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TEXT BY DJURO–GEORGES PERON-MAGNAN
To be invited into Pejman‘s studio to see him paint is a privilege. When he was a child, he did not mind performing in front of a public but enjoyed being at the center of the stage. Now, as a young man, he does not like sharing these intimate moments anymore.
He may occasionally use an earlier sketch as inspiration for a picture, most of the time it is the untouched canvas that fires his imagination. He will put it down on the floor or pin it to the wall. His favourite music is playing full blast (he‘s lucky to live in on the top floor of an elegant mansion with tolerant neighbours). When he paints, it looks like some ritual dance. His hands are in constant motion, juggling colour jars, pastels whirling in his long fingers, a brush screeching on canvas. It feels like he has fallen out of time. As the processus gains momentum, his eyes change, their expression becoming intense, piercing and critical. He sets accents, defines space and combines colours that we may feel are in disharmony (later, when the painting is finished we shall not remember why). Pejman often paints the whole night through, unaware of hours passing by.
And then, all of a sudden, he stops, puts his brushes away. His work is finished. Pejman re-emerges from wherever he was, exhausted like after a match and casts a first look on his painting, still wet. As he has company, he will start to explain, analyze, point out details, give the painting a name. His sharp intellect, his awareness and clarity are impressing. Once a picture is finished, he will not touch it anymore.
That‘s how Pejman paints, be it in his atelier, in a hotel room, on a ship in an Asian jungle or on an island. He loves nature and needs to get away from mundane city life ever so often. He is a daring traveller, seeking new experiences without thinking much about possible dangers.
This recklessness is reflected in his art. He sucks up emotions, impressions, images like a sponge will absorb liquids. Born into a refined family he has read more than many of his contemporaries and has formed strong opinions about politics, art, religion, history and esthetics. He used to write poems when he was a child. Nowadays, words and statements figure in his paintings.
His perception of the world is often transformed into symbols he calls his spirits: Heads, bones, dentures, monsters, fish, eyes, letters that resemble alphabets of a long gone time, embedded in colours that by themselves evoque meaning. One painting may lead us into a past totally unrelated to our sceptical minds. The next one will be an expression of the present, full of aggressive slogans typical for a youth his age.
Pejman‘s paintings are disturbing. Not only does his art correspond little to his physical age, but it is hard for many to understand how an autodidactic artist without academic formation can be so masterful. One is tempted to look for influences by famous artists and may even find them, but this turn out to be an impasse. Pejman devours them and transforms them at once into his own artistic language. He does not care to even ponder about which artist may have kindled which new spark in him. He neither has the time nor the leisure to tackle this subject. He has been painting for 14 years now, and his work is meaningful, consistent and original.
Pejman the painter is boundless. Both violent and gentle, he expresses chaos as well as deep peace. His images often seem rooted in the distant past.
The catalogue PEJMAN – INNER TRIP shows paintings from
1998 to 2000 (259 illustrations, most of them in colour).
ISBN: 2-9512787-1-3
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