Obtenez gratuitement le prix de votre transport

1 lot à livrer

• Lot n° 87 Davood Roostaei (1959-2023) "Perennial Struggles," 2021  Acrylic on canvas Signed, dated, and with the artist's initial and device lower left: D (or R) Davood / 2021; titled, dated again, and with the artist's handprints, verso 36" H x 48" W Provenance: Property from an Important West Coast Collection, acquired directly from the artist Exhibited: Los Angeles, CA, Wonzimer Gallery, "Fields of Dreams: The Paintings of Davood Roostaei," solo exhibition curated by Peter Frank, September 22-October 2, 2023 Other Notes: "As 'reality' couldn't speak to the complexities of the modern world, the brush couldn't do what I needed it to do." --Davood Roostaei Davood Roostaei was a painter of profound originality whose work redefined the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, perception and revelation. Over a career spanning four decades, Roostaei forged a singular path through postwar and contemporary art, culminating in the invention of Cryptorealism, a complex visual language rooted in concealment, layered meaning, and active viewer participation. His paintings are not simply seen; they are deciphered. Born on October 12, 1959, in Malayer, Iran, Roostaei began his formal artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Tehran in the late 1970s. His early promise was soon interrupted by the political upheaval of the Iranian Revolution. After being imprisoned for two years for his dissident views, he was granted asylum in Germany in 1984. There, he encountered the dominant postwar currents of European painting, particularly the visceral intensity of Anselm Kiefer, the existential figuration of Georg Baselitz, and the symbolic systems of A.R. Penck. But while these artists grappled with historical trauma through monumentality and semiotic collapse, Roostaei struck a more radical course: he sought a new visual structure altogether. In 1986, Roostaei abandoned all conventional tools and began applying paint exclusively with his hands. This tactile, embodied process allowed him to manipulate surface and form with extraordinary precision, giving rise to works of exceptional complexity. Luxembourger art critic and curator Hervé Lancelin observed that "His fingers became extensions of his mind, as in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, where the body is the vehicle of being-in-the-world." Lancelin further described Roostaei's art as if "Pollock and Bacon had a child raised by Deleuze and Guattari," capturing the fusion of visceral energy and philosophical depth that defines his work. By 1990, he formally introduced Cryptorealism, derived from the Greek kryptós, meaning "hidden." These paintings embed psychological archetypes, mythological figures, and political ghosts within layers of abstraction. They invite the viewer to move beyond passive observation toward a deeper visual excavation. Peter Frank, American art critic and curator, described Cryptorealism as swallowing "idea and fact, individuals and global forces into vortices of paint, conjuring in their density of meaning the very opposite of black holes, but displaying a similarly endless appetite for energy - and material, and time." Cryptorealism is not defined by style but by philosophy. It is a system of seeing, a perceptual matrix in which the known and the unknown, the visible and the veiled, are held in tension. German art historian and critic Hanns Theodor Flemming explained that Cryptorealism "conveys at first glance the impression of being an abstract-tachist painting, however at its core has a clear meaning and message. It is an art form of enigmatic expression, incorporating realistic motifs drawn from a wide range of themes - from antiquity to the present and future." Roostaei's compositions emerge from eccentric angles and viewpoints, often depicting forms that metamorphose in the twinkling of an eye. As American art historian Albert Boime noted, "His work consistently discloses disguised and reversible imagery that sends the viewer on an optical steeplechase. Roostaei's energetic spatial fields fairly explode with dense imagery and spattered paint, combining a kind of Jackson Pollock approach with the Old Masters and popular imagery." This dynamic interplay creates paintings that are both puzzles and portals - simultaneously historical, psychological, and metaphysical. After relocating to Los Angeles in 2000, Roostaei's work expanded in scale, luminosity, and spiritual depth. The Californian environment, its light, its openness, catalyzed a period of creative intensity, allowing him to further explore the interplay between form and immateriality. Despite increasing international recognition, he remained deeply independent, working outside commercial trends while steadily building a network of collectors, scholars, and curators drawn to the integrity of his vision. Roostaei exhibited extensively across Europe, Asia, and North America. His works are held in distinguished private collections and have entered institutional dialogues on contemporary perception, post-figurative painting, and the metaphysical potential of visual art. His career was marked by institutional recognition, such as exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Beijing and Schloss Reinbek, and acquisitions by Hamburg City Hall and the Hadassah Medical Center, whose collection explores the healing power of art in civic and medical contexts. His work is also housed in the Obama Presidential Library, underscoring its enduring resonance within cultural and historical memory. Roostaei passed away on March 11, 2023, leaving a body of work whose significance continues to deepen. Roostaei's paintings are recognized not only as feats of technical and conceptual mastery but as philosophical objects, quiet monuments to the mystery of perception itself. His legacy places him among the most visionary painters. Like Kiefer and Richter, Roostaei grappled with history; like Pollock, he redefined the surface; yet he stands apart for his ability to synthesize East and West, mysticism and modernism, visibility and concealment into a unified, living form. Description of the work: In "Perennial Struggles," Davood Roostaei distills a lifetime of confrontation, internal, existential, and eternal, into a single searing composition. Beneath a maelstrom of color and texture lies the shadowed theater of the soul, where the artist casts himself as a solitary matador locked in endless combat with the unseen yet ever-present forces that govern human fate. These are not mere bulls, but living symbols of memory, regret, fear, pride; ancient adversaries that return again and again in shifting forms. The painting vibrates with this cyclical violence, its layered surfaces acting as both armor and wound. Roostaei's battle is not for triumph, but for endurance, for the ability to stand, bloodied but unbowed, in the storm of one's own becoming. "Perennial Struggles" is more than a title, it is a condition of being. With every flick of the wrist and eruption of pigment, Roostaei renders visible the lifelong, often silent war we each wage within. The duel between who we are and who we pretend to be. Between the calling of the spirit and the seductions of comfort. Between resilience and surrender. This is a work not of abstraction, but of revelation, one that transcends aesthetics to touch something primal in the viewer. It is an invitation to sit with discomfort, to honor the unseen labor of selfhood, and to recognize beauty not in perfection, but in persistence. "Perennial Struggles" is not just a painting to behold; it is a mirror held up to the heroic quiet of every soul unwilling to yield.