‘He who can see a garden sketched in the tree's memory is forever enlightened by the rapture of Eden's zephyr.’ -Sohrab Sepehri

The present work is an outstanding example from Sohrab Sepheri’s most sought-after Trees series, which echo his restrained persona as a poet, painter and an intellectual. Depicted with an austere style, with an almost ascetic intent, the trees are either attenuated or broad, often featured without leaves or branches, rather focusing on the sturdy quality of their trunks. Abstracted from individual features, the artist reflects the formal limitations of the the Zen tradition, influences he had developed from his travels to the Far-East and Japan during the 1960s. Attentive to the essence and the metaphysical meaning of the tree rather than its external traits, Sepehri depicts his tree trunks in a way reminiscent of the misty landscapes of Japanese hand-painted scrolls, and frames them both within and outside of the pictorial space.

Combined with blank space, the textured trees truncated by the picture plane seem to exist beyond the boundaries of the composition. Signs of human habitation are just visible by interspersed window openings seen among the densely-packed trunks, seemlessly blending nature and the manmade in this composition. The limited palette comprising earthy greys, browns and greens equally reflect the formal limitations of the Zen haiku and are reminiscent of the ink parchments illustrated by the Zen masters Sesshu Toyo and Hakuin Ekaku. The result is a work which is suggestive and expressive on a number of levels through limited means.

Deprived of any superfluous details and balanced in their composition while being delicately textured, the trees incite the viewer to reflect upon and contemplate the inner essence of life. Unaffectedly, the tree in itself is an archetype of nature symbolically filled with meaning, that of the tree of life with its body rooted in earth and its crown in the infinite space around it. The tree is often associated with immortality and longevity and as such, subtly echoes Sepheri’s philosophical beliefs.

Born in 1928 in Kashan, Sepehri spent his childhood in the gardens of his family home, the memories of which permeate through his paintings and poetry. Melding folklore with abstract expressionism, Western with Eastern concepts, he reflected on elements in the world as being equals. In the summer of 1948, he met the poet and painter Manucehr Šeybani (1923-1991) who had a pivotal impact on Sepehri, influencing the artist to enrol at Tehran University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Šeybani introduced him to the works of Van Gogh (1853-1890) and Nima Yušij (1897-1960), the latter being one of the first Iranian poets to successfully break the boundaries of traditional imagery imbedded in Iranian poetry. Sepehri combined the minimalist approach of Japanese prints and characteristics of Buddhism with Western modernity, achieving a ‘layered sensibility’ through his abstract compositions.