Fatemeh Burnes - "Capriccio" exhibition catalog

FATEMEH BURNES CAPRICCIO

FATEMEH BURNES Capriccio

Belonging in the Abstract

by Rachel Youens The epic abstract paintings of Fatemeh Burnes speak to today’s moment of global movements and flows of peoples across borders, while their aesthetic language speaks of her own individual consciousness as a cultural stranger in America. Abruptly relocated to California from Iran in the mid-1970s, her paintings reflect her hunger to learn a new language and the cultural codes she discovered here, alongside her childhood memories and aspirations as an immigrant-artist.

This prolific exhibition of paintings, all of them made in 2017 and 2018, was stimulated by a recent feeling of awakening and of integration. They are gesturally immediate and densely layered; alternately transparent and obscure, they are weighted with structural collisions and spatial changeability, and suggestively place man-made inventions deeply within nature’s geologic formations and gaseous expansions. In these paintings the plasticity of form and rhythm retrieve memory through metaphorical explorations of balance and dislocation. She develops a discourse of beauty and catastrophe through encounters with layered emulsions, rapid scale changes, lightening quick qualitative shifts, and blinding flecks of light.

The title of her exhibit is Capriccio, which in music refers to an iterative allegro, quick and skipping.

In painting the term has been used to capture the moods of Tiepolo, with his fantastic and exotic archaeological ruins, and to the savage and absurd satires of Goya.

Burnes’s childhood took place before Iran’s Islamic revolution, where the nation’s deeply rooted traditions persisted alongside its conflictual entrance into modernity under its last monarch, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Her family lived near the border with Turkmenistan, where her father had been appointed the chief. Through the Iranian curriculum, she was trained in Islamic miniature painting, flower arranging, and portraiture. A curious and exemplary student who loved both literature and science, she passed her university exams at age sixteen. But her father had been imprisoned for much of her childhood, leaving her in the care of her mother. She arrived in Los Angeles in 1973, a child-bride beginning to raise a family and to learn English. At some point she attended school to study microbiology, and her interest in science continues today, but her first years here were difficult.

In the 1980’s Burnes began anew in a second marriage, which allowed her to participate in the Los Angeles art scene. Acquiring a new vocabulary, she began to creatively explore her cultural disfluencies and misapprehensions. Turning increasingly to abstraction, and shifting her scale from small to large, Burnes responded to a broad range of sources to create unexpected new syntheses. Her work continued to reflect her early immersion in Persian miniature painting, with its clarities of frontality and line, but she began to embrace the lessons of expressionists like Anselm Kiefer; and to integrate concepts from the conversations about geometry that she had with California Non-Objective painter Florence Arnold.

In contrast to the Minimalist and Conceptual concerns of her contemporaries, critics labeled her a sentimentalist, but she used the vocabulary of abstraction to explore what Fatemeh calls “a weight on the brain, its holes and pockets—and a switch in the head.” As Rosenberg said of her expressionist predecessors Gorky, de Kooning, and Rothko (who also were immigrants), she found she could create a “sense of history made up of diverse cultures by which historical consciousness compels a continual choosing of possibilities.” 1 Burnes’s paintings of this period were concerned with a magical quest for spiritual development in a sequestered place, exploring one’s displacement into the strangeness that has become one’s home. Within a newfound relaxation of self-censorship, she was free to explore puzzles and fragments—things that didn’t work together—, and to form compromises within a fragmented consciousness. As Harold Bloom has pointed out of literary artists, the search for form and content is comprised of a dialogic “battlefield of competing forces,” which “represent gaps between original fractures, and where negation is a way of taking cognizance of what is repressed.” It is a place where poetry is born of condensation and displacement, rather than by direct observation.

Windowless gabled houses are a recurring motif in Burnes’s oeuvre. In her recent painting, Dawn, rows of houses stand in a grid like formation under raking light, throwing lane-like shadows on a flattened topography. They might equally refer to a utopian tract of housing in southern California or to a refugee camp. Orderly and neat, they embody dual feelings of newness and of lostness, temporariness or permanence, an ambiguous space between shelter and anonymity. Above them, in miles of atmospheric fluctuations, a twined rope hangs suspended in the foreground. The imagery may refer to Burnes’s memory of surveying and leveling ground near the border of Afghanistan, under the supervision of her soon-to-be first husband. She had wanted to study 1

Rosenberg, Harold, The Anxious Object, p.33, University of Chicago Press, 1982.

architecture in Iran. Women at that time were free to do so, though a professional career for them wasn’t allowed. In the painting, the rich, harsh depths of the sky above and the tautness of the surface below yield a sense of risky aspiration, of mortality and vertigo, which, as in Bruegel’s Fall of Icarus, go unnoticed except by the sun.

Burnes’s epic triptych Playground depicts no mere child’s game. A post-apocalyptic capriccio, it presents a panorama of uncanny surfaces, evoking a techno-romantic sublime inspired by anime.

Across its three panels, a gravitational field is strewn with metallic beams, concrete rubble, and stone. The small scale of Burnes’s marks suggest a bird’s eye view. Within a central window, fragmented beings emerge from the blast of an upturned pipe. They float through the atmosphere as if above the gravitational field, their gestural plasticity beautifully rosy and crystalline. In her decentered concept of history, there are no heroes in this actionable place, but a strange inter-weaving of space and time which feels distant, though it may actually be close at hand.

What does belonging mean? Burnes’s commitment to abstraction releases the memory of psychic transformation and abrupt acculturation through gesture and play. From the tensions and adventures of her deep past and her encountered present, her paintings speak of discord in sensual terms.

From our comfortable, media driven setting in the globalized West, we witness people in motion, uprooted and compelled to leave their homes—alone or with traffickers—on boats, in planes, or in caravans, all of them searching for acceptance and transformative integration, and for participant democracy beyond the reach of autocrats. What is left behind and what will be encountered? The painting of Fatemeh Burnes reflects on the fabric of our repressed collective memory.

Rachel Youens is an accomplished painter, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 1980) with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brooklyn College (CUNY 1993), where she studied with Lois Dodd, John Walker, and the late Jack Whitten and Lennart Anderson. She has exhibited in numerous one, two, and three person shows in the New York Metropolitan area, including Sideshow Gallery (2006), Open Source (2010), the Salena Gallery, Long Island University (2013), and Valentine Gallery (2013, 2017). A close observer of nature and society, her allegorical still life, plein aire, and panoramic tableau paintings have been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008-2009), a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant (2006), and grants from the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY (2008, 2015). She has enjoyed Artist in Residencies at the Fundacíon Valparaiso in Almería, Spain and The Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. Youens has written art criticism for Cover Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, NY Arts Magazine, The Villager, NowChelsea, and artcritical.com. A dedicated educator, she teaches courses in painting, theory, and design at Parsons School of Design, The New School, and at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) in New York City.

Fool’s Paradise, 2018, oil, pigment, emulsion, spray primer, asphalt, and plaster on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

Imminent Shred, 2018, oil, piano rolls, hand-made paper, pigment, and lithography on canvas, 44 x 44 inches

Bounds, 2018, oil, pigment, emulsion, spray primer, asphalt, and plaster on canvas, 60 x 60 inches

I Wasn’t There, 2018, oil, pigment, oil pencil, and emulsion on wood panel, 20 x 10 inches

Dawn, 2018, oil, pigment, asphalt, and hand-made paper on canvas, 48 x 72 inches

Transplant, 2018, oil and pigment on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Hush Moss, 2018, oil, pigment, emulsion, and spray paint on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Transplant, 2018, oil and pigment on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Hush Moss, 2018, oil, pigment, emulsion, and spray paint on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Chimera, 2018, oil, pigment, and spray primer on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Guest, 2018, oil and pigment on wood panel, 16 x 16 inches

Playground, 2016-2018, oil, pigment, and spray primer on canvas, 72 x 138 inches

Crossovers (series), 2017, multimedia on panel, 12 x 12 inches each

It is Never the Same Green, 2017, oil, pigment, hand-made casted collage, and emulsion on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

I Followed Alice, 2017, oil, pigment, hand-made casted collage, and emulsion on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

The Jungle Remains, 2017, oil, pigment, hand-made casted collage, and emulsion on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches

Intruder, 2018, oil, hand-made paper, pigment, and emulsion on canvas, 44 x 44 inches

Sisters, 2018, oil, pigment, and spray paint on canvas, 44 x 44 inches

Fatemeh Burnes b. Tehran, Iran

EDUCATION Post graduate studies in Exhibition Design, California State Universities, Fullerton and Long Beach, 1992 - 1994 M.F.A. Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking, California State University, Fullerton, 1986 B.A. Drawing and Painting, California State University, Fullerton, 1984 Private studies in Florence and Paris, 1973 - 1977 Kamalolmolk School of Art, Tehran, Iran ​ SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS ​ 2019 Ten Year Survey, curated by Leslie Brown, Riverside Community College, Riverside, CA 2018 Capriccio, High Noon Gallery, New York, NY 2013 Imprints of Nature and Human Nature, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA Interstices, The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2012 Observing Nature, curated by Scott Canty, Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, CA 1994 Canyon Series II, Womens Opportunity Center, University of California, Irvine, CA 1993 Canyon Series, Maturango Museum, Ridgecrest, CA 1986 M.F.A. Exhibition, California State University, Fullerton

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2018 Lazy Susan V/Human Nature, LAVA Projects, Alhambra, CA Can’t See the Forest for the Trees, Manhattan Beach Cultural Art Center, Manhattan Beach, CA 2017 The Painted Desert, Part II, High Noon Gallery, New York, NY Artists on the Bridge, Photo LA, Los Angeles, CA Confabulating, Mt. San Antonio Gardens, Claremont, CA Trans-Angeles, Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Aschaffenburg, Germany Synergy, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 2016 Palm Springs Fine Art Fair: Post-War and Contemporary Art, Lam Gallery, Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA Art 4 Trevor, Benefiting the Trevor Project, Lam Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Collaboration, Santa Monica College, Santa Monica, CA Trans-Angeles (Fatemeh Burnes, Cosimo Cavallaro, Kubo, Katsuhisa Sakai), Museum Wilhelm Morgner, Aschaffenburg, Germany Trans-Angeles: Crossover Experimentation, Chabot Museum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands The Language of Perpetual Conditions, California State University Los Angeles Fine Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Abstract Never Is, ViCA & Muzuemm, Venice, CA Photo LA, Los Angeles, CA 2015 How Many Miles to Babylon: Recent Paintings from Los Angeles and New York, curated by Peter Frank, C24 Gallery, New York, NY Water Works, curated by Juri Koll, Museum of Art and Hitory Cedar, Lancaster, CA Visualizations in Art and Science, South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA Water Works II, curated by Juri Koll, The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, CA Curate This, The Gabba Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Flock, Gayna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA 2014 Transforming Feminism, South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro, CA Trans-Angeles, curated by Peter Frank, Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus museum, Soest, Germany Water Works, curated by Juri Koll, Porch Gallery, Ojai, CA Rewilding, Manhattan Beach Creative Arts Center, Manhattan Beach, CA

2013 Urban Asia and the Evolution of Zero+ Publishing, Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA Dangerous Beauties, curated by John O’Brien, Sturt Haaga Gallery, La Canada Flintridge, CA Guides, dA Center for the Arts, Pomona, CA Flux/Quirk, The George Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA 2012 Un-Natural, curated by Scott Canty, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Didactic, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA Transition: In Memory of Richard Raynard, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA Text and Texture, curated by Peter Frank, Fresh Paint Art Advisors, Culver City, CA 2008 FRAG-MENTS, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 2006 Inversion, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 2001 Sequence: Part Two, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 1998 Synchronicity, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 1995 Miniature, Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA Separate Reality, Mount San Antonio College, Walnut, CA 1994 The Committed Image, Mt. San Jacinto College, San Jacinto, CA 1993 Aesthetic Processes, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA Dreams and Tokens, Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1991 Edinger Gallery, Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA ​Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA ​Landscape Plus, Olga Dollar Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1990 Man and the Environment, Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, CA, Spirit of the Canyons: A Celebration, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, CA 1989 Save-a-Tree Exhibition, CSUF Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, Fullerton, CA Saddleback College Art Gallery, Mission Viejo, CA Point of View, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA 1988 Edinger Gallery, Art Institute of Southern California, Laguna Beach, CA On the Edge, California State University, Fullerton, CA 1986 Interchange, Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA 1982 Exit Gallery (two-person exhibition), California State University, Fullerton, CA 1979 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA 1978 Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, CA - First Place Award for Photo Realism 1977 Los Feliz Orthadox Church, Glendale, CA,

Fatemeh Burnes | Capriccio November 15 - December 23, 2018 Edition of 100

Publisher: © 2018 Jared Linge HIGH NOON GALLERY

Art © 2016-2018 Fatemeh Burnes Text © 2018 Rachel Youens Photography: Adam Reich

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, without prior permission from the publisher.

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cover: Fool’s Paradise, 2018, oil, pigment, emulsion, spray primer, asphalt, and plaster on canvas, 60 x 60 inches