Part 1

TEHRAN Maryam Hashemi is a young painter who was born in the British city of Birmingham in 1977. Hashemi, who grew up in Tehran, has painted since she was a child. She has so far taken part in several group and solo exhibitions. Her style of work is expressionism, but she is interested in surrealism, too.

The TEHRAN TIMES recently conducted an interview with Hashemi in which she elaborated on her works and style.

Following is the interview:

Q: How do you evaluate the status of painting in Iran? What is the condition of art training in the country?

A: Today, painting has been highly acclaimed by people. People in all walks of life respect art and artists and a large number of them encourage their children to study art. However there are a number of people who are doing artistic works, but lack the required aptitude for it. Moreover, certain people prefer to copy the work of others.

For the above reasons, the number of weak artistic works is increasing. Even cheap works have customers and this is a pity for our art.

Meanwhile, art training has its problems. Due to the presence of professional artists, art training is better in universities. But certain cultural institutes which hold painting and designing courses do not pay due attention to principled teaching methods. For this reason, many of those who are trained in such institutes create weak works which are based on a fixed framework. In other words, their talents do not flourish.

From my own point of view, a person who teaches painting should possess high visual and artistic knowledge. He should make the students familiar with works and styles of different famous painters. The art teacher should strengthen the hands and technique of his students and guide them to select their own favorite style. Unfortunately, there are few art teachers who have the above characteristics.

Q: What color do you prefer to use in your works?

A: Since I always work as a free painter and do not think about my works before I start to draw them, the forms and colors I use depend on my feelings at the time I begin to draw. The colors which I use depend on my psychological mood.

There was a time when all my works were dark, but now there are light colors in my works and the space of my works is very open and colorful. Currently, I use vivid colors in my works, but it does not necessarily mean that paintings with vivid colors are happy ones. In many works, despite using vivid and warm colors, the message that they convey is very sad.

Q: What is your view of painting?

A: From my point of view, painting is a window into the world of the artist. One can see the feelings, dreams and wishes of an artist in his painting. We can analyze the artist's way of thinking through looking at his painting. A good painter has a firm presence in his painting. There is no limitation in the themes of paintings. The painter can even create things which do not exist in reality. Painting is the basis of other arts such as sculpture, photography, filmmaking, animation and theater.

Q: Would you comment on your exhibitions?

A: I took part in a group exhibition in Barg Art Gallery in 1997. After that I held several private solo exhibitions. I held my first solo exhibition last month in the Seven Persons Art Gallery. It was a successful exhibition and was highly acclaimed by visitors. Some 30 of my watercolor and colored pencil works were put on display in the exhibition.

(To Be Contd.)