Of ropes, rocks and opposing forces
Iranian artist Mina Nouri describes her art of contradictions
My world is that of a solitary human being faced with an array of contradictions. My main goal in life is to record some of them. I was born in Tehran, in 1951, into a family which adhered to customs and traditions with clear-cut ‘musts’ and ‘must nots’. When I grew up a little, I had the feeling that I was different from members of my family. They did not understand my wishes and desires. My father faced a dilemma in dealing with me and had to act contrary to his general attitude; therefore, many of the ‘must nots’ became ‘musts’. Then I went to school. Everything there was ‘must’ and I quickly found myself in contradiction with the school. Those school years were very difficult and I spent them in absolute solitude, during which time I thought solely of painting. Painting became my only joy but, to sustain it, I had to learn the alphabet of the visual language. Therefore I travelled to Italy to study painting and, at the Accademia di Belle Arti, Rome, the Accademia di Albertina, Turin and the Instituto Statale d’Arte, Urbino, I also became familiar with printmaking; it was a wonderful experience.
I have not ceased working since 1970. My theme has been the concept of contradictions, a theme that prevails in all aspects of life: forms, colors and compositions; contradictions between a realistic and an abstract view of life, between figurative and non-figurative elements, between known and made concepts. Social, cultural and lastly individual contradictions are always on my mind. Yet, I have no inclination to depict them overtly.
As an organic form, with a repetitious rhythm in structure, the expressive potential of rope first attracted me in 1988 and has appeared in my paintings ever since. The form of a rope can be soft and flexible yet it is solid with a regular structure. So, considering my own interpretation of its form, I combine it with other natural forms that have an irregular, non-rhythmic structure, to portray the tension and interplay between opposite forces. At one time, I imposed ropes and a white square on to backgrounds and depicted some aspect of nature: landscape, sky, clouds and portraits. At another time, these ropes and white squares appeared on surfaces of varying texture. Later, I dispensed with the white square and juxtaposed imagery of ropes with small rocks. I adopted different techniques: colored pencil and pastel on paper, oil on canvas, monoprint, etching and aquatint. Each series of these works was displayed in solo exhibitions in Tehran. The latest series of etchings and aquatints was executed in autumn 2002. They were published as a book: The Etchings of Mina Nouri, which accompanied an exhibition.
In 1997, several artists were invited to draw a portrait of the pioneer of new poetry in Iran, the revered Nima Youshij (1897-1959), on the occasion of his centenary. I embraced the idea because this poet’s thoughts too, during his lifetime, ran contrary to that of the general literary community in Iran. Work on this portrait, given my awareness of Youshij’s convictions, was not difficult. As I was, at the time, experimenting with several techniques, I executed this work in aquatint and etching on two plates – copper, another zinc – and printed ten of them in four color variations in my studio.
In recent years, I have noticed that viewers spend more time at my exhibitions. Most are probably searching for an answer already imprinted in their minds: that is the familiar concept of rope. This answer has a literary connotation and I strongly reject this traditional meaning. My definition is one that is visual, subjective and abstract. Figurative elements are my means of establishing a relation between viewer and artwork. What interests me is that the viewer can immediately see but not what he wants to see. This is a matter of contradiction. The viewer is forced to ponder because of the abstract nature of the mind and the figurative essence of the picture. Just like when I was a child, I still wish to convert those ‘must nots’ into ‘musts’.
Nouri, Mina. “Of ropes, rocks and opposing forces.” Printmaking Today winter 2003: Vol. 12 #4.