Quote from Erland Josephson Swedish Actor of Stage and Scree
Momen is the artist painter as actor. Within the self imposed rigor and internal order of his indefatigable style, there is an inherent and pervasive intonation that rises firs to gesture, and then becomes at once interpretation and confession. The dynamic compositional elements of his paintings ebb and flow as their changing relationships reflect the timeless flux and transformitive power of Shakespeare's masterful characterization of the human condition.
Quote from James A. Mason Founding Director of BYU Museum of Art
It seems appropriate for Karl Momen to interpret Richard Wagner's music dramas into his own art form. He is not only a devotee of Wagner but like the composer, his interest and understandings go beyond his own art. He is well traveled and well read. Both Wagner and Momen have been influenced by not only art and music but by literature, drama, and even political and moral issues.
Swedish artist Karl Momen was born in 1934 near the Russian border in Meshed, Iran. He began to paint when he was seven years old. Painter Urie Popow offered Karl art lessons. Popow had been an influential avant garde painter in Russia before the Revolution. He introduced Karl to the work of Kazimir Malevich (1878-1935), Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1953), El Lissitzky, (1890-1941), as well as other Russian Constructivists and Suprematists. Karl did not know who these painters were at the time and could not understand why they would paint abstract geometric images, but he was intrigued by their work.
At the age of fifteen, Karl was commissioned to paint a six-foot high official portrait of Stalin. Some years later, when the Shah of Iran returned to power, Momen was commissioned to paint a similar portrait of the Shah twelve feet high. Following the completion of his academic education in 1954, and military service at the academy in Tehran, he traveled to Stuttgart, Germany, to begin his studies in architecture at the Kunst Academy. A few years later he me Max Ernst (1891-1975), a guest professor at the Academy, and they established a long-standing friendship.
Momen completed his training in art and architecture, first in Germany and then in Sweden. A highly respected architect in Stockholm, he gave up his architectural work and devoted himself entirely to art. He occupied himself supplying a waiting list of over forty European companies with paintings and sculptures produced under his hand.
He held important solo exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, Berlin, Stockholm, Monte Carlo, and Salt Lake City. Exhibitions of his paintings and sculpture may be found at various museums, art centers, culture centers in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Momen has acquired a residence and studio in the area of San Francisco, California, to escape the harsh Swedish winters.
I have read and listened to Shakespeare being performed in the German, Swedish, and English languages hundreds of times. To comprehend philosophy one is best served with the knife-sharp and precise German language. But the majesty and grandeur of the English language, with the richness of its expression, renders Shakespeare's genius more versatile and his plays become prismatic. Each time one experiences a performance, it is perceived through a different color of the many-faceted prism.