I discovered Reza Derakshani’s work some years ago in a gallery in Dubaï and was immediately attracted and seduced by his way of bringing Persian art in a contemporary version. His art conveys his meditative solitude that is the result of the pure freedom of his self-expression.

Since he was a child, Reza knew that he wanted to be an artist. Brought up in a nomadic family in the Iranian mountains, he explores through his art the natural world as well as emotional states and themes of exile and alienation. His large-scale paintings are blending abstract and figurative elements from both Western and Eastern cultures. They are the result of a long search process of finding his own language of expression. Considered as an abstract expressionist artist, his work, composed of layered textures, is reminiscent of artists such, for instance, as Gerhard Richter or Per Kirkeby. After Iran, Dubaï, the States, Italy and many more places around the world, he is now established in Istanbul where he works and lives. I was happy to visit him there at the end of last year in order to discuss his project and views for his exhibition at Espace Muraille. Thus, the inspiration finally results mainly in four seasons paintings, but also in sculptures about coffee tales which, like the settled tea-leaves at the bottom of a teacup, form a serie of works flavoured by Reza’s cultural heritage. 

Derakshani is not only a painter, but also a musician and a poet. But it is really within contemporary painting that he has experienced true liberation and fulfillment as an artist. The influence of music and poetry can however be seen in the rhythmic harmonies that play out across his canvases, qualities that have prompted comparisons with the paintings of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. His passion for beauty and deepest perception of the world has found expression in many different forms. But above all, with painting, music and poetry, he hits the heart of Persian artistic culture. Thierry Vernet, who’s works we exhibited some years ago Espace Muraille, in his correspondence with his parents during his long topolino trip with Nicolas Bouvier from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan, wrote, when he crossed the boarder between Turkey and Iran, that he was leaving a country of warriors for one of poets. Through all Reza’s ways of expression and practices, this poetic approach and dimension plays a fundamental role and places his art at the confluence of civilizations. Featured in many public prestigious art collections, it is an honor for Espace Muraille to exhibit Reza Derakshani’s recent works and we thank him for the spiritual life he is bringing within our walls like the fig tree, a source and symbol of survival, which inspired him a poem:

“…The shadow of a fig tree quiets my soul.”

Caroline Freymond