Conversation with Haedeh Zarrinbal
Q: Ms. Zarrinbal, tell me a little about your background.
A: I was born in Tehran but I was around five when my family moved to Ahvaz. I stayed and studied in Ahvaz until I graduated from high school. I have a fond memory of this time.
I hadn't started school yet and I was close friends with our neighbor's daughter, Leila. Her mother was a painter. Leila and I used to play in the yard while her mother painted. One day she asked me to pose for her. I have absolutely no memory of how this woman looked but I will never forget the portrait she painted. I was wearing a black and white checkered dress with a white collar. I had short black hair and I remember that she used Conte crayons. Somehow this scene later influenced my decision to become a painter but my father played no small role in this decision either. He was a very good calligrapher but he didn't paint. He would make beautiful designs with calligraphy and Iranian carpet forms. I probably get my talent from him.
Q: When did you decide to become a painter?
A: At first I studied literature and at one stage I even thought I wanted to become a writer but I always used to paint. In seventh grade I had a wonderful art teacher who encouraged me a lot. It took me a while but in 1965 I finally decided to enter art school.
Q: Did you have any solo art exhibitions while you were at university?
A: Not really. I had to work to pay my way through university. I did basic things like teach a bit but I never went so far as to participate in exhibitions. Actually I didn't even have my first exhibition till years after I finished school. Aydin Aghdashlou saw my work and decided to set up a couple of exhibitions for me. The first one was held at the Al Zahra University and another one was later held at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
Q: Your work shows many different phases. You go from your black and white war period to realist drawings to your present geometric abstractions…
A: I don't agree with your use of 'geometrical'. I think you mean abstract works and not geometric. I have had many different stages and I've never been any good at keeping my work. But I've had various figurative stages too where I'd work on portraits and the human form. At this time I used to work with charcoal and oil. I continued to paint like this until I started working on old traditional houses in Kashan and later came my Evin Darakeh period when I was painting broken down houses. So it wasn't until about 1986 when figurative work gradually faded from my paintings. In the beginning you could say my work took on a somewhat Abstract Expressionism tone.
I can't really tell you what my style is because it's not as if I approach my canvas with a set style in mind. Over a long period of time and through various experiences things settle into the unconscious that are later revealed through one's brush.
Even when I was drawing my figurative paintings there were innumerable abstract elements that had seeped into my unconscious and wound their way into the fabric of my mind. They sometimes surfaced in various parts of my figurative work to show that even at that time I was already involved with abstract elements.
I personally think that the human form continues to exist in my works even though it's not physically observable. For example, when I was drawing my broken down houses of Darakeh the houses themselves spoke of how people had abandoned them. The presence of the owners could be felt in their very absence. The cruelty of neglect only particular to man speaks of agonized absences also only particular to man.
Q: How did you go from this period to your war paintings?
A: After the Darakeh period, I had a brief affair with Expressionism. Then came my war paintings where you can see people in the paintings once more albeit in the collages of the paintings.
As I've progressed, my forms have been made simpler and as you say 'geometric' shapes have worked their way into the paintings. All in all they've become more abstract.
Q: Where does this need for the abstract come from?
A: I think many artists face the temptation to experiment with 'absolute' form and color. The artist seeks to portray feeling through color and form without actually using a fixed external entity. She tests herself to see how much she can express of her inner thoughts, feelings or opinions that are all inborn in her humanity. Her means is the abstract substance of color, a substance that in and of itself has no feeling, no form. She works to draw some kind of harmony between the means at her disposal and her inner world. The question that follows is 'how successful is the artist in this attempt'? There, I can give you no answers.
Q: You use a lot of browns, greens and blues in your paintings. Can you explain why?
A: These colors have always been my predominant color choices. In my early works I have a lot of paintings that are actually only brown. The browns and greens have always been with me but then suddenly blue made its appearance onto my canvas. From that moment blue just took off and there were many times when I felt I'd almost overused it. I enjoyed experimenting with blue. I actually enjoy experimentation of any kind. It is through experimentation that nice things happen, beautiful accidents. Now blue works its way in unconsciously. Often I have little control over the color scheme because each color calls forth the color that is to follow. So it's the colors themselves that guide my hand. The two elements become a means through which a thought is expressed, an experience is relayed. At least that is how it is with me. I have a certain desire or plan when I start a piece and I might even have a dominant color or form in mind but once the piece is started the first color I place on the canvas is the color that will guide all the later colors.
The world of the mind is innately abstract so once abstract painting is used to express the conception of an already abstract world it becomes multiply conceptual.
Q: Your abstract works have a very fixed organization and structure. Why do you use such geometric forms that are so rigid and yet so fluid and oriental? These are forms we see on Iranian carpets and gilims.
A: Every artist is undoubtedly somehow affected by his or her own background. What you're saying reminds me of when I was at university. I researched Iranian carpet and gilim designs for a while. I even studied Turkmen forms. At that time I was still doing figurative paintings. I was painting houses but at the bottom of my canvas I had already started these geometric forms you now speak of. So it might well be that elements in my past, namely Iranian carpet designs, have seeped in and are now pouring out onto my canvas.
Things stay in the unconscious; particularly those things that have hit you either positively or negatively but definitely powerfully. They stay lurking in your unconscious waiting to express themselves at some point.
Q: Why do you paint?
A: What else am I to do? If I didn't paint I would definitely write. I used to write a lot when I was in high school but painting is a game. It's a game in which there is both joy and pain. The painter stands before the canvas and there is pain as he strives to bring out his thoughts but on the other hand as the work takes off and progresses there is also joy. This game is a blessing that takes solitude away. For me it's a blessing to know that I can actually stay in my house for ten to fifteen days, never set foot outside and yet nothing will happen so long as I'm painting.
Q: You have taught in Iranian universities and institutions for at least twenty years. You've also been painting for at least forty years. What difference do you see between art in Iran today and art in Iran thirty years ago?
A: As everyone knows we had many good artists before the Revolution and it was easier for artists to work back then but today when we look at our young generation of artists we see we have many good artists in their midst too. Art has never been taught well at our schools neither in the past nor today. School art books are always lying crumpled in children's bags. Kids are not taken to museums, in fact most Iranian families are not interested in museums or galleries and yet in spite of all this we see very good artwork in the country. What's lacking is the security that an artist needs to work.
Q: Today there's a new trend appearing on the Iranian art scene. Young artists barely out of college set up exhibitions as soon as they've done a few paintings. How do you assess this situation?
A: There are two sides to this. If we look at it from a strictly financial point of view it might be acceptable. But if we want to look at the quality of an artist's work or his or her improvement then we have a problem. The trend today is that they set up an exhibit here for one or more very good artists and then suddenly right next to such an artist's works we see the very crude paintings of a young artist who is barely out of art school. Once this is done many of these younger artists delude themselves into believing that they've actually made it and their attempts for improvement start to halter.
It would be very good if we could have centers where young artists could exhibit their works and where analyses and opinions could flow more easily. However, there is no such place and it's not just the fault of the artists themselves. I believe we need some serious planners.
Gallery curators need to be able to work out plans and schemes to help artists promote their works while keeping things in perspective. A lot of these young artists need to be supported. Unfortunately, galleries in Iran are not supporters. There needs to be organization so that those artists with true talent can be recognized.
The way it works here is very primitive. An artist arranges his works to be exhibited in a gallery for a few days. Once the exhibition is over the artist pays a certain percentage to the gallery and everything ends. But no gallery is really out there trying to recruit young talent to support such talent and allow it to blossom. It's only a financial exchange at this point and the gallery owner is only in touch with the artist so long as he's exhibiting his work. The minute the exhibition ends it's all over and done with.
Now that Iranian art has made some very good sales in Christie's and Sotheby's over the past couple of years I hope things will start to change.