Published by Skira. Text by Alex Bacon, Shiva Balaghi, Masako Tanaka.
Working primarily with painting and printmaking, Los Angeles–based British Iranian artist Kour Pour (born 1987) is known for producing vivid and decorative canvases that are built up in many layers and the result of detailed hand painting, silkscreen printing, and sanding. Concurrently, Pour has produced large-scale, hand-carved woodblock and linocut paintings that are also presented in this publication. The artist draws from a wide range of source material such as Oriental carpets, Persian miniature paintings, Japanese ukiyo-e prints, geological maps and package design from around the world. In each series of paintings, these images are treated in various ways. Some works appear as straightforward or slightly altered reproductions. At other times, Pour creates works by combining multiple sources into single compositions. The artist also crops, fragments and abstracts to create new interpretations of familiar cultural imagery. Stylistically the paintings move from highly patterned and decorative canvases to minimalist geometric surfaces and color-field painting. It is within the multiplicity of works that certain themes recur, such as the role of originality and appropriation within cultural exchange, to the way that identity can affect how art is viewed and valued. The ecstatic energy found throughout Pour’s practice is in part the product of the artist’s biography, as well as the movement of people, objects and images that takes place through travel and technology in 21st-century cosmopolitan life.
