Rafael Mahdavi Paintings
A Published Retrospectuve of 100 Images
By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 14, 2026
Rafael Mahdavi
Paintings
By Rafael Mahdavi
Published by Orleans Press
Paris/ Toronto, 2026
100 color images
Text by the artist
ISBN 9798255695560
Available through Amazon
Hardcover $28.00
Particularly for older artists legacy is a common and daunting issue.
With this simple and insightful new book the artist has neatly taken the matter into his own hands. There is a minimalist text in his own words meant to create a context for the work the result is an engaging picture book. The intent is to view the work on its own terms and form our own opinion about it.
This is not the norm for a retrospective monograph. The trope in this case is to engage a well known critic or scholar to create a text that elevates the artist’s life work and place it in a learned context.
In this instance, reflecting the radical no nonsense approach of the artist, a familiar mantra may well be “My work speaks for itself.” We are invited to follow the same path that the artist chose in creating experimental work over decades. Mahdavi has made a career of working outside the lines, breathing the ether of the marginal rather than the oxygen of the mainstream.
Great works reveal themselves in increments if at all. He has described to me his practice of visiting the major European museums to spend time with his “buddies.” Typically that entails spending several hours examining a single work. It is that kind of hard looking that has informed the 100 unique works in this book.
Of course we contemplate reproductions but the great value of this project is that they have been gathered in one place. Over the years I have known them in glimpses through studio visits and numerous conversations.
In particular I am intrigued by the early photo based works of which there are examples in the book. By e mail he told me that what looks like a painting really isn’t. The illusions of brush strokes resulted in applying developer to light sensitive canvas.
In his own words
The works included in this book represent a selection of the artist’s paintings over 53 years from 1972 to 2025. While some pieces are in public and private collections worldwide, their locations are unknown or unavailable at the time of printing.
Because of his displacements between countries a large number of paintings has been lost over the years. There is a good photographic record of his work since 1972. The whereabouts of most of his work before 1972 is unknown. Some of the negatives have been lost which explains the imperfect quality of a few of the photographs.
In the studio in Burgundy there are circa 1,600 paintings rolled up. There are only works on canvas. No works on paper are included here. Apart from the works in the studio, worldwide his works on canvas must number around 200 pieces.