Partou Zia ( fa, پرتو ضیاء, 9 October 1958 – 19 March 2008) was a British-Iranian artist and writer. Born in Tehran, she emigrated to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1970, where she completed her secondary education at Whitefields school near

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

(1972–78). Zia studied Art History at the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

(1977–80) and at the

Slade School of Fine Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

(1986–91). In 2001, she completed a Ph.D. at Falmouth College of Arts and the University of Plymouth. In 1993, she moved to

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

where she lived and worked with her husband, the painter Richard Cook, until her death from cancer, in March 2008. Tate St Ives honoured her parting by hanging one of her last completed canvases, Forty Nights and Forty Days as a memorial to her, for a month, at the gallery's entrance. In 2003, Tate St Ives initiated a pioneering residency programme at the historic Porthmeor Studios in

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commerci ...

, previously occupied by Borlase Smart, Ben Nicholson, and

Patrick Heron Patrick Heron (30 January 1920 – 20 March 1999) was a British abstract and figurative artist, critic, writer, and polemicist, who lived in Zennor, Cornwall. Heron was recognised as one of the leading painters of his generation. Influenced b ...

. Zia was the first recipient of this award and her exhibition at Tate St Ives was accompanied by a catalogue 'Entering the Visionary Zone'.

Work

Early in Partou’s career, landscape provided the main inspiration for her work. The quest of the individual for the divine was a developing theme. A fascination for religious iconography was manifested in depictions of the overlooked corners of church interiors. Everyday objects such as books, lamps and chairs inhabited her images of domestic scenes, suggesting a desire to capture the essence of her long-lost childhood home. Her canvases at this time were dominated by an energetic application of heavily impastoed yellow, which for her represented the spiritual. Self-portraits, some of them nude, also formed an important part of her oeuvre, not only as a means of asserting her identity as a woman and a painter, but in order to reveal her intuitive self. Partou's canvases bring a fresh note to the long established tradition of story telling. In scale her works range from a few inches to several feet high, with characteristic free brushwork and an immediately recognisable energetic handling of layers of paint. She has been inspired by the writing and illustrations of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

, and her work explores a personal journey of self-discovery. Through these vibrant, painterly canvases, she draws the viewer into her dream like memory. Her own language is highly original, evolving a personal mythology of motifs and symbols that include lovers, sleepers, dreamers and readers, set within evocative interiors or luminous landscapes. The paintings from the last few months of her life reflect a change of mood. The intense energy of her earlier canvases has given way to a more contemplative application of paint, as a consequence of her failing strength. In ‘40 Nights and 40 Days’ she reclines, in classical garb, resting her elbow on a pile of books – an indication, perhaps, that her work is done. She seems to be gazing beyond the present, the outstretched hand ready to guide her on the next step of her journey.

Solo exhibitions

2013 ''Portraits Beyond Self'', Art First, London 2008 ''In The Face of Wonder'', The Exchange, Penzance :''Memorial Exhibition 2008'', Art First, London 2007 ''sometimes i see'', Art First, London 2005 ''The Grey Syllable'', Art First, London 2004 ''Thought Paintings'', Art First, London 2003 Entering the Visionary Zone, Tate St Ives 2002 Art Space Gallery, London 2000 Art Space Gallery, London : Plymouth Art Centre 1999 Royal Cornwall Museum 1998

Newlyn Art Gallery Newlyn Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in Newlyn, Cornwall, UK. Opened in 1895, designed by James Hicks of Redruth and financed by John Passmore Edwards the gallery was conceived as a home and exhibition venue for the Newlyn ...

1997 Thornton-Bevan Arts, London

Group exhibitions

2010 Meetings Of Dreams, The Wills Lane Gallery, St. Ives 2009 ZOOM – Looking Back/Looking Forward, Art First, London 2007 Art Now Cornwall, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall 2006 12x12 Art First, London 2004 Spoilt for Choice: A Christmas Show, Art First, London 1999 Four Young Artists, Art Space, London 1998 In/Sight,

Exeter University , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...

1997 Gallery Artists I, Reeds Wharf Gallery, London :A Sense of Place, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London 1996 Landscapes from Penwith, Hastings Museum and Gallery 1996 Spring Open, Connaught Brown, London 1995 John Moores Exhibition 19, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 1994 Response to Landscape, Beatrice Royal Gallery, Southampton 1993 Salthouse Gallery, St Ives 1992 Carpenters Road Studios, London 1990 Works on Paper, The Boundary Gallery, London 1989Young Contemporaries, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester

Selected collections

The British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

, London

References

External links

eBook - Partou Zia - Portraits Beyond Self

Platform 505 Article - Portraits Beyond Self

Cornwall artists index

TATE MODERN - Talk - Vision is Out There
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zia, Partou 1958 births 2008 deaths 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters Alumni of Falmouth University Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art Alumni of the University of Plymouth Alumni of the University of Warwick Artists from Cornwall Artists from Tehran English women painters Iranian artists Iranian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Hendon St Ives artists 20th-century British women artists 21st-century British women artists 20th-century English women 21st-century English women 20th-century women painters 21st-century women painters Writers from the London Borough of Barnet