Melnikov BB, 2013

Miami Beach 2014
Melnikov BB

Chemould Prescott Road

Other Materials
Acrylic on vintage textile
53.3 x 53.3 (厘米)
21.0 x 21.0 (吋)
Shezad Dawood MelnikovBB, 2013 Acrylic on vintage textile 20 x 20 inches Shezad Dawood’s series of vintage textile paintings, the 'Melnikov series', is based on the juxtaposition of the structural geometry of the Melnikov house in Moscow. In the larger formats, this structural geometry was overlaid on an image of Indian painter and polymath Jagdish Swaminathan, peering out from behind his desk surrounded by artefacts. Konstantin Melnikow was a Russian avant-garde architect and painter. Both figures, Swaminathan and Melnikov, are of interest to Shezad Dawood, for they bring a transcendent possibility to the modernism of their day. The three paintings on display are the result of a continued investigation of this juxtaposition. Here, the artist directly parallels appliqué surfaces in the Saami textile fabrics, used as a ground, with a cropped section of the Melnikov windows, on a window-shaped canvas. Thus, these smaller works function as multiple portals (in both tonal and color variants) through the walls onto which they are hung.