In Azerbaijan, the tiger is a symbol full of history and imagery. Exterminated in the country, this animal embodies the pagan past of Azerbaijan, and more precisely a divine Mesopotamian attribute, which represents prestige and victorious hunting. Over time, the tiger remains an essential decorative element, present in Persian mosaics from antiquity to the modern era, as hunted and prized prey. It is the harbinger of an angelic apparition in certain Islamic traditions.

In contemporary culture, the tiger has become a symbol of manhood and male power. These anachronistic echoes from the background of Farhad Farzaliyev’s work, and his attachment to the figure of the tiger. In a traditional society, like that of Azerbaijan, the adaptation of new archetypes is taking place, reflecting the processes of the transformation of the public mentality where those changes are inspired by current historical time.

In his recent series of paintings, the artist varies the facial expressions of his tiger heads, in a systematic spirit that links the tiger to its status of malleable and variable image. Between inspiration of Persian miniatures for their stylisation, and anthropomorphism cartoonesque, these painted tiger heads tend to reconcile the imaginations.