Untitled Acrylic On Canvas Painting

This acrylic on canvas painting reimagines myth through primitive forms, earthy tones, and fragmented figures rooted in ancient storytelling.

Artwork Description

 about this acrylic on canvas painting

Davar Yousefi is a painter and educator born in Khalkhal, Ardabil, with an early and passionate interest in art. He first pursued painting independently during his youth, especially in his teenage years and early twenties. Until 1989, his art practice remained informal, driven by curiosity and personal experimentation. After that, his commitment to structured learning marked a significant turning point in his artistic journey.

Yousefi completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in painting at Islamic Azad University in Tehran. In 1994, he presented his first solo exhibition at Aria Gallery, introducing his unique voice to the public. Since then, he has consistently exhibited his works in Iran and abroad in both solo and group exhibitions.

He also teaches painting and art theory at Soureh University, Al-Zahra University, and Islamic Azad University. Beyond canvas-based work, Yousefi has designed public mosaic murals throughout urban spaces in Tehran.

Yousefi’s paintings reveal a deliberately primitive visual language rooted in historical and cultural memory. Human and animal figures dominate the imagery, drawn with bold simplicity and raw symbolic intensity. He often uses flatness and distortion, rendering figures in full-body or half-length forms with anatomical exaggeration. The result is an echo of ancient visual storytelling, reminiscent of artworks from Cairo to Lorestan.

His compositions defy conventional depth, using simplified spatial perspective to enhance the timeless quality of the scenes. Figures often appear fragmented or extended, reflecting visual judgment applied to bodily form and symbolic function. He plays with the axes of coexistence and substitution, replacing or repeating limbs, heads, and torsos. Through these interruptions, he invents new mythological identities that feel both personal and culturally rooted.

This mythmaking is further emphasized by the raw execution and instinctive palette choices in his paintings. Yousefi often works with earthy, muted, or native hues that evoke organic dyes and natural pigments. His surfaces appear rough, even unfinished, deliberately echoing the handmade quality of early ritualistic art. This finish reinforces the primal emotional charge and conceptual consistency found in his visual language.

Together, his subject matter and technique form a cohesive and compelling artistic vocabulary. He invites the viewer into a world shaped by fragmented history, imagined mythology, and ancestral memory. Each work offers a glimpse into a space where time collapses and new figures emerge from familiar origins.

Yousefi’s practice reflects reverence for tradition, reimagined through contemporary experimentation and symbolic abstraction. His art speaks to timeless human instincts, ritual, identity, and the transformative power of visual storytelling.

View the full Dubai collection of paintings here

Copyright

This acrylic on canvas painting is one of a kind original therefore, all copyrights and reproduction rights are reserved by the artist.