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Davood Roostaei's cryptorealistic paintings reveals new form of art
Davood Roostaei in his studio. Photo by Hugh Foster
Like many great artists, Davood Roostaei’s artistic path has been a winding one. Born in 1959 in Sarab, Iran, Roostaei was introduced to the arts at a young age. His fascination with painting blossomed in the gardens of his family home. As a young adult, he followed his passion to the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran in 1977.
Each leg of the journey has sculpted Roostaei into the artist he is today. His career began with classical training where he sampled a variety of artistic styles, gravitating toward surrealism and abstract realism. Upon realising he needed a style of his own to depict his personal and artistic experiences, he developed Cryptorealism in 1990. Cryptorealism is an expression of hidden meaning, revealed through layered imagery, which requires active participation by the observer. According to the renowned German art historian and critic, Hanns Theodor Flemming: “Cryptorealism conveys at first glance the impression of being an abstract-tachist painting, however, at its core has a clear meaning and message.” Indeed, Roostaei encourages us to consider that which is not readily perceptible both in life as well as in his cryptorealistic paintings.
His work was first exhibited as a part of a group cultural art tour in 1981 that included countries such as India, Egypt, and the then Soviet Union.
In 1984, where he continued his art studies first at the Kunst fur Hochschule in Cologne, and then at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg. Through his relentless work during these years, he was able to develop his career as a revered artist.
In 2000, Roostaei set his sights on Los Angeles, a city where his inspiration and imagination could run freely.
Cryptorealism Revealed
Cryptorealism is a unique artistic mode that offers a novel perspective of both art and reality. It is an art form of enigmatic expression with realistic motifs taken from a diverse range of themes from antiquity to the present and future. Roostaei strives to pull the viewers of his paintings into a higher level of awareness. His Cryptorealistic paintings are profound, interesting, and provocative. They exude emotion, intellectual history, and great imaginational positions. He has a talent for bringing together one piece of profundity against another in his work. Roostaei’s paintings portray a whole world in front of us, while at the same time thoughtfully revealing an underworld of meaning. Cryptorealism is a whole new world, but it is not one disconnected from earlier works. Art has always told us about worlds of which we are unaware, but Roostaei does so in a very profound way by layering one aspect of meaning after another. In this way, he forces us to relegate our old perspectives, reminding us there is never just one meaning.
Roostaei’s imaginings come to life through his hands. He abandoned the use of brushes in 1986 in executing his works, since then he has solely used his arms, hands, and fingers in creating his paintings. This method of both style and technique has allowed Roostaei to fully express himself both personally and artistically. His commitment to finger painting has also made his work incredibly visceral, rigorous, and powerful.
Roostaei’s intuitive imagination has made for impactful work. According to Albert Boime, the American art historian and critic: “Roostaei paints compositions from eccentric angles and viewpoints and often depicts forms that metamorphose in a twinkling of an eye. His work consistently discloses disguised and reversible imagery that sends the viewer on an optical steeplechase. Roostaei's energetic spatial fields fairly explode with dense imagery and spattered paint, combining a kind of Jackson Pollock approach with the Old Masters and popular imagery.” His ability to create such complex masterpieces has earned him a loyal following of collectors and institutions alike. In challenging conventions both technically and creatively, Roostaei’s paintings offer a unique and generous visual experience.
Cryptorealism indeed succeeds in drawing meaning from layers of expression. It looks at levels of meaning upon meaning done in a very dramatic way and solely executed with Roostaei’s bare fingers. He is an artist who takes the boundaries and resists them at every level —intellectually, technically, and artistically. A collection of his recent works are currently on display for the first time in Canada at Vancouver Fine Art Gallery.
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