Art

Art

Arif Aziz celebrated through fashion prism of Leonie Mergen during London Fashion Week

19 February 2018 09:41 (UTC +04:00)

Arif Aziz – currently in his 75th year – ranks amongst the most internationally-respected contemporary artists, European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS) told APA.

Renowned for his ‘uninhibited self-expression’, homage to his extraordinary and unique vision has been paid by the young German fashion designer Leonie Mergen in her new long-awaited collection, unveiled at the 2018 London Fashion Week. This comes right after her critically-acclaimed Karabakh-Collection, launched in 2017 during the Berlin and London Fashion Weeks.

Following the runway launch in Devonshire Square, the work of Arif Aziz and Leonie Mergen was celebrated by more than 300 fashion critics, bloggers and top-flight artists amidst the art deco splendour of Shepherd’s of Westminster, a timeless restaurant opened in the shadow of Big Ben in 1936.

Known as the Arif Aziz Edition, the new collection takes its point of departure from the great artist’s White Period. This began during the nascent period of Azerbaijani independence in the early 1990s, and saw him increasingly move from a depiction of objective reality, emanating from Realism, to the converse – a mystical and subjective reality, creating beauty through his rhythms and colours.

Reflecting on his White Period, Arif Aziz, Dean of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Art and Azerbaijani Ambassador for Peace, amongst other positions, commented: “White, when perceived psychologically, is the irrefutable basis for the expressive energy of lines and contours, outlines and volumes.”

For the artist, white – a synthesis of all colours – has various degrees of significance, being a symbol of purity, the involuntary light of the joy of existence and the unity of nature and man. It also alludes to ‘cleansing’ or ‘bleaching’, following the regaining of Azerbaijani independence, expressed in a subtly lyrical form.