Main content
Shirazeh Houshiary
This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk
Born in Iran, Shirazeh Houshiary has lived and worked in England since 1973, consistently drawing on modern sensibilities as well as Islamic traditions, particularly Sufi mysticism. Here she discusses works like Veil (1999), returning to themes of light and darkness, visual perception and judgement, explaining: "I'm trying to explore how we see the world.". Created by Tate.
Born in Iran, Shirazeh Houshiary has lived and worked in England since 1973, consistently drawing on modern sensibilities as well as Islamic traditions, particularly Sufi mysticism. Here she discusses works like Veil (1999), returning to themes of light and darkness, visual perception and judgement, explaining: "I'm trying to explore how we see the world.". Created by Tate.
Want to join the conversation?
I'm asking myself how to visit a museum, with all the knowledge that I have gain during this course I feel like I could spend a couple of minutes looking each painting in a museum. So how to do it in a big museum considering that I don't have stamina enough to spend more than 2 hours walking inside it.(3 votes)
There are often benches in museums, so you could take short breaks and continue your exploration of the museum. You could also visit the museum multiple times.(3 votes)
- Am I the only one who thinks that the painter "forgot" about Malevich's Black square? What makes her Veil any different apart from the fact that it was created 84 years later?(2 votes)
Lots of artists have done black squares since Malevich. Some of them have had very different ideas of what they were doing and you have to assume that they all knew about Malevich and were confident that they could do something different with the square. You can ask whether a black square can convey all those different ideas but these were serious efforts, whether they worked or not. In many cases a back square is not just a black square. Malevich's black square has a thick white border and is very much a flat, geometric shape not an infinite void, like Houshiary's. Others have subtle variations in texture and colour. Maybe big ideas can be conveyed in these little details that distinguish the black squares. So, maybe you are being a little unfair to Houshiary but you are certainly correct in wondering whether "black square plagiarism" does go on. I once attended a student exhibition where one of the artists annoyed me enough that I wrote "Kasimir Malevich wants his royalties." in their comment book.(2 votes)
Do u know about the african like ghanas designs if udo may u plz send me it and make i video(2 votes)
You may find this in the section on African Art. Where there is extensive material about Ghana, Benin and other art of West, East, Central and Southern Africa.(1 vote)
Is she known in Iran and is she allowed to have an exhibition today there? Today being 2015.(2 votes)
The painting at3:33is truly beautiful does anyone feel that this painting with the purple hues amongst the white take you to a place of fantasy or mythical type of feeling?
How do you feel about the painting?
My observations are the following
1.It gives me a sense of Joy in fact a feeling of happiness
2.It almost has this light and fantasy quality if I were to look at it as abstract you could almost say that Fairies are playing also a sense of nature and the season of spring(1 vote)- Does Veil have any paint on it?(0 votes)
Yes, the background of Veil is black acrylic paint, over which the artist has drawn with pencil. You can read more about the painting here: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/houshiary-veil-t07776(2 votes)
3:33