Life or Else, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s Latest Exhibition, Mirrors Humanity’s Fragile Yet Infinite Connection with Nature
As we enter the summer season, a time of heightened travel and outdoor existence, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar’s latest exhibition, Life or Else, offers a timely reflection on the various landscapes we inhabit.
Presented at Setareh Gallery in Düsseldorf, Life or Else is the solo exhibition of French-Iranian painter Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar. This latest body of work merges the artist’s personal journey with a sense of universality. Sassan has long been concerned with environmental preservation, a theme that characterised his previous exhibition, Ocean, a series created in collaboration with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation last year. This concern continues as a thread through his latest work, emphasising the urgent need to address our planet’s fragility.
Sassan’s densely layered canvases pulse with vitality, inviting viewers into abstract dreamscapes where energy, spirituality, and botanics converge. These works transcend escapism, forming a fusion of personal history and global consciousness, oscillating between harmony and discord. Sassan’s upbringing in Tehran, Iran, amidst the violence of the Iran-Iraq war, profoundly marked his artistic evolution. His paintings serve not only as a medium for expression but also as a channel through which the artist navigates and transcends personal and societal traumas. Abstraction has long been considered a conduit to spiritual connectivity, exemplified by artists such as Kandinsky. For Sassan, painting is a meditative practice, a site where memory and manifestation merge and where connection to a higher consciousness takes place.
Relocating his studio to the striking French Riviera later in life provided Sassan with new inspiration. His recent compositions are characterised by vivid aquas, deep rusts, inky blues, and sandy hues absorbed from the region’s natural terrain; the textured cliff edges, ancient pines, and balmy waters that surround him. Rather than merely depicting these landscapes, Sassan imbues his works with a deeper purpose: to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues. Through his art, he aspires to provoke collective consciousness, harmony, and connectivity. By integrating locally sourced pigments into his paintings, he encourages viewers to reflect on the delicate equilibrium of our natural world, mirroring the ground beneath their feet.
The exploration of colour and form is central to this exhibition, realised through the artist’s distinctive peinture raclée technique. Sassan’s rhythmic process involves the gradual buildup of colour and complexity, with layers of paint being laboriously applied and then scraped back to reveal underlying textures and hues. This process of revelation falls beyond the artist’s control and embodies a sense of relinquishment. The exhibited works exude raw emotion and energy, inviting the audience to contemplate their intimate relationship with the land they inhabit.
Life or Else is on view at Setareh Gallery in Düsseldorf from June 28 to August 24, 2024.