Guity Novin

Guity Novin (born Guity Navran, 1944) is an Iranian-Canadian figurative painter residing in Canada. [ [http://daryl.chin.gc.ca:8000/SEARCH/BASIS/aich/user/www/DDW?W%3DARTIST+PH+WORDS+%27guity+novin%27+ORDER+BY+EVERY+AR/Ascend%26M%3D1%26K%3D27966%26R%3DY%26U%3D1 "Artists in Canada"] National Gallery of Canada. Accessed 6 January, 2007 ] She classifies her work as Transpressionism, a movement she has introduced. [ [http://www.guitynovin.com/ "Transpressionism"] , guitynovin.com, click "visit transpressionism.com", then "manifesto". Retrieved 14 August 2007.] [See Thomas F. Oltmanns, Robert E. Emery, & Steven Taylor, Abnormal Psychology,Canadian Edition, Prentice Hall, Toronto,2002, P. 713. See also: Joice Goodwin, Art in the Garden, arts alive Magazine, Vol.12 -No.3, May-June 2007. ]

Life and work

Guity Novin was born in Kermanshah, Iran. She graduated from the Girl's College of Fine Arts in Tehran in 1965 and the Institute of Decorative Arts in 1970. She exhibited in the "Salon d' autumn", Paris. ["First Teheran International Art Exhibition", by M. Pirnia Kayhan, 22 December, 1974, No. 9444, page 5] In 1975 she moved to The Hague, Holland, studied at Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, and exhibited in 1975 at Noordeinde. She moved to Manchester, England, in 1976, exhibited at Didsbury Library and was selected in 1979 for the E.C.A Exhibition at National Theatre, London.

In 1980 she settled in Canada. She has exhibited at galleries in Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. From 1996 onwards in a series of shows, she demonstrated Transpressionism as a new initiative in art. Solo shows include "The Bliss of Solitude" (2004), "And Yet the Menace of the Years Find, and Shall Find, Me Unafraid" (2006), and "Whispered of peace, and truth, and friendliness unquelled" (2007) (All at North Vancouver Community Arts Council, "Art in Garden"). [http://www.guitynovin.com/ "Articles"] guitynovin.com - click "articles" then "resume". Accessed 6 January, 2007. See also: Joyce Goodwin [http://www.arts-alive.ca arts alive, vol. 12 - No. 3 May|June 2007, Page 14] ]

Her works are in private and public collections worldwide. Her illustrations are in "Le Carnaval de la licorne" (2001). [ [http://www.servicedulivre.be/activite/Salonregionslivre/auteurs-srl/huard-outaouais.htm "Le Carnaval de la licorne" by Julie Huard, Les Edition L'Interligne, 2001] Julie Huard web page. Accessed 6 January, 2007] Her work "Pears in Blue" is in "Abnormal Psychology". [ Oltmanns,T.F, Emery, R.E and Taylor, Steven, p.335, p.713, Prentice Hall, Toronto, 2001]

She has served on a UNESCO national committee of artists.

Review

Mansooreh Hosseini reviewed "Expression of Silence", a show of Novin's paintings of still-lifes and urns (mostly empty, but some with a few flowers), held in the Negar Gallery, Iran in 1971:

cquote|"Expression of Silence" I like this title. Not because I see a relationship between the plastic art and poetic art. But, because "still lifes", things, flowers and so on can, in spite of their lifeless beings project sorrow, peace, melancholy, or serenity.

I asked the lady who was perhaps the warden or the manager of Negar Gallery where’s the painter? “She seldom shows up” She replies…

And those urns, paintings of Guity Novin, hanging on the gallery walls, were expressing the silence. They were painted under the influence of the Parisian school of Pointillism and Divisionist technique. They reminded me of Signac style. Although in contrast to the practice of the early pointillists , the artist blends pigments on her palette, with a sharp edge in olive color, another wider one in sandy brown, and yet another sharp brush stroke in dark brown to define the shadowy surface of her urns.

In choosing her motifs one could detect a consistency which attested to artist’s enlightened and perspicacious character. The choice of colours, selection of gradation of hue, which explicitly used more-or-less the same tonality in all the works, revealed the story of artist’s unfaltering and inquisitive mind. [Hosseini, Mansooreh (1971) [http://www.guitynovin.com/ "Why do exhibitions have no viewers?"] "Kayhan", November 1971, from [http://www.guitynovin.com/ www.guitynovin.com] - click "articles", then "news publications (scanned"). Accessed 10 January, 2007,]

Transpressionism

Guity Novin founded Transpressionism in 1994 in opposition to High modernism, aiming to interpret humanism and acroamatics values with aesthetic notions of beauty, harmony and transcendence. It counters what is perceived as the deathtrap of the artificiality of postmodernism by seeing art as a birth, where the viewer must be involved in the creation of the sublime. The artist's role is as a conduit for the observer’s imagination, where "Love" is the fundamental principle giving coherence to an otherwise random physical and psychic universe. To achieve this, Transpressionism makes use of legends and myths such as Clytie, a maiden who loves the Sun-god Apollo and is transformed into a sunflower.

Novin explained her motives for introducing Transpressionism:

cquote|I did my undergraduate studies during the late 60s, where a definite penchant for modern and postmodern art predominated in the art academia. ... There thrived a culture that scorned figurative painting and representational art. What mattered in art was an appearance that could provoke a shock reaction from the observer. Beauty and the judgement of delight in beauty were considered tolerable concerns; but the judgement about the generality of delight in the object was dismissed on the ground that it would lead to vulgar. The critics questioned the validity of painting as an artwork and used a plethora of pejorative adjectives such as archaic, stale, or sterile to describe any kind of beautiful painting…. In my Transpressionism works the main emphasis is on the composition, and the harmony of curved spaces which in their dynamics introduce a unifying possibility... Like Kant, I strongly feel that the beautiful is what pleases because it can also pleases others, and therefore taste occurs only in society, and that in every case of beauty particularly in painting the object must please in itself through conceptual reflection, and not through impression. So I think the preamble to Transpressionism manifesto should include the following:
'In painting, sculpture, indeed in all formative arts...in so far as they are beautiful arts, the composition is what is imperative. It is not delight of sensation which establishes the foundation of any characteristic of taste, but entirely what entices through its form.' [Novin, Guity (1999), "About My Work", Guthenham Gallery, Granville Island.]

Artists identifying with Transpressionism include Fer Veriga (Brazil), Irina Kupyrova (Ukraine), Diana Zwibach (Yugoslavia), Terri Baugh-Norman (USA), Lorena Kloosterboer (Netherlands), Ellen Marlen Hamre (Norway), and Shano (USA).

Notes and references

Further reading

*"L’actuelle exposition des painture de Guity Novin a la Galerie Negar", Nichole Van de Ven, Journal de Teheran, 2 Dec.
*"Whispering of A Woman Painter", By Florence, Ayandegan , Tuesday 23rd. Azar , 1350, Nov. 1971, P.4
*"A Critique of Guity Novin Exhibition", in Negar Gallery, By Mansooreh Hosseini, Kayhan, Nov. 1971
*"Expression of Silence", Negin, 30th, Mehr 1350, Sep. 1971. No. 77, 7th Year. P.19.
*"Expression of Silence", by F. Hajir, Ettelaat, no. 13666, Tuesday 16th, Azar 1350, 1971, page 11.
*"The rapture of Young Painters", Zan-e Rooz, no.352, Azar, 1350, Oct. 1971.
*"Exhibition of Paintings by Guity Novin -- A journey into the Poetic Spaces of Shamloo", in Seyhoon Gallery, Ayandegan, Tuesday, Khordad, 1352 , May 1973, p.4.
*"“I’m the Painter of Poetical Spaces” – A Conversation with Guity Novin", Ettelaat, Thursday 17th, Khordad 1352, May 1973, no 14119. p. 7.
*"“A great quest in an exhibition”" Ettelaat-e Banuvan, 6th Tir, July 1973.
*"“ A poetic cry in painting – on Exhibition of Guity Navran (Novin)" in Seyhoon Gallery. Zan-e Rooz, Saturday, 30th Tir, 1352, June 1973. No 431.
*"“ A review of Guity Navran exhibition – a Journey into the poetical spaces of Shamloo”" by Firoozeh Mizani, Tamasha, 26 Khordad 1352, May 1971, no.114.
*"A Heritage from Ancient Persia" A cririque of Guity Novin's exhibition "Lost Serenade" at the Brock street Gallery by Don McCallum, [http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/ The Whig-Standard] ,Vol.2, No.51 Kingston, Ontario, October 3, 1981.
*"Artistic Underground Surfaces" on Brock Street, by Frank Berry, The Queen's Journal, October 9, 1981.
*"Circles of Time, A Conversation with Guity Novin", by S. Motazedi, [http://www.shahrvand.com/EN/Default.asp?Content=ABEN Shahrvand] , Toronto, Vol.10, No 532, Nov. 2000, P. 30.

External links

* [http://www.guitynovin.com Guity Novin's Website]
* [http://www.transpressionism.com The Transpressionism Website]

Persondata
NAME=Novin, Guity
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Navran, Guity
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Artist
DATE OF BIRTH=1944
PLACE OF BIRTH=Kermanshah, Iran