Lot 527: f - Nicky Nodjoumi , Iranian B. 1942 The Intimate Pleasure of Watching oil on canvas

signed and dated 2005 ; signed, titled and dated 2005 on the reverse oil on canvas

measurements note 244 by 152.5cm.; 96 by 60in.

There is a strong self-reflective element in the work of Nicky Nodjoumi. Indeed, the themes he tackles, and his iconography, are rooted in his own experience of exile and repression. It is important to recall the furious backlash Nicky's major retrospective caused when it was on view at the Contemporary Art Museum in Tehran in 1979, the year of the Islamic revolution in Iran. Under Ayatollah Khomeini's regime 150 of his paintings were destroyed because they were seen as anti-revolutionary. Following this, Nodjoumi emigrated to New York where he currently lives. By layering time and place in his pictorial narrative, Nodjoumi creates an indefinable space. A dream landscape with curious structuring of the pictorial space populated by strange figures: American leaders, Iranian Mullahs, nudes and corporate types. In so doing, Nodjoumi creates narratives that defy literal interpretation and take the viewer into an irrational and compelling world of imagination that references the current political climate. The Intimate Pleasure of Watching embodies the artist's distinctive gradation of colours which creates a muted, melancholic narrative. The present work exhibits a vivid chiaroscuro, whereby intense contrasts of light and shadow articulate the composition. The artist also plays here with the fluctuation of focus, whereby the characters are fractured and striated, alternating between sharp outlines, narrow shapes and wider ones. Nodjoumi is also notably recognized for mastering what is known as a coloristic climate, whereby it is not one tone or the other of the palette that is predominant but rather the complex and tension-filled interplay between them that sets the pictorial structure. Despite its satirist almost humoristic title, The Intimate Pleasure of Watching is filled with sinister violence. Nodjoumi does not shy from tackling difficult themes such as geopolitics and the distribution of power. Here, a corporate figure is kneeling down; the other covered in arrows, and finally an alienated standing nude woman in the background is resigned to watching the entire scene. The viewer is caught in a desire for interpretation and solutions. The present work implies a strong sense of symbolism although this does not necessarily lead to import. Nodjoumi claims that 'only the hidden humour between the powerful and powerless matters and my painting is the reflection of that tension'. He insists that the painting should retain the privilege of what cannot be verbalized into an obvious structure, thus forcing the viewer to regard the painting primarily as art. He finally adds that 'everyone has his own logic and every logic should matter, good painting, bad painting nothing makes sense anymore what remains is how to look at the painting and the way one expresses it'.