Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi (French, Born Iranian)

painted in 1971

Overall in good condition. There is a 2mm loss of oil paint along the top edge and 1mm loss of oil paint along the bottom edge. Framed without acrylic: 125 by 118 cm; 49 1/4 by 46 1/2 in.
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This work is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity from the Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi archives and will be included in the forthcoming Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi Catalogue Raisonné.

“Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi is the bearer of a precious gift: a fundamental intuition that drove him straight away in his art to speak of just and true things by their trace and to create an effect of detachment in the artist’s and in the public’s memory. What is the exact proportion of East and West in this major option and its spectacular virtue of enchantment? It matters little, it is the mystery of God’s talent and finger. ” – Pierre Restany (1930 – 2003), French art critic and cultural philosopher

Pioneering Iranian artist Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi was born in Tehran in 1937. Having laid the foundations for an artistic revolution known as Saqqa Khaneh in the late 1950s, he relocated to Paris in 1960 when the French government granted him a scholarship at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. Drawing on the creative movements of Expressionism and Lettrism, Zenderoudi cultivated an abstract painting style imbued with calligraphic forms and gestures.

In the 1970s, when French intellectuals were interested in China, Charles-Hossein Zenderoudi began to incorporate allusions to Chinese painting tradition in his works. Referring to the Confucian proverb, “When the sun rises, my heart fills with light,” in the title, the present painting SEDA + SOBH + ZOUD is a colourful work of pigments and acrylic on canvas that mirrors Chinese literati painters’ depictions of scholar’s rocks.  Bold red brushstrokes (gou) against a black background outline slightly more gestural vein (cun) strokes within floating forms across the canvas. In the context of Chinese symbolism, the blending of red strokes and pools of gold denotes a sense of prosperity and good fortune.   However, the hard-squared edges of the calligraphic lines are more reminiscent of Persian calligraphy than that of the Chinese tradition; the final result is a hybridisation of stylistic influences, such that Zenderoudi’s work breaks down cultural barriers and brings forth a distinctive form of visual communication that is true to the global artist. “People around the world are all the same and everyone is able to read my work,” he explains. “What matters is the harmonisation between the heart of the artist and the heart of the viewer.”¹

¹ Myrna Ayad and James Parry, "The Letter as a Sonata", CANVAS magazine, September/October 2009