Manouchehr Niazi, Master of limited color
Manouchehr Niazi is an orderly hard working artist with a deep, romantically humanistic imagination that brings order out of chaos when he interprets the beautiful landscapes of Iran.
To look at a Niazi landscape is to surrender oneself totally to a world of fantasy. He paints the natural scene, not photographically, but as it would appear if nature were in the art business, painting in the style of "Romantic Realism".
The artist said that he was interested primarily in "harmonies obtained by employing the infinite tones, and variations of a limited number of colors". These colors in a Niazi painting are embroider on the canvas, that is to say, the same color appears in an embroidery, and so all the others more or less, according to their importance; in this way the whole will form a harmony.
Niazi's "embroideries" of subtle, closely related tones may baffle the art public, who have come to expect blatantly colored canvases, competing for attention on the crowded walls of the galleries.
One cannot equate the landscape of Niazi with those of Constable, Claude or Ruisdael because unlike these giants, Niazi's oil painting technique is closer to that of the water colorists. To an oil painting traditionalist this is a sacrilege. But standing before one of Niazi's landscapes the viewer soon forgets that the artist may have committed an offense.
A considerable time has now passed since a comprehensive appreciation was made of the works of Manouchehr Niazi. This passage of time has perhaps made possible an analysis which is more balanced and quieter, free from passing influences of an importance only momentary. Today, gold, silver, oils, tempora, special glazes, rare carpets and an unusual sense of creativity are the ingredients of his new and dynamic approach to the art of collage.
Each collage is treated as a separate problem, as indeed later each was subject to decide its own appropriate color, light, pattern and rhythm. Each composition is inspired by its appropriate movement: the grand slow tempo of the soaring image of EARLY PERIOD; the urgent and arrested rhythm of the INTEMEDIATE PERIOD; and above all the tremendous contained movement of his PRESENT PERIOD. Movement is an essential element of Niazi’s present period of collage but movement, color and rhythm are not the only vital element of his present day collages. There is the synthesis of a unique vision derived from deep emotions rooted in the mind of a man who is also a trained accomplished actor and opera singer, whose masterful draftsmanship enables him to work in various fields of the painter’s art. The timeless quality of his collage sets him apart from all others.
Dr.Harper Johnson (Artist, Historian and Cretique)
