Painters' Neighborhood 2002

Curator: Stepping closer, one notices the palpable feeling, the kind that only Morteza Katouzian seems to evoke so effortlessly. This one, entitled "Painters' Neighborhood," created in 2002, makes one almost feel as though they were among them. Editor: My first impression is one of almost ghostly transience, like a half-remembered dream. Or maybe just a chilly day at an outdoor art market? The monochrome and loose strokes give it that faded feel. Curator: Exactly. Katouzian is a master of the sketch, of the suggestion, focusing more on the energy of the scene and less on photographic precision. It makes use of charcoal and pencil and becomes a beautiful depiction of a Parisian open-air studio of the twenty-first century. Look closely, one sees the figures huddled for warmth beneath umbrellas. One really questions where and when this art piece was rendered, the details of jackets, smoking implements, folding chairs—mundane items. It brings this art back to material circumstances. Editor: Those simple lines somehow describe volume and weight; there's a sense of heft to the figures despite the overall ethereality. I think what is truly special here is what is left undone; It allows my imagination to do the rest of the work, painting colors, inventing their conversation, hearing sounds from a muted din of urbanity, such as voices speaking in Farsi. What is more is that there is this smoke floating from the painting within the art, a special moment of an impossible portrait, quite special. Curator: And the open-air market here underscores a certain relationship between the means of artistic production, market exchange, and collective viewing experiences; It challenges our preconceived notions of how and where art should exist, offering an intimate, human-scale alternative to these rigid settings. Editor: It brings an immediate and charming real-life scene, the everyday hustle of art into, ironically, high art status here within this art gallery. Curator: Indeed, a reflection of an everyday setting but elevating those everyday objects, back to the same material, reminding you of the essence of these figures. Editor: All art becomes about the artist's interaction with their reality, and Katouzian shows us this masterfully. Curator: An almost reflexive homage and one that begs further consideration. Editor: Absolutely. Something truly special occurs within these sketches that goes far beyond their apparent spontaneity.