An artist in a studio standing in front of a multicoloured painted canvas

The artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, holding a paint-scraping tool, which he uses for his special peinture raclée technique

A new body of work by the French-Iranian artist generates energy on canvas

In his studio in Cap Ferrat, in the South of France, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar creates his paintings using a technique called peinture raclée – a process he says he deploys to metaphorically strip down the superfluous elements of our lives, revealing the energetic source.

hands face down on a painted coloured canvas

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtair photoshoot in his studio in Cap Ferrat

The collection, titled ‘Manifest’, is a hybrid collection of physical and digital artworks, comprising 50 physical paintings and 50 NFTs. He is an artist on the up, with two of his works recently selling for record prices at auction in London.

Follow LUX on Instagram: luxthemagazine

A child of revolution, Behnam-Bakhtiar has had a colourful, sometimes troubled, life. Now the colours he creates are those of the mountains and the sea near his home, in a part of France that inspired artists from Cézanne to Dufy.

IN THE ARTIST’S OWN WORDS:

Sparks of Life

multicoloured paint on a canvas

Sparks of Life

It always starts with a spark! You feel the energy from within trying to break through the conditioned layers of your humanity, built up while living in our modern societies. Through these cracks you then start to shed the necessary layers to arrive at your soul frequency. Once a person can truly feel that, and tune into that frequency, anything is possible.

Nothing but Energy

splattered multicoloured paint on a canvas

Nothing But energy

This demonstrates the inner world of a human being – order in chaos. And the importance of manipulating this chaos, in a way that promotes human evolution, being long overdue.

Read more: This Summer’s Must-go Beach Club

Imagine when a maths formula starts to make sense and gives you the result you have been working towards. This is a similar process, where one needs to constantly tune their energy in order to obtain that result.

And We Knew it Was Our Time

multicoloured scribbles on a canvas

And we Knew it Was Our Time

It shows two inner worlds mixing together for the first time, creating a new harmonious one. Imagine two lovers getting together and everything clicks, creating a new inner world ruled by harmony and balance.

Portrait photography by Angie Kremer

This article appears in the Summer 2022 issue of LUX