BAHMAN JALALI (IRANIAN 1944-2010)
Untitled (From the 'Image of Imagination' series)
signed in Persian Bahman Jalali; numbered 4/10 (lower right)
sepia photograph on paper, unframed
70 x 70 cm (27 1/2 x 27 1/2 in)
executed circa 2000-2009

PROVENANCE
Private collection, Europe

PUBLICATION
Art of the Middle East, Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran (Merrell Publishers), Eigner 2010

Born in Tehran, Bahman Jalali graduated with a degree in Economics and started working in photojournalism during the Iran-Iraq war. Following this, he worked as an independent photographer. The present work is from the ‘Image of Imagination’ series. Jalali conceived the idea of overlaying images from offset printing machines. When test pages were printed, they would be recycled and re-printed on, creating a multi-layered image. He selected photographs from his existing collection, and those from the Qajar period, to superimpose onto one another and create his final compositions. In this particular piece the winged female figure alludes to a cherub from Raphael’s ‘The Sistine Madonna’.