Presented at Saatchi Gallery from 11 to 23 March 2015, this solo exhibition placed Farhad Khalilov’s recent painting in dialogue with work from earlier stages of his career. It formed part of the London Buta Festival, a programme of Azerbaijani arts that began in November 2014. The exhibition was supported by Farhad Ahmadov and organised with the involvement of Buta Arts Centre; contemporary documentation also records the support of Aznar.
The selection emphasised the later canvases while including earlier paintings and works on paper. Seen together, they revealed a continuing relationship with the landscape of Absheron and the Caspian coast. Recognisable horizons and landforms became increasingly spare structures, their presence carried by intervals of colour, the weight of dark masses and the worked surface of the paint. Materiality remained central: the paintings retained the marks and rhythms of their making even as their imagery approached abstraction.
The accompanying catalogue, titled Farkhad Khalilov, included a text by Paolo Colombo. Following Khalilov’s earlier London presentation in 2011, the Saatchi exhibition offered a sustained view of the connections between his different periods and extended the international presentation of his practice.
