Falling Angels III 1994

Aydin Aghdashloo painted this haunting image of a figure, with mixed media on canvas. The background is inky and obscure, as though the figure is emerging from darkness. I feel the artist has laid down the sallow, greenish flesh in long sweeping brushstrokes, with a kind of urgency. But then, look at the strange addition of delicate miniature paintings and patterned textiles that appear to be emerging from the wounds in the figure’s back, they feel deliberate and precise. Perhaps he’s thinking about how history and culture haunt the present. There’s something about the contrast that is so moving. This makes me think about other artists who juxtapose figuration and pattern, like Gustav Klimt and his shimmering golden surfaces. It’s like Aghdashloo is showing us how beauty and pain can coexist, how our identities are formed from fragments of memory, and how painting is a medium for exploring these kinds of complex feelings. It reminds me that we’re all just trying to make sense of the world.