In Conversation

TURBULENT WORLDS: ALI BANISADR & PATRICIA HICKSON



Join artist Ali Banisadr and Patricia Hickson, the Emily Hall Tremaine Curator of Contemporary Art at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, in a close read of one of the artist’s major paintings, Red (2020) alongside select works by Max Ernst.

Red
 embodies the existential force of the natural world and the artistic urge to reconcile chaos through the act of creation. Banisadr began the large-scale painting in late 2019 before stepping away from the work in January 2020. Despite its appearance of completion, Banisadr “had a sense that I needed to do more to it.” After the global pandemic struck and countries across the world went into lockdown, he says, “the work made sense to me in a new way.” Banisadr then revisited the painting with renewed dedication, finishing at the end of March 2020.

To view Kasmin’s in depth presentation about the making of this painting, click here.

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