Bahram Hajo

Untitled, 2013
Mixed Media/Canvas
200 x 150 cm

Artist’s Biography

Bahram Hajo was born in Syria in 1952. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy, Düsseldorf and later graduated from the Kunstakademie Münster, Germany, in 1984. His figurative paintings invite a reflection on solitude and isolation: lonely faces cautiously stare out at the viewer, or else turn their backs defensively away from them. The transience of emotion is further captured in the splashes of bold colour that punctuate an otherwise subtle and sparse canvas. 

Hajo lives in Germany, where he has participated in numerous exhibitions. He has also exhibited in Belgium, France, Sweden, Austria, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain and the USA.

Describing Hajo’s work, Dr Dieter Keiner pointed out that the continuity and internationality of Bahram´s exhibitions depend in content and quality on a constant ambition to develop his work, connected with a search and striving for freedom and honesty in his personal life. 

Hajo’s early years, starting in 1989, reflect his decision to work as a freelance artist. His work was strongly dominated by recollections related to his Kurdish-Syrian past and by his experiences as an immigrant.

An important starting point for the phase lasting between 1998 – 2001 was the decision to set up a new studio. This gave Bahram the opportunity to find new outlets for his expression on large formats and, at the same time, revisit his earlier works. Bahram started to re-paint his pieces, integrating old paintings into new ones and preserving traces of the former reinterpreted through, and dominated by, his new aspirations and expressions. Moving rapidly forward, but keeping the essence of his earlier work alive, is a crucial feature of this phase. 

From 2001 – 2003, Bahram created abstract paintings. From 2003 – 2004, however, he returned to strong figurative expressions, mixed with partially abstract elements. Many of the paintings are dominated by colourful and black and white contrasts, depicting towers, void landscapes and isolated human beings. 

A new phase emerged in 2007/2008. Bahram began to focus on landscapes, creating disturbing and powerful works with incredible expressions of darkness and light and an uproar of energy. These elements hint at horizons and perspectives that go beyond the miseries of life and the often too miserable state of humankind as a whole.