KATONAH, New York — In calamity and in commotion — that’s where I begin when I visit Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist at the Katonah Museum. The show includes paintings that are almost 7 by 10 feet and much smaller ones, such as “Black” (2007), which, at 28 by 24 inches, still manages to stagger me. It’s composed of slashing brushstrokes of tan, reddish brown, and darker browns, with abrupt incursions of white and prowling swipes of blue-gray against a background that subtly morphs from black at the top to a smoky wheat at the bottom. Looking at it long enough I make out the skeleton of a building struck by some force that ruptures its primary beams and struts; we see the moment before total collapse, when it tosses off a tumult of bodies, timbers, paint, and wreckage into the murk below.
Image: Ali Banisadr, Black, 2007
Oil on linen
Private collection
© Ali Banisadr
