A sense of temporality and an artistic life lived beyond the bounds of the professional art world

To Live, And How to Live, Has Become the Ultimate Question

It seems we are all suspended in a profound astonishment. Our contemporary society is bewildered, caught between the foundations of its ancient civilization and the contradictions of the modern world. As Attar wrote in The Conference of the Birds:

Who is this Reason fallen at the door, A child, born deaf, bewildered evermore.

Our reason no longer answers. And so, in these tense and turbulent days, as part of a familiar habit, I visited an art exhibition at Ba Gallery. These rituals are a balm for the regrets of the past. But what can I do? I never tire of witnessing beauty and the effort to create it.

There, I encountered an artist whose maturity, calm, and silence had yielded works devoid of vanity or ego—a poetic elegy to the struggle for life.

Who could have imagined that today, we would find ourselves longing for a life of ordinary days, untouched by politics and violence? It seems the role and responsibility of art has shifted.

For centuries, human civilization has been shaped by reason and instinct. Yet today, our creations, shaped by greed and desire, pursue inequality. And throughout all these years, art has been the one realm that has continuously transformed its meaning through the evolution of civilization, remaining a remedy for human pain. As Nietzsche once wrote:

"In fleeing truth and its terrible weight, art has saved us."

Asghar Aharipour, born in 1953 in Tabriz, completed his education at the Mirak School of Fine Arts and the University of Tehran.

He works within a figurative visual system, reflecting poetic imagination throughout his art. A skilled draftsman, Aharipour demonstrates deep familiarity with both human and natural forms.

His understanding of color and his imaginative design sensibility reveal the influence of a life shaped by nature and an appreciation for the elevation of figurative thought.

This exhibition showcases ink drawings on paper with delicate colors, alongside oil paintings. His oil works are often rich, intertwined compositions of human bodies and wild mountain flowers, an expression of openness and a tender kinship between human emotion, flowers, and the natural world.

Ahari’s figures are serene yet rich in expressive diversity, reflecting his unique personal style and objective vision.

His nude portraits, far from eroticism, are solitary and immersed in their own dreamworld. The artist’s introverted spirit speaks to an artistic existence independent of the professional art market.

The monotone color palettes of his figures, blending emotion and delight in nature, reflect a lived experience—one that is sorely absent from today’s outer world, which is increasingly dominated by anxiety and politicization. His work serves as a reminder of humanity’s belonging to nature and imagination—a reminder that challenges the imposed, politicized life of the modern human with the possibility of a more organic, natural existence.

Ahari aims to create personae—like those born during the Renaissance—that have historically intertwined with the individuality of the artist. These personae reflect a human being called into presence by the necessities and demands of the times. And yet, Ahari’s portraits—despite their human form—lack conventional facial features, striving instead to uncover the psychological and inner traits of humanity.

In portraiture and figure painting, space is no less important than the figure itself. Aharipour’s figures inhabit non-places, environments that minimize spatial construction but prioritize color and form.

A unity of time and place in upright human portraits can strengthen the social dimension of the artist’s voice—but this is an aspect Ahari has perhaps explored less. His imaginative world has absorbed much of his focus. Yet a future expansion of temporality and spatiality in his work could give rise to more powerful artistic expressions, especially resonant with local audiences today.

Asghar Aharipour is a painter currently distanced from the collective dialogue. Yet his technical skill and imaginative strength promise the potential for a vast and compelling artistic journey.