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Ali Golkar, 1948 -
Ali Golkar, at the age of ten, had already achieved recognition as a painter in his home city of Isfahan, Iran.. His prodigious talent was nurtured and disciplined until, in 1975, at the age of 27, having earned the reputation as one of the most important painters of his generation, he set out for the U.S. and launched his career as an artist.
Today, at almost 50 years of age, his work is known throughout the world and he is represented in nearly every important international art exposition. His corporate collections include United Airlines, American Express, Bank of America and others too numerous to mention. He has held one-man exhibitions in the prestigious Galerie Claire in the south of France, the Lawrence Galleries in California and now his inaugural exhibition at Park West Gallery.
"My hand holds the brush and my heart blows life into it." Ñ one of the many poetic verses Golkar has written about his artistic experience. He has developed a pictorial style in which shapes and figures assume mythological proportions. In many works, each section is dominated by an archetypal human figure. The subjects appear to be created by a painter reflectively lost in his dreams. His works link motifs taken from different realms of his subconscious.
His view of visual art mingles with his passion for poetry and the two worlds merge on the surface of his paintings. GolkarÕs aim is to transcend the boundaries imposed on the visual and verbal arts and to create a new synthesis Ñ a new world where his conscious and subconscious thoughts are made tangible. His paintings, watercolors and pastel drawings serve to document and order his dreams, desires, visions, impulses and his fertile imagination. Archetypal symbols flow and pulse. Greek mythology is transformed into the Renaissance icon and again into twentieth-century European Modernism.
GolkarÕs works can be associated with PicassoÕs cubism Ñ particularly the juxtaposition of motifs and the transparency of forms. The famous quote of Picasso serves well as an artistic credo for Ali Golkar and he embraces it readily Ñ "As my pen and paint happen to be my weapons, I wanted to use them to penetrate deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the world."
Golkar has created a method of painting whereby he can explore his impulses and imagination. By showing several aspects of a figure or concept that could not be seen from one view, he reveals what is happening on more than one plane. We are presented with a simultaneous view of a conjunction of forms, giving the effect of a multidimensional relief sculpture.
Ali GolkarÕs works have been actively collected for over twenty years. He exhibits at most major international art expositions, and can be found in important private and public collections throughout the world.