to. It is a colossal, indomitable mountain. The stretch of the work shifts the viewers’ gaze from one vista to another. In other words, the work makes the audience follow a horizontal pattern. It takes us from place to place so that this hinged geometric form with its golden latch allures the audience into hesitation, deliberation, and deep absorption.