DARK ,BRIGHT, TONS OF DRAWING

November 17, 2003
"Jame jam" Newspaper
Translated by "Reza Sanaee"

There has been a noticeable gap between fine art and art loving Iranian people for a long time. As time passes by we encounter larger amounts of artistic information, emergence of new styles and drawings. Unfortunately a considerable number of visitors to art museums and galleries look at the works from their personal point of view, and totally disregard the fundamentals of art and their consequential technical backup. Drawing is considered to be one of the most basic principles of any art form; but it is a lesser known type of fine art since it is often disregarded compared to other art forms. Upon being mentioned “drawing” brings to many minds a series of hasty strokes of the pen, and sketches that are created within a short time for the sake of “practice”. But in fact "Siavash Mahvis’s drawing" is of a different essence.
Awhile ago the Barg Gallery was hosting 3 periods of this artist’s drawings, the result of his works within 10 years. The first period that is called the “Dark Period” by the artist, shows his works of the years 1994 –1997. During this period his works were influenced by his own mentality and a kind of darkness overshadowed his soul. This is the reason why his works of this period have been created with exaggeration tending toward distortion. There is a predominance of expressionistic practices, the figures are twisting and captured in darkness, and also the white of the paper is barely visible. In the works of the second period from 1997 – 2000, you will notice that the negative imagery is shattered down to be replaced by a new one in which the tendency is toward more light and ascent. He has named this period the “Empty Period”. Study and research has penetrated his works, and life and soul are brought into his sketches. His last period known as the “Bright Period” begins with the year 2000 and stretches well into present. The strokes of Mahvis’s pen reflect a unique kind of emancipation, and induce a melodious rhythm in the visitor.
The artist admits to having been listening to a lot of music in this period, and that he did all the sketches and drawings of this stage while listening to background music. In short you could say that these period witnesses more white of the paper than the previous ones. What is prominent in Mahvis’s works is his penetration into the souls and thoughts of his models. He is in search of a broader horizon. Perhaps in a careless observation, his works may look like copies of still life; but in reality they are mirrors reflecting the soul and thoughts of the visitor. It is not easy to look into some of the models’ eyes in his drawings for long. Because it would be more appropriate to say that he has so masterfully captured the inner eye of the model that the boldness of it would make it impossible to look back into the models’ eyes. His intention is to “dominate” over the image, and he sketches the inner characters of his models in his works.
He was born in 1965 and is a lecturer in University of Tehran and AL-Zahra University. He has also another 10-year program, in which he intends to draw the inner self with more transparency. However, 10 years is too long a time to wait to see his works again. Siavash Mahvis has had 12 group exhibitions most of which consisting of him and a partner. He has also had exhibitions with his trainees at the Laleh and Bahman Galleries. He has participated in both of the biennial drawing exhibitions of Contemporary Art Museum, and in the designing section his works were chosen to be displayed in an exhibition in the Ershad Gallery of Karaj in 1997, set up for the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies, and also in the Barg Gallery, and he was awarded at both exhibitions. He is a lecturer in University of Tehran, AL-Zahra University and other related educational environments.