Farhad Ostovani, Iranian (born 1950). Aria from the Goldberg Variations, 1994–2007. Watercolor, drawings, lithography, and collages on Nepal paper marouflé on wood panels (30 panels), Overall: 87 x 90 inches (220.98 x 228.6 cm). Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund, 2024.69.1.1-30. [Fig. 2]
How do you see emptiness? How do you render sound, mark rhythm, and paint melody? These are questions that artist Farhad Ostovani (b. 1950) explores in his decades-long series that translates the experience of hearing Johann Sebastian Bach’s beloved composition for keyboard, the Goldberg Variations, into visual works of art. Inspired by nature and informed by his own personal history, key works from this series are featured in the exhibition Farhad Ostovani: Goldberg Variations, which opened on March 7, 2026, at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
Farhad Ostovani is a contemporary Iranian-born mixed-media artist known for his minimal and conceptual studies of natural subjects. Born in 1950 in Lahijan, Iran, and raised in Tehran, Ostovani studied Fine Art at the University of Tehran in 1970. In 1974, he moved to Paris to continue his studies and now lives and works in France.
and ink on paper, 4 1/8 x 12 1/2 inches (10.5 x 31.8 cm). Gift of the artist, 2024.70.12. [Fig. 1]
Ostovani often works on a subject as part of a series, examining it from different viewpoints, using different media and artistic techniques. He calls these serial works “meditations.” Ostovani’s meditations on the Goldberg Variations depict plant forms—the flowerless stems and leaves of rose plants—which move and twist across empty space. Working with ink and brush, impressions and chalk lines, he builds up his compositions from delicate layers of Nepalese paper. These vegetal forms are his invented symbolic language for depicting the auditory experience of music.
Ostovani’s series was inspired by a recording of Tatiana Nikolayeva (1924–1993) playing the Goldberg Variations. He began work on his Variations during an artist’s retreat at Dorland Mountain in California, collecting specimens of rose plants. Unfortunately, his work was disrupted by the sudden illness and death of his father. When Ostovani returned to the project a year later, the plant specimens were decayed. Listening to Variation No. 25, the most melancholic of the compositions, Ostovani began to paint again, creating studies while processing his grief for his father. The two-panel composition of Variation No. 25 [Fig. 1] featured in the exhibition became the first work in his Goldberg Variations series.
The exhibition also features Ostovani’s Aria, [Fig. 2] a 30-panel grid that embodies the mood and structure of the opening composition of the Goldberg Variations and a group of ink on paper studies for Variation No. 25, which capture Ostovani’s artistic process. Visitors can listen to Nikolayeva’s recordings of these Goldberg Variations in the gallery and see the music for themselves.
–Kimberly Masteller, Curator, South and Southeast Asian Art
