Towards life, a Solo Exhibition

27 December 2024 - 17 January 2025

Artist : Homayoun Salimi

In continuation of its curatorial activities, and on the occasion of a review of Homayoun Salimi’s works in the exhibition Towards Life, Didar Gallery turns its attention to the context of abstract art in Iran.
Abstract art in Iran began alongside modern artistic movements and continues to have its enthusiasts and followers.
The essays and interviews presented in this catalogue serve as markers of the ongoing presence of this tendency in Iran.
They were written over the course of thirty-eight years, from 1986 to the present, in various Iranian publications.

To obtain a copy of this catalogue, please contact Didar art gallery.

Statement

Abstract painting, according to some historians, as it is presented today, has its roots in 20th-century Europe. However, traces of this style can also be found in the works of European artists inclined towards “Eastern subjectivism”.

Homayoun Salimi has strived, through abstraction, to establish a systematic relationship between the culture of the past and the present environment in his works. He shifts the viewer's perspective from the surface to depth. In solitude and silence, Salimi has explored various shades of color, creating diverse and dynamic pieces. There is a kind of repetition of motifs in his works; repetition silences the mental dialogue and provides perceptions that are not possible in normal conditions.

Homayoun Salimi, by exploring multiple layers, seeks to find gems rather than place them. In fact, he extracts something, rather than leaving something.

About The Artist(s)

Homayoun Salimi was born in 1948 in Tehran. Due to his father’s occupation, he lived in various cities. He moved to Tabriz, where he studied painting at the Mirak Art School. After completing his military service, although he began working at a bank, painting continued to hold a special place in his life and interests. For a time, he earned a living by reproducing miniature paintings. Later, he went to France to continue his studies and was accepted with distinction at the École des Beaux-Arts, where he was given the rare opportunity to choose his own instructor. He began his work under Jacques Yankel and graduated in painting from the École des Beaux-Arts in 1978. He then continued his education at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where he received a master’s degree in aesthetics and a Ph.D. in aesthetics and art sciences from the Faculty of Fine Arts.

The exile from motifs, tilework, architecture, and mosques manifests an emotional sense of longing that is clearly present in Salimi’s works. His paintings are born in solitude and silence—at midnight, when everyone is asleep and tranquility reigns over the night. At those moments, an unknown force comes to his aid, guiding him through the creation and completion of his works.

An attention to chance and accident, along with the vivid and tangible presence of life itself, runs through Salimi’s paintings.