Variation n°25
Artist
Farhad Ostovani
(born 1950)
Date1998
MediumWatercolor and ink drawings on Nepal paper marouflé on canvas (2 panels)
DimensionsOverall (2 panels): 11 15/16 × 118 1/8 × 1 inches (30.32 × 300 × 2.54 cm)
Each (panel): 11 15/16 × 59 × 1 inches (30.32 × 149.86 × 2.54 cm)
Each (panel): 11 15/16 × 59 × 1 inches (30.32 × 149.86 × 2.54 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund
Object number2024.69.2.1,2
SignedSigned on verso, top right: "Farhad OSTOVANI | étud pour varietion No. 25 goldberg | Nicolayeva Tatiania 1998 -"
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 203
Collections
DescriptionVariation no. 25 is the first work from the Goldberg series. It consists of painted and drawn renderings of fragments of rose stems and leaves on Nepalese paper, assembled like a collage and mounted upon two wide stretched canvas panels.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
In Variation No. 25, Farhad Ostovani suspends spare plant forms against empty space. The series was inspired by a recording of Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924–1993) playing J. S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Ostovani was interested in Nikolayeva’s performance and the spaces she left around the notes.
He began the series by collecting rose stems and leaves during an artist’s retreat at Doland Mountain in California. However, the sudden illness and death of Ostovani’s father made him put the project aside. When he returned to it a year later, the plants were decayed. Listening to Variation No. 25, Ostovani began methodically painting preparatory studies of the dead plants while processing his grief for his father. This two-panel composition became the first work in his Goldberg Variations series.
He began the series by collecting rose stems and leaves during an artist’s retreat at Doland Mountain in California. However, the sudden illness and death of Ostovani’s father made him put the project aside. When he returned to it a year later, the plants were decayed. Listening to Variation No. 25, Ostovani began methodically painting preparatory studies of the dead plants while processing his grief for his father. This two-panel composition became the first work in his Goldberg Variations series.
Se son Rose fiorirano, exh. cat. (Museo civico di Spoleto. Aa.vv. Electa, 1998)
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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