As Gentle as a Petal Brushing Against the Skin

Asghar Aharipour belongs to an old tradition within Iranian modernist art—a tradition that took root in Azerbaijan and introduced a wide spectrum of artists to the broader landscape of Iranian art. Over the decades, this tradition has evolved and, like many other currents in Iranian art, become increasingly diverse. Among its practitioners, one can find both figure painters and those who are more drawn to depicting nature. Despite this variety, it seems that the voices of those artists within this tradition who have seriously engaged with nature—at least in Tehran—have been more prominently heard.

According to the Visual Arts Group of Honar Online, Aharipour seems to occupy a place between these two approaches. Traces of newer tendencies in painting can also be detected in his current body of work.

While this series contains hints of still life as well as purely figurative approaches, its dominant feature appears to be a deliberate attempt to merge floral and botanical elements with the human figure. This type of visual synthesis can also be observed in the works of younger artists such as Morteza Pourhosseini, Morteza Yazdani, and Najmeh Kazazi, among others artists whose mostly nude figures are either fused with, concealed by, or visually integrated into natural elements. Yet, Aharipour’s works stand apart in several key aspects. Most notably, his use of color: employing mostly pure pigments and a wide color palette, he creates vibrant, eye-catching compositions that radiate a sense of joy and vitality. Another distinguishing feature is his evident attachment to art history, where one can trace influences ranging from Baroque to Neoclassicism elements that give his work a different expressive tone compared to his younger contemporaries.

This fusion of figure and floral elements—primarily flowers—sometimes results in simple juxtapositions: the figure is either hidden behind a plant or enveloped by a large bouquet. These works are somewhat easier to interpret, evoking a kind of reverence for both the figure and the floral motif. It’s as though the artist has sought to express beauty through an execution filled with rich forms and vibrant colors. The result is often a fully realized aesthetic experience. It seems the artist is attempting to depict beauty—beauty found in the human form, in flowers, and in the subject of painting itself.

A second group of Aharipour’s works presents a different kind of relationship between figures and flowers one in which the fusion is incomplete. In these paintings, a visible distance or tension exists between the figure and the flowers, making them less immediately graspable than the previous group. Here, the artist seems to be expressing a more nuanced or layered concept suggesting that what we see holds meaning beyond its literal representation. These works invite metaphorical interpretation and open the door to imaginative readings. The relationship between the figure and its natural surroundings hints at everything from mythology to compositional ideas that link the body to nearby natural elements, allowing symbolic associations to emerge in the viewer’s mind. In this way, these paintings gesture beyond themselves—to myth, history, society, and more.

One might say that this visual approach signals the beginning of a new path in the artist’s journey of exploration—an attempt to discover visual possibilities that bring the image closer to metaphor (in its literary sense), thus making the work more open to interpretation. Perhaps this direction paves the way for future steps in his artistic evolution.

Ultimately, viewing Asghar Aharipour’s works places us before enchanting and beautiful landscapes—made all the more engaging through his technical mastery of image-making.

Hafez Rouhani (Art Critic and Writer)