Shahryar Hatami

Persian “Miniature” is a multilayered, mysterious art form. The more traditional and metaphysical reading of its imagery connects it to the imaginal world and the realm of divinity, and the historical approach addresses its symbolic and mythological aspects. Nonetheless the mystery is not in what the painting reveals, but in the language concealed under the images. Persian painters reflect their deep understanding of geometry, astrology, and perspective by a worldly and temporal language, drawn through the painters’ compass, set square, and rulers, and not through their virtuosity or imagination.

Since the foundation of the first library-atelier in Rabi‘ Rashīdī in Tabriz (8th AH), until a bit later than “Shah Tahmāsb’s repentance” which led to the exclusion of the painters from the royal atelier (117-18 AH), for three hundred years the Persian Miniature was following an identifiable, coherent, and integrated visual language.

The method that has been applied to this study, which aims to decode this “particular way of seeing” is based on the routine of the works of medieval artists. It demystifies Iranian Miniature and leads to the hidden geometry of the image; an attempt to revive a remarkable visual thought in Iran’s cultural geography. In this research, 120 illuminated manuscripts, from Jāmi‘ Al-tawārīkh (707 AH) to so-called Shah Abbās’s Shāhnāmeh (1006 AH), have been studied through the discoveries of Iranian medieval mathematicians.2021 June

One of the distinguishing aspects of my practice is to challenge observation and visual perception. Subject matters that I choose vary from contemporary issues to classical art. References to art history and the history of seeing are inseparable to my art. Yet, I do not put art history on a pedestal as references are not there to be praised or to give joy; they rather work against each other.
Each of my works has a different subject matter as I do not make series. I mix painting and sculpture with mechanical machines that question the nature of painting and sometimes go against the nature of creation and even ruin it. 2015 Dec