Persian Miniature is a self portrait of the artist,
seen in what seems at first glance to be a
forest of silvery white birch trees, which upon
closer examination deliquesce into pure,
vertical swathes of paint. Pollock-like drips
and splatters inscribe the surface of this work,
reminding us that every painting, no matter
what it represents, is finally an arrangement of
pigment on a plane. The artist is thus immured
in a forest of paint, thick
with the history of painting,
from the representations
of the Renaissance to the
inchoate world of Abstract
Expressionism.
Persian Miniature
The title, Persian Miniature,
hints broadly that Ghenie
positions himself outside
these Western traditions, or
at least that his subscription
to Western painting bears a large measure
of irony. The Islamic prohibition against
portraying the human figure was skirted in
the miniature, perhaps because these small
paintings on paper were kept in a book or
album and viewed privately. Such paintings
were brightly colored; Ghenie, in his Miniature,
eschews color and camouflages his own
HYLAND
