Aria from the Goldberg Variations
Artist
Farhad Ostovani
(born 1950)
Date1994-2007
MediumWatercolor, drawings, lithography, and collages on Nepal paper marouflé on wood panels (30 panels)
DimensionsOverall: 87 × 90 inches (220.98 × 228.6 cm)
Each: 16 15/16 × 16 15/16 × 2 inches (43.02 × 43.02 × 5.08 cm)
Each: 16 15/16 × 16 15/16 × 2 inches (43.02 × 43.02 × 5.08 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund
Object number2024.69.1.1-30
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 203
Collections
DescriptionAria from the Goldberg Variations consists of thirty square panels, around 14 inches square, displayed as a grid. Individual plant leaves rendered in ink, printing, paint, or drawing on Nepalese paper are mounted like a collage on the panels. The overall composition depicts small, lively leaves speckled across large fields of negative space.Exhibition HistorySe son Rose fiorirano, Museo civico di Spoleto, June 26 – July 12, 1998.
Farhad Ostovani, Jensich Museum, Switzerland, 2000.
Ostovani: Paintings, Drawings & Illustrated Books, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, 2003.
Farhad Ostovani: Goldberg Variations, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, March 7, 2026 - February 28, 2027
Ostovani’s visual composition is light and lively, balancing forms and open spaces, matching the mood, grandeur, and underlying logic of Bach’s Aria. He renders leaves of varied shapes and textures through drawing, printing, and painting on paper. These are then assembled as collages and mounted on panels.
The Aria is the foundation upon which the rest of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are designed. As the first piece, it includes the baseline and musical chords that establish the sound and structure for the rest of the 30 musical variations. Ostovani’s Aria suggests this structural role with a 30-panel grid—at once a single work and the embodiment of all 30 variations.
The Aria is the foundation upon which the rest of Bach’s Goldberg Variations are designed. As the first piece, it includes the baseline and musical chords that establish the sound and structure for the rest of the 30 musical variations. Ostovani’s Aria suggests this structural role with a 30-panel grid—at once a single work and the embodiment of all 30 variations.
Ostovani, F., Boogert, B. v. d., Heer, E. d., Ostovani: Paintings, Drawings & Illustrated Books. (Netherlands: Museum Het Rembrandthuis, 2003)
Ostovani - Ut musica pictura, exh. cat. (Germany: Morat-Institut, 2008)
Yves Bonnefoy, Farhad Ostovani: Variations Goldberg (Aux éditions des
cendres, 2013)
Copyright© Farhad Ostovani
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