Mohammad Hozhabr Ebrahimi Information

Iranian Sculptor, Student of Master Sanati, and Heir to the Kerman School of Sculpture

In the history of Iranian art, certain names evoke not only artistry, but endurance, suffering, and love.
Mohammad Hozhabr Ebrahimi (1926–2023) belonged to that generation of artists who rose from the earth and stone — those who sought not merely to carve stone, but to shape the human spirit.
For him and his peers, art was not a profession; it was a way of being.

Born in Rafsanjan and raised in Yazd, he began sculpting at the age of ten — carving his first figure from stone instead of pounding grain in a mortar.
That act, as innocent as it seemed, changed the course of his life.
When an angry stonecutter hurled his tools at him, fate placed a man named Seyed Mehdi Chiti in his path — who introduced him to Master Ali Akbar Sanati.
From that encounter, a new artistic lineage was born.

Under Sanati’s mentorship, Ebrahimi became a student of both form and spirit, and later emerged as one of the defining figures of the “Kerman School” of Iranian sculpture.
A graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran (Class of 1969), he devoted more than half a century to creating and teaching sculpture.
From the statue of Amir Kabir in Rafsanjan and Ferdowsi at the University of Isfahan, to monumental works such as The Persian Horse at the Iranian Artists Forum — one of the largest hand-made sculptures in the country — his legacy spans both craft and soul.

Yet what made Ebrahimi truly exceptional was not only the magnitude of his works, but the magnitude of his life — a life that began with stone and endured through the spirit of humanity.
He often said:

“Art must be mingled with the artist’s flesh and blood.”
And so he lived — a sculptor who, even in his nineties, continued to carve, create, and teach his students that beauty is born of faith, not tools.

Alongside Master Sanati, he contributed to the sculptures of Toopkhaneh Square, the Railway Museum, and the Red Crescent Museum, and played a foundational role in establishing the Sanati Museum of Kerman.
His exhibitions in Tehran, Isfahan, and Rafsanjan reflected a deeply human vision of art — one that, while rooted in tradition, looked clearly toward modern thought.

Mohammad Hejabr Ebrahimi was the inheritor and standard-bearer of the golden generation of Kerman sculptors — Sanati, Sedighi, Darvish, and Qahari — a generation that forged faith from stone amid the desert dust.
His works, displayed in public spaces, museums, and universities, remain as living testaments to the union of labor, faith, and beauty.

This interview seeks to explore that life: from his apprenticeship beside Sanati to his twilight years in the studio; from the roots of the Kerman School to his understanding of humanity in art; from the physicality of sculpture to the spirit that animates it —
the story of a man who turned stone into poetry.

Arte Project

Biography:

Mohammad Hozhabr Ebrahimi (April 1, 1926 – April 16, 2023) was a prominent Iranian sculptor and a leading figure in the Kerman school of sculpture, significantly contributing to the development and promotion of this art form in Iran. His enduring works and involvement in establishing notable museums have left a lasting legacy in Iranian visual arts.

 Life

Mohammad Hozhabr Ebrahimi was born on April 1, 1926, in Pariz, a district of Rafsanjan. Losing his father at a young age, he was thrust into early work and responsibility, shaping his path toward art. As a child, he walked from Kerman to Yazd, where he worked in a plaster workshop. There, he carved his first stone, an act that cost him his job but opened the door to his artistic journey. At the age of ten, his talent was discovered by Seyyed Mehdi Chiti, a renowned painter and sculptor from Yazd, whose encouragement set him on the path to sculpture. In 1939, he became a student of Master Ali Akbar Sanati. Ebrahimi graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran in 1969, specializing in sculpture.

Ebrahimi played a key role in establishing the Ali Akbar Sanati Museum in Imam Khomeini Square (Toopkhaneh) in Tehran and the Sanati Museum in Kerman. He also contributed to the creation of museums such as the Red Crescent Museum and the Railway Museum, and collaborated with Sanati on sculptures in Toopkhaneh Square. Beyond sculpture, he engaged in painting and believed that art should be inseparable from an artist’s existence, with no end to its pursuit.

 Artistic Activities

Over more than seven decades, Ebrahimi held numerous solo and group exhibitions in Tehran, Isfahan, and Rafsanjan. In 2014, he participated in the first Kerman Sculpture Symposium, creating a metal sculpture titled Swallow, which was installed in Kerman. His final urban sculpture, a 4-meter fiberglass statue of Isa Mahani, was installed in Kerman’s Park of Notable Figures.

 Works

Some of Mohammad Hozhabr Ebrahimi’s notable works include:

– Statue of Amir Kabir, Rafsanjan

– Statue of Handicrafts, Kerman

– Statue of Fighting Bulls, Naqvan Island, Zayandeh River, Isfahan

– Statue of Thousand Hands, Isfahan

– Statue of Reclining Dog, Isfahan

– Statue of Hakim Abolghasem Ferdowsi, University of Isfahan