So close, Yet so far

The Iranian artist Mojé Assefjah developed in her painting a distinctive visual language of exceptional grace. Part wide, curving ribbons open up the pictorial space in all directions. Here, the brush strokes squirm with their specific color and fine structure in dynamic gestures on the image carrier, compress and overlap and directing the viewer's gaze into deeper levels. The use of almost forgotten egg tempera technique and ink in many thin glazes allows the artist color effects that are reminiscent of the Italian fresco painting of the early Renaissance. The darker, usually intensely colored loops in the foreground contrast with the chalky tonality of the background. Sometimes a recess leaves a piece of canvas unpainted and so produces a light beam in the dark. Although the artist of non-representational painting has prescribed, the images convey an idea of space, and evoke associations of landscapes, plant forms and textile drapery forth. The flexibility of the movements and brushstrokes reminiscent of Persian calligraphy. Lightness and structural density and the change between transparency and opacity, light and darkness, far and near characterize Assefjahs imagery that may involve a mysterious depth and atmospheric quality in itself.