Jean-François Dieterich (left) with Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar at the Villa Cuccia-Noya.

The south of France, home to Matisse, Cézanne and Van Gogh, has one of the greatest artistic legacies in the world. Now the mayor of one of its most exclusive communities wants to create a cultural heritage for the next generation, as Lanie Goodman discovers

“I am made of all that I have seen,” French artist Henri Matisse once famously stated. The grand master of colour certainly got an eyeful during his lifetime of world travels. But when Matisse first arrived on the Côte d’Azur in 1917, he was so taken with the sunlit vistas of luxuriant gardens, graceful palms and the shimmering blue sea that he decided to settle in the south of France for the rest of his life. The artist’s love of plants extended to a philosophical perspective on all living things. “We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe,” Matisse muses in his writings.

For over a century, European crowned heads, artists and writers have flocked to the south of France to create their own private Eden, and predictably, the 2.48 sq km commune of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat – a lush secluded peninsula of seaside splendour midway between Nice and Monaco – has a rich history of outstanding artistic effervescence.

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These days, the town’s mayor, Jean-François Dieterich, is aiming to revive the cultural excitement with a contemporary art exhibition – with about 15 works in total – of French-Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar to inaugurate the beautifully restored Villa Namouna, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat’s brand new cultural space. This initiative is part of an ongoing programme to revive the once celebrated artistic enclave in the commune by showcasing living artists of international renown. “I find that the approach of Behnam-Bakhtiar – who has found serenity, joie de vivre and sources of inspiration through the outstanding natural landscapes of this peninsula – has a certain continuity with the artists of the 50s,” Dieterich says. “But he also has his own contemporary abstract technique and a rich palette of colours.”

My Tree of Life (2019–20) by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar.

For the 36-year-old artist, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar, who now lives and works in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, the timeless Mediterranean landscape has had a profound effect on his point of view and his palette, much like Matisse. “My art has definitely changed since I moved here in 2010,” he says. “Although the technique I used, peinture raclée, was similar to now, a lot of the works were dark.”

Above all, explains Behnam-Bakhtiar, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat has been a grounding force. “This place gave me a new life and something that helped me to become a more complete, balanced human being. It has helped me cope with everything that has happened to me. I shifted my whole focus on things that are truly valuable, such as the dormant energy that exists inside us and our connection to nature.”

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We are at Behnam-Bakhtiar’s studio, situated on an upper floor of a white villa on the Cap. The room is ablaze with colour, a mesmerising assembly of large abstract canvases, stacked one behind the other and propped against the wall; in the centre of the room is the artist’s working space, a table littered with tubes of paint and a scraper. From the window, you gaze out at a palm tree, a verdant garden and patches of sea.

The show, entitled ‘Rebirth’, will debut with a one-day private viewing of 35 new paintings held at Villa Cuccia-Noya, a sumptuous waterfront estate owned by distinguished businessman, philanthropist and art collector Basil Sellers. “What an enormous energy rises from his works,” Sellers enthuses, referring to Behnam-Bakhtiar’s latest canvases. “I was astounded.”

Blue Soul Groove (2019) by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

Energy is indeed the very term Behnam-Bakhtiar uses to describe the palpable vibrancy of landscapes that he tries to capture in his paintings. Under the umbrella of the rebirth theme, the artist will also unveil two public installations – one on the Cap and the other in the village. It will be a first for the community in terms of public artwork – one of the works will be a lightweight but huge wrought-iron sculpture in which three suspended figures of a man, woman and child look as if they have sprung from the earth. As Behnam-Bakhtiar explains, the idea of the work is to convey “harmonious living with nature”, something which he feels should be transmitted to future generations.

The Paris-born artist, whose previous exhibitions include ‘Oneness Wholeness’ at London’s Saatchi Gallery in 2018 and at a Christie’s Middle Eastern, Modern and Contemporary Art exhibition in London in 2019, spent his formative years in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war. Articulate, calm and soft-spoken, Behnam-Bakhtiar briefly alludes to his imprisonment and torture but would rather speak about transformation. “My last exhibition, at the Setareh Gallery in Düsseldorf, Germany, was called ‘Extremis’ and it focused on all the hardcore experiences that happened in my past. For Saint-Jean, I wanted to do something that is the other side of the coin, to represent positivity and light.”

As you stand in front of his recent series of paintings, ‘Trees of Paradise’, the blended bright colours slowly conjure discernible shapes that “are part of the Cap Ferrat scenery”, Behnam-Bakhtiar says, urging me to touch the canvas. Despite the complex texture that meets the eye, the surface is surprisingly smooth. For inspiration, he adds, he often walks through a wooded section of the Cap, not far from the curvaceous Villa Brasilia, designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer.

Dieterich and Behnam-Bakhtiar at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat’s town hall

“One painting may take me anywhere from five months to a year to finish,” he says, flashing a smile. “It takes a lot of time and patience.” Essentially, he explains, his process consists of painting, scraping, drying – hundreds of times – until he’s happy with the work. “When you know it’s right, you leave it. It just suddenly clicks for me.”

Whether mere coincidence or simply the glamorous allure of this privileged finger of land, a remarkable convergence of writers, artists, filmmakers and actors lived, worked and entertained on Cap Ferrat during the late 1940s and 1950s and the ‘dolce vita’ of the 1960s. Winston Churchill painted on the jetty undisturbed; Picasso sunbathed at the pool of Le Club Dauphin at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat. British writer W Somerset Maugham, in search of the simple life purchased a Moorish-style villa, La Mauresque, planted superb gardens and hosted everyone from artist Marc Chagall (who had a neighbouring home on the Cap Ferrat) to Noel Coward, George Cukor and Harpo Marx. Another illustrious resident was British actor David Niven, who lived in the villa La Fleur du Cap on the coastal Promenade Maurice Rouvier and often lent his home to his friend, Charlie Chaplin.

Read more: In the studio with radical artist Mickalene Thomas

“There were numerous films shot in Saint-Jean,” says mayor Dieterich. “There were also legendary actors and directors who spent time here, such as Gene Kelly, Gregory Peck, Rex Harrison, and Otto Preminger.” However, Cap Ferrat’s glorious artistic heyday revolved around the presence of two major figures: the Greek-born editor and publisher Efstratios Eleftheriades – known as Tériade – and poet, playwright, filmmaker and artist, Jean Cocteau.

In the postwar years, when the Côte d’Azur was a sun-drenched haven for artists, Matisse was a regular visitor to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat where his friend and collaborator Tériade lived in the turquoise-shuttered Villa Natacha, overlooking the harbour. The influential editor of Verve, who had commissioned every major artist of his time to design covers for his magazine, brought together the likes of Bonnard, Balthus, Miró and Derain. As a mark of friendship, the frail 83-year-old Matisse designed a stained-glass window – a Chinese fish surrounded by begonias – for Tériade’s dining room and also painted the villa’s walls with black enamel plane trees.

During that same period, Cocteau lived in a white-washed seaside house, the Villa Santo Sospir, owned by patroness of the arts, Francine Weisweiller, who had fallen in love with the rugged beauty of the then deserted Cap Ferrat in 1948 and turned it into her dream home. Weisweiller met Cocteau in 1950 when she financed Les Enfants Terribles, the film he had written, and invited him to the villa for a few days. He ended up staying 11 years and decided to ‘tattoo’ the white walls with whimsical mythological frescos. The privately owned villa is currently under restoration to preserve Cocteau’s Greek gods and local fisherman, plus the bohemian jumble of Madeleine Castaing-designed exotic wood furniture and curtains as well as vintage bric-a-brac.

The Villa Cuccia-Noya

Behnam-Bakhtiar, who was contacted by the owners of Santo Sospir just prior to the villa’s temporary closure in 2017, was enchanted. “They wanted me to do a show. The energy there was unreal and I went there every day, for about four weeks, trying to take it all in.” His exhibition, ‘Oneness, Wholeness with Jean Cocteau’, consisted of 36 sculptures scattered about the villa and garden, as well as an audio installation with a dialogue between Cocteau and himself.

Does Behnam-Bakhtiar feel in sync with the spirit of his artistic predecessors? The artist pauses, gazing at one of his ongoing ‘Trees of Paradise’ canvases. “You know, I was looking online and stumbled across a video of Cocteau sitting at the same table of Santo Sospir. He’s addressing the people of the year 2000 and saying the same things I’ve been talking about now – about how we are losing our humanity and behaving like robots. It’s a real honour to continue in his footsteps and work with the mayor to help revive what used to be here.”

Nostalgia aside, call it a reawakening of a state of mind when it comes to beauty. Or, as Matisse aptly summed it up: “There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” And Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar would be inclined to agree.

Benham-Bakhtiar’s exhibition ‘Rebirth’ will open with a private view at Villa Cuccia-Noya on 10 September 2020; the show will run at Villa Namouna from 11 September – 11 October 2020.

For more information visit: sassanbehnambakhtiar.com

This story was originally published in the Summer 2020 Issue, out now.

French artist Richard Orlinski is known for his large-scale vibrant sculptures

The contemporary art world might turn up its nose at Richard Orlinski’s Disney collaborations, but the French artist couldn’t care less. For him, it’s about connecting with as many people as possible. Here, Jess Brown speaks to the artist about making his work accessible, saying yes to every opportunity and his love of Andy Warhol

Pikachu (yellow resin) by Richard Orlinski

LUX: Can you talk us through your sculpting process? Do you begin by sketching, or by experimenting with your chosen material?
Richard Orlinski: It really depends. Sometimes I start with computers, sometimes I start just by watching nature. I’ve been somewhere like Mexico, for example, watching the animals for inspiration and then I will make a mould. I have so many ideas, I know what I want to do, but what about the size and about the material? So as I said, sometimes I draw the design on computer to try it out and then I 3D print it to see what will happen. So there’s a big block of polystyrene foam and  a real robot picking away at the material until a sculpture appears. Then I can change it by hand and make a mould. For one sculpture, I need 10,15, 20 sometimes even more moulds. These are for the resin and then we stick them together. But I also work with aluminium and stainless steel which requires laser cutting. I’m not working alone though, I work with a big team and together we work out how to fix things. Of course, I have the final say but I always listen to what my team says about the creation – having ten brains is better than one.

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LUX: How long does it typically take to make a piece?
Richard Orlinski: I’m like a kid. I’m always very much in a hurry to make things, but sometimes, it’s not possible to do it quickly. It depends on the complexity of the project and sometimes it can take a very long time. Time can be a real problem if I have a big commission, for example, someone asking for something to be ready in 15 days. Even if the person is offering me billions, it still wouldn’t be possible. Some of my pieces can take six months to create, sometimes a year.

LUX: How do you think your artistic style has evolved over the years? Was there a moment when you felt that you’d found your niche?
Richard Orlinski: I have no red line underneath my work. One day I do, that day I do something else. I find inspiration everywhere and I want to be free, but also for the auctioneer and the art buyer customers to feel free to take what they want from my sculptures. I find it interesting that you can ask three different people about one sculpture and they’ll say something different: ‘Oh it’s against petrol or it’s against pollution.’ People read the piece through their own emotion and I’m okay with that. I love watching kids seeing the sculptures and laughing. For me, it’s about connection and sharing with the world, I suppose that’s my ‘niche’. I’m really mainstream. I like commercial music, I like the things that everyone likes and I don’t want my work to be elite.

One of Richard Orlinski’s resin animal sculptures

LUX: Speaking of sharing and connecting, your work has been exhibited on the ski slopes of Courchevel. Do you ever consider where your work is going to be exhibited when you’re making it?
Richard Orlinski: No, never. In Courchevel, we put animals because it goes with the snow: the wolf, the bear. But you know, my work can go anywhere. Last year, I was in old coal mines in the North of France. All of the people are poor there because there’s no more more work since the mines shut down. I put my sculpture there and they were so happy. I really like that it’s not for money, it’s for sharing and I was so happy to see their reaction. I was supposed to stay for one hour, but I stayed for two days in the end because there were so many people to meet.

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LUX: Do you have a particular type of person that your work is aimed at or is it for everyone?
Richard Orlinski: Any religion, any age, from all kinds of backgrounds. We have sculptures for a million dollars and sculptures for a few euros because I make some co-branding with Disney and you can find a small Mickey Mouse for fifty pounds. I’m very proud of those kinds of collaborations. Many of my followers, don’t have money to buy sculptures, to buy art, but they can maybe afford to buy the Mickey Mouse and they’re proud to show that to their friends. I like this connection with people. Not everyone likes that approach though. I’m not loved by other artists or by the establishment because I break the code.

‘Wild Kong’ by Richard Orlinski

LUX: What draws you to sculpt animals in particular?
Richard Orlinski: It’s really simple. You would have made the same choice. What do you like when you’re a kid? You like to to go to the zoo, you like animals on TV. Basically all of the cartoons have animals in them, and even if you look back historically, humans have always had this connection with animals. Think about ancient Egyptian culture, Greece, all of the old civilisations. So when I was a kid, maybe as young as four years old, I started created small elephants and hippos.

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LUX: Which artists from past or present have been the biggest influence on your work?
Richard Orlinski: I think maybe Andy Warhol, not so much his work, but I think he is really amazing. He was from the commercial side, he was a publicist and he did so many things. I think if he had internet during his time, he would be huge now. I mean he is still huge now, but he would be like a king of the world because he was making movies, books, kitchen appliances and everything was amazing. Anyway, he started from the commercial side of things and nobody loved him, but I think he opened a way through pop art. I like his mind, his way of thinking.

Richard Orlinski has an ongoing collaboration with luxury watch brand Hublot. Pictured here: Classic Fusion Tourbillon Orlinski Sapphire. Below: The artist wearing the Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph Orlinski

LUX: You also make lots of different things: music, sculpture, fashion. How do your artistic mediums intersect or influence one another?
Richard Orlinski: For me, art is not just sculpture or painting or music – art is everything. Nowadays, we tend to put people in a cage, we categorise them, but I think when you have a certain sensibility, you can feel something about music and about sculpture. At my studio, I have a sculptural studio and my studio for music downstairs. I work with a lot of different people: people from music, people from TV, rappers. It’s a real melting pot. I like this mixed energy.

LUX: Finally, what are you currently working on?
Richard Orlinski: I have so many projects. I’m working now on a club in Belgium, and then we’re going to build a huge disco in Europe. I get a lot of offers for collaboration and I always want to say yes, sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. I also have my sculptures, of course, and my ongoing collaboration with Hublot. I like doing new things, taking on new opportunities.

Find out more: richardorlinski.fr

French artist Richard Orlinski with two of his T-Rex sculptures

French artist Richard Orlinski is known for his bold, pop-art sculptures, which have appeared at French Grand Prix and on the slopes of Courchevel. Most recently, he collaborated with luxury watch brand Hublot and last month, saw the opening of his first London gallery on New Bond Street. Here, he tells us about falling in love with art, colours, and wild animals

1. When did you first realise that you wanted to be an artist?

I remember very well the moment I had a kind of love at first sight for creation. At school, when the other little boys used to play the brawl, I would prefer to create small terracotta animals. I was only 4 years old when my teacher called a local TV to come and discover my little sculptures. But growing up I ended up choosing a more steady job before I dropped it off to become an artist.

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2. Do you need a specific atmosphere to be able to create?

I don’t need a particular atmosphere to create. Everything inspires me, people’s daily lives, wherever I am, I can find an object, a feeling or an environment that inspires me. Afterwards, I get a lot of inspiration from animals for my sculptures. The first piece of artwork I created was a red resin crocodile. This mysterious animal has always fascinated me and humans in general. It has been on earth for a hundred million years. It is a witness of mankind. My creations are a reflection on the animal instinct and human nature. I have always been attracted to wild animals.

‘Wild Kong’ by Richard Orlinski

3. Many of your recent sculptures have taken the form of a wild animal – which animal from your series do you think you’re the most like and why?

The work with which I identify most is my ‘Wild Kong‘. It is one of my most emblematic works, but it is above all the one that comes closest to man and the human being. Strong and protective at the same time – he is a little bit like the ideal man without the hairs!

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4. How has social media changed the art world?

My goal is to make art that speaks to the greatest number. I like to provoke an “immediate emotion” for both adults and children. I attach great importance to popularising my art by making it accessible. I like to exhibit my sculptures for free and in the open air. It’s very important for me. Social media has helped me a lot with that. This world of the instantaneous is quite fascinating.

One of Richard Orlinski’s resin animal sculptures

5. You work with a distinct colour palette, what draws you to those particular shades?

The first piece I ever made was red. I love [to work with] a very colourful palette. All of my resin pieces are so pop and joyful. The pop colours give an immediate feeling especially with children. From one colour to another, the emotions could be different. We’re all time thinking about new colours and we always want to work with new matters, which can change the sculpture’s colour.

6. If you weren’t an artist, what would you be?

An artist!

See Richard Orlinski’s full portfolio: richardorlinski.fr

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in Villa Santo Sospir surrounded by his own sculptures and the artwork of Jean Cocteau

When artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar came across a 1960s film by Jean Cocteau, he was stunned to discover they were both addressing the same ideas in their work. Virginia Blackburn meets him to discuss his new exhibition – set in the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat villa that’s full of Cocteau’s creations

Art is the international language: it speaks to the soul, not needing to utilise any mother tongue, and that communication is about to manifest itself in a major new exhibition in the south of France. It speaks across generations, too, to fellow artists and connoisseurs. And this is what happened when the French/Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar chanced upon a video made in the early 1960s by Jean Cocteau entitled Jean Cocteau Speaks to the Year 2000. “It was an inspiration,” Behnam-Bakhtiar says. “He was talking about the same things as me: that humanity is on the wrong path. That it is too robotic rather than humanised. That the global system is against wellbeing and health. Jean Cocteau was talking about this in 1962 and saying, ‘Hopefully you guys will have opened your eyes up to it by now.’ And when I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh my God.’ And that’s how it started.”

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The ‘it’ he refers to is his latest solo exhibition: Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau, housed in the beautiful and plush environs of Villa Santo Sospir at the southeastern tip of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Cocteau’s home for over a decade. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is also where Behnam-Bakhtiar is now based. Following on from his recent highly successful Oneness Wholeness exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery from May to June this year, this follow-up is designed to carry on a dialogue with Cocteau, quite literally in some ways. Cocteau and his circle, which included Picasso, Matisse, Coco Chanel, Greta Garbo, Vaslav Nijinsky, Charlie Chaplin and Marlene Dietrich among many others, are very obviously the inspirations behind the work: Behnam-Bakhtiar has created two metres of sculptures of the historical figures who passed through the villa following Cocteau down to the beach. Does Behnam-Bakhtiar feel himself to be very much part of the tradition of the numerous artists who made this scorchingly beautiful part of the world their home? “Emotionally I’m very happy and excited to be here as a fellow French artist,” he says. “But it is also very upsetting because if Cocteau were here now he’d be so upset that we’re in an even worse state than we were when he made the video. These are the core values and beliefs in the work.”

The show contains a collection of mixed-media sculptures as well as a sound installation

In truth, although Behnam-Bakhtiar is often referred to as a French/Iranian artist, he is considerably more than that. Born in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1984, the young Sassan lived in France until he was 10, after which the family returned to Tehran. The rest of his childhood was spent in the land of his immensely distinguished fathers – the artist can trace his heritage back to Iran’s ancient Bakhtiari tribe through his mother Firouzeh Bakhtiar-Bakhtiariha, while his great-grandfather General Gholam-Hossein Khan Bakhtiar (Sardar Mohtashem), was Iran’s minister of war. His grandfather Abdolhamid Bakhtiar was a Majles deputy, while the late Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and General Teymour Bakhtiar were two of his great-uncles. Through his father, he is a descendant of the Qajar monarch Ahmad Shah. A stint at the American University in Dubai followed his time in Tehran, before moving back to France with his wife Maria Zakharchenko to obtain his MBA at the International University of Monaco.

This joint European/Middle Eastern influence has given Behnam-Bakhtiar an insight into both cultures and beyond: he prefers the description “citizen of the world without boundaries” and has spoken often of his desire to bring a new focus to work from the Middle East. Since springing on to the art scene in 2009, he has become a hugely successful international presence, with exhibitions all over the world and his works selling through Bonhams and Christie’s and other major auction houses. He has now set up the Fondation Behnam-Bakhtiar in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, as well as an art gallery in nearby Monaco, which shows Iranian artists alongside other international names. And he is very clear about the influence Iran’s artistic history has had upon his own work. “In terms of influence, the Persian cultural heritage is vital,” he says. “When I was a kid in Iran, I went around with a camera and a sketchbook, around all the famous cities in Iran – Shiraz, Isfahan, of course Tehran. I focused on all the architectural sites and they made me what I am today. There is a huge legacy from Iran.”

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But it is the new exhibition that has been engaging him of late. “Oneness Wholeness is a very personal body of work that started about seven years ago,” he explains. “I was going through a very difficult time in terms of my health and so I began to focus on energy, everything that connects us to everything, the universal language. This was merely a beginning, and at the start I couldn’t decide whether to put it in front of an audience as it was so personal.” The work ended up at solo show drawing on thousands of years of Iranian culture, employing ancient Persian motifs, patterns and landscapes to create huge mixed-media paintings calling to mind the Zagros mountains in south-west Iran that are still home to the Bakhtiari tribe. Now the work will progress further in the Villa Santo Sospir.

Behnam-Bakhtiar is based in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, where his new exhibition is taking place

However, Behnam-Bakhtiar is keen to emphasise that his vision is not based solely on the circumstances of his upbringing. “I do have two different cultural backgrounds,” he says. “But something within me has been present ever since I was a young kid back in Iran. I would look at the world and ask what is wrong with it on a human level. A seed was planted in me back then.”

Like so many before him, Behnam-Bakhtiar chose to base himself on the Côte d’Azur because of the extraordinary natural qualities of the area. “It is a very special place for any artist,” he says. “I chose to reside here because of the natural beauty, the light, the sea and the energy. In coming to France I was coming back home and it feels right – a person has to listen to a gut instinct. I was lucky to be able to feel these extra things.”

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Behnam-Bakhtiar professes to feel marvellous today, in marked contrast to the events of seven years ago that eventually led to the recent body of work. He is reluctant to go into too much detail, but explains, “I felt ill due to emotional pressure when a series of events led to my health deteriorating seriously. I started doing things such as Kundalini meditation in order to be able to find myself again. When I finally got out of the cage or trap, I wanted to tell the world about it. I talked to my family and friends and the work came about very naturally – it was not forced or planned, it just happened. Saatchi related to the values I was talking about and the same thing happened at the Jean Cocteau Museum. A lot of things are very wrong with our way of life and more people understand that.” This process of self-discovery has continued: last year Behnam- Bakhtiar opened his third eye, which entirely changed his take on life.

Back at Villa Santo Sospir, another element of the new exhibition is a sound installation, a literal dialogue between the two artists, as they will be talking to one another, their voices echoing through the beautiful building covered with the work of Cocteau. Behnam-Bakhtiar sounds as excited as a child when he talks about it. “I thought a sound installation was a very interesting idea,” he says. “Cocteau was residing here for years so he had a huge connection to the place. When I started to research his work, how he lived and what he did, this huge connection came about. The owners of the museum said, ‘This is too good a match.’ I’m very proud to be able to continue in his footsteps.”

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This is especially significant because Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar will be the last artist to exhibit in the Villa Santo Sospir as it is in its current state. After the exhibition the villa will be closing down for restoration by the interior designer Jacques Grange, while the grounds will also be renovated by landscape architect Madison Cox.

But this exhibition, as with all his work these days, is informed with a mission to change the very way in which people think. “One of the biggest issues is for us as humans to understand that we are so much more than we think we are,” he says. “When I realised this, I changed as a human being. My DNA changed. We need to move forward, to be different, to live lives in a different way, to reach different levels of life. When you look at the world today, it’s very easy to get depressed, but you still need to live day after day with love and I apply that even to the people who hurt me. I used to be very angry with people who hurt and mistreated me, but you have to realise you must treat people with love. Things have been created to divide races and countries whereas we are all brothers and sisters really. Life is not about conflict.”

Behnam-Bakhtiar’s own health issues have had a huge bearing on this, of course. “I have been given a gift to live with a purpose,” he says. “Don’t forget the beauty of life. If you’ve had big health issues, you realise it’s silly not to walk on the beach and enjoy it. Anyone can be wise but you have to trigger that. My ultimate message from this exhibition is that you have to transcend as a human being. Understand you have to change life for the better. Stop being zombies. It is a spiritual revolution we are looking for now.”

Oneness Wholeness with Jean Cocteau runs until 30 September at Villa Santo Sospir

To view more artwork by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar visit sassanbehnambakhtiar.com or follow the artist on Instagram @sassanbehnambakhtiar

Villa Santo Sospir

The Villa Santo Sospir is placed, appropriately enough, on the avenue Jean Cocteau in Saint- Jean-Cap-Ferrat. This is where, according to local lore, Cocteau was invited to spend a week’s holiday by its owner, the socialite Francine Weisweiller, in 1950 and ended up staying for more than a decade. It was a wise move on her part: previously the interior was all whitewashed walls, but Cocteau asked whether he could draw the head of Apollo above the fireplace in the living room, and went on to cover the entire house with his art. For most of his frescoes, Cocteau was inspired by Greek gods and mythical creatures, but he also referenced images of the Riviera, such as fishermen and their nets. Cocteau called it the “tattooed villa” and later said: “When I was working at Santo Sospir, I became myself a wall and these walls spoke for me.”

Famous artists of the Riviera

With its beautiful scenery, extraordinary light and pleasant climate, the French Riviera has long been a draw for famous artists. Cézanne was the first to arrive in the 1880s, but many others soon followed: Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Edvard Munch and poor, haunted Vincent van Gogh, who was based in Arles. Pierre-Auguste Renoir moved there for the light and bought a home in Cagnes-sur-Mer, which he turned into a studio for his Impressionist paintings. Chagall lived in Saint-Paul de Vence, as, briefly, did Picasso: it is said that he stayed at the Colombe D’Or hotel and traded paintings for meals.

Watch Jean Cocteau Speaks to the Year 2000, the short film that inspired exhibition:

Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar in the studio

French-Iranian artist Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar‘s latest exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery is refreshingly uncontroversial. And that’s the point. Aptly titled Oneness Wholeness, the show is a response to what Behnam-Bakhtiar sees as an unhealthy obsession with materialistic wealth and ego in contemporary society. As such his artwork functions as a kind of cathartic release, taking the form of calming, colourful, mixed-media expanses, that draw inspiration from Persian mythology with curious textures, figures and reflections.

Gallery view of ‘Oneness Wholeness’ at the Saatchi Gallery

Reflection of The Damned 2017, Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar

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There’s a distinct movement visible in the paintings that not only reveals the artist’s process, but also a kind of gentle fluidity, a lapping almost (not dissimilar to Monet). Whilst the titles are mystical sounding, pointing towards Behnam-Bakhtiar’s musings around existentialism, nature and harmony: Guardians Of Life, The Pursuit Of Light, and Me and Her. 

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But at the same time, these are not works of mere whimsy, look closely and there are shades of darkness, nostalgia, raw emotion.

Millie Walton

‘Oneness Wholeness’ by Sassan Behnam-Bakhtiar and curated by Nina Moaddel runs until 5 June 2018 at the Saatchi Gallery, Chelsea.  For more information on the exhibition visit saatchigallery.com/art/sassanbehnam-bakhtiar.To learn more about the artist visit sassanbehnambakhtiar.com