Lot 141: Reza Lavassani , Iranian B. 1962 Wave oil with silver and gold enamel paint on canvas, in three parts

(i) signed and dated 1387 (A.P/ A.D 2008) oil with silver and gold enamel paint on canvas, in three parts

measurements note each: 150 by 100cm.; 59 by 39 3/8 in. overall: 150 by 300cm.; 59 by 118 1/8 in.

Private Collection, Europe

Both a painter and a sculptor, Reza Lavassani is an artist-philosopher whose painted forms have a three-dimensional element to them. In his wood-cut like canvases, the artist poetically pictures mythical and natural forms like flying horses, gliding birds, curling plants, tumbling waves, and floating boats in abstracted, modern terms. Through his curvilinear delineation of these historical symbols, motifs, and subjects and through their graceful movement across his picture frame, Lavassani encapsulates the harmony present in the world that surrounds him. But Reza Lavassani also recognizes and represents the complexity of this balanced world in his paintings through his decision to merge a number of forms which have been drawn from contemporary Iranian culture but which have multiple origins in any one scene. Reza Lavassani's artworks are coloured by a fascination with humanism. For years Lavassani has concerned himself with exploring the humanities as a means into art, with investigating the undeniable connection between human studies and creativity. As part of this effort, Lavassani has studied philosophy and mysticism in particular and has been engaged with finding meaning in mythology, sociology, religion, history, and so on, meaning that would assist him to arrive at a new understanding of Time and of humans and their inner needs. Reza Lavassani's celebration of the beauty and serenity of diversity, contrast, and confrontation in the world in his artworks is a product of the insights that the artist has reached over time; the artist himself says, "the true secret of all human sciences is to give man peace and tranquillity, and help him to establish an authentic relationship with himself and Nature." What's more, Lavassani's works are marked by an affecting sensitivity that results from the artist's acquired belief that reality - man and Nature - can only be truly perceived by the heart and not by intellect. In Wave, Reza Lavassani has created a triptych image of a large wave in a turbulent sea, but the unrest of Lavassani's body of water has an organized calmness to it. The orchestrated opposing movement of the distinctly drawn parts of the sea such that they elegantly curl, overlap each other, and turn in on themselves without violently crashing produces this sense of peace and composure. The idea of the unity of the whole is stressed in Lavassani's paintings as well. All of the disparate parts of the sea rise and fall in unison, as seen in their amassment into a great wave in the central panel. Togetherness can also be deduced from the single arc that floats across the triptych and that encompasses beneath it what could be interpreted as the entirety of the world since many ancient cultures believed water to be the source of everything and the end to which everything returned. Further adding to this accentuation of unanimity is the synchronization between the body of water featured in the work is and its environs as the backdrop of the painting consists of a pattern created from the image of moving water. Adding a symbolic dimension to the triptych is Lavassani's use of unusual colours to depict this natural scene. In Wave, Lavassani relies on purple which may represent the spirituality, wisdom, and enlightenment that exudes the order of the world or that Lavassani has gained over the course of his artistic and intellectual journey. The artist employs gold which may represent the heavens, thereby adding to Wave an unworldly aspect and silver which may refer to the sense of security, reverence, and humility that he has attained for the stable and intelligent nature of the cosmos.