Mostafa Dashti

Audio of the Entire Interview

Interview Transcript

Part 01


My parents was born in Khavidak from yazd county

Because of too much drought and my father being an orphan

In The age of 7-8 years old my father was forced to go and work in a factory

, Dig wells and make cisterns…

And gradually he realised Khavidak place did Not Work for him

And because of that he moved to Baluchestan to earn bread and water

He was a Qanat digger ,A man who knew about
agriculture and Qanat and an expert in these two

Anybody wanted to make a Qanat anywhere in Baluchestan would go to him to show them where is
enough water for that

and my mother was from “modarresi” family in yazd,
all of her grandfathers was buried
as The prayer leaders of The mosque in JAMEH MOSQUE OF YAZD
that is well-known by it’s architecture

I was born in khash city in the same time with water rising of
kamalabad

Yalda night in 1339

The strangest thing was that i was born
in a painter’s house

In that time there was no car or building painter,
I don’t know Who was that painter or what exactly
he was painting and why it was called “The painter’s house”

The house was made of adobe and clay
probably it had an arch,a dooryard,a toilet in the tail-end
and two pomagranates.

Just like that I grew up playing with dust and mud,
there was no school,no books or school bags,there was
no study

One school opened there that they sent me to study first grade,
after i finished it the teacher wanted to send me to
second grade but i said i was done studying


And i was sent to these schools with so much difficulties

I always preferred to make things with clay or make handiworks
and make people around me amazed

Meaning that if i didn’t own a bike,
i tried to make it by myself in any way i could with woods,
strings or anything i could find aroud me

Even in my earliest childhood i tried to be
independent financialy as much as i could


for example there was some effete copper wires
on the houses that still remained on the walls after new wiring
 

i teared them apart,rolled them and turned them into ball shapes to sell to pedlars
and earn some money for buying raw materials that i needed for my work

My father’s agricultring life was full of blessing and wealth
namely they planted wheat seeds in about 200 hectares of farmland

And every cucurbits that they needed for their own usage,
every afternoon they fired the furnaces in a row to bake weekly needed breads

Milk,yoghurt,dough and every other things that were self made there
and i enjoyed having them and sometimes gave a hand to my sister while she made them,
specially bread baking

They sent my seven years older brother to england for educaton
and I always had a supporter in my letter writings to him and stating my derivation,
for instance I wanted to be a car designer then, in a small city(khash) that had no more
than 2 or 3 cars in it

I had nothing to do except for some acts that I name them act of painting,
on a variant of surfaces like on soil of the ground or on walls by charcoal or chalk
Or even with orange peel and other things just like a collage

As long as I remember everybody called me painter and I felt like it too,
obviously it was in my nature and didn’t do anything else other than that,
not farming or studying,I was always punished in school because of absence


I was always the teacher’s favorite and friends with every classmate
because of my calligraphy and painting skills

I was always asked by my classmates to draw their portrait …
Sometimes teachers caught me while I was drawing
their own portrait during the class,it caused their praise by letting me sit next to them


It looked like the world wanted me to be a painter and everyone
envy that, when we were almost in nowruz time everybody wanted celebration cards
in khash and i drew some primary paintings for them

Like candles,flowers and butterflies,i drew some of my vagaries in my own free time

We had some nets for sleeping in opendoors that kept us away
from all kinds of spiders and…
grandma s tales and stories in the net was always inspiring for me

Slowly in the middle of growing up with these things i started to draw some of my illusions
like wolves stand hearing behind the mountains or a bus with flat tire

And so much illusions like this,i drew on paper,paperboard or carton most of the time
with coal or leaf and anything i could find to make a picture and i offerd these to people for free

I think i’ve been in khash until i was 11-12 years old
then i can’t remember why my father left agriculture and moved to zahedan to start a
wholesale leek there that i think it was the first one in the whole baluchestan area
in the main street called ‘Magasi’ street

I was back to zahedan for a couple of years with my father,
my father offered his new business to me and i rejected it
because i wanted to be a painter

My father was very surprised about my decision
the traditional families in yazd like my family it was usual to continue the father’s business

Apparently the same thing happened to my brother with my dad
and he refused his offer as well

Later through the years when he attended to my galleries in various places
and saw the respect everyone gave me, he supported my descision
even though he never realy realized what i was doing
because he always compared it with agriculture

When i was almost 20,i saw him watching me draw khash mountains
he asked me what’s the usage of what i do and i responded i sell them to people
he asked for how much? and i said the number
he looked at me jeeringly and didn’t believe it

Untill the last second he never believed my work as a job
in spite of everyone he respected,dignified my work
i always saw a love with fear his eyes about me and my work

Part 02


When we were in zahedan,my father sent me to a sign-writing store
in ‘alam’ street owned by someone called ‘seied ahmad abtahi’
who was a retired employee of ‘customs administration’


Named ‘abtahi sign-writing store’ he had no other choice
because i always escaped from the school and failed too many courses

My father was too busy with his work that he didn’t even know where my school was

 

‘seied ahmad abtahi’ had a very big role in my life,even i can say
he was my main teacher in my whole life

After all these years and learning alot about calligraphy,now
i know he was one of the best calligraphers in iran that never got
as much appriciation as he deserved

This man liked me so much that he gave all of his store responsibilities to me, as a 14-15
years old boy,i was honored to work there but i never signed my work on my own name

Then we had signboard orders with fluorescent lamps in it,the lamps
needed to be wired and i did it all by myself
i bought my first bike with my salary that my old man never bought for me despite
he could afford it,certainly he wanted me to be independant

Once i painted seied ahmad’s portrait with oil painting in several steps,
you can do oil painting in one step but not in my method


I did this because there was an unfinished russian painting on the wall
seied ahmad claimed his daughter drew it
the painting was a classic one with a story behind it

It was a strong painting but it was never my derivation,
my kind of work was a very realistic portrait of him with his stubble beard stare at his work

When i show what i painted to him, it looked like his world has changed
after that he always called me ‘master mostafa’
he wanted to give me more options in his store to paint instead of calligraphy
but death never let him

Poor ‘seied ahmad’ had a car accident,he went to tehran for some treatments
but had another accident with a bike there and died

After his death i went back to khash but for not long time
then i decided to do my military service,
something that everyone ran away from

In military service, i was a simple soldier in garrison05 in kerman
but because of my painting and calligraphy
skills,sooner than you think i represented soldiers

I had a very easy military service,had a great time in a new city kerman
with many things to learn

When i came back to baluchestan after military service,in 1360
i decided to start my own academy

In my world back then,i thought of myself as a master of art who
knows everything about calligraphy an painting and can teach

All my paintings was like a sunset on the beach with palms around,
birds flying on a lake with the reflection of the sun in the lake,
the kinds of paintings that can easily be selled

I made some part of my paintings from the nature and some of it
from my illusions,i did my work so fast like a magician,a painting didn’t take
more than 5-6 minutes for me and this way of working made people stunned so much
that i thought this is the end of what i can do

Until one day in ‘che konam’ crossroad in zahedan,’che konam’ means what we should do?
my brothers and his friends made up that name for the crossroad because
they always decided what to do next on that area

I met a tall well dressed guy there with wide palms that called me by my first name
‘mostafa’ ,he was ‘hossein abolhasani’ apparently he worked in ‘kharazmi book publishing’
he was english teacher in iran’s universities for a period of time


six months before my brother dispatched to foreign country,
he was my brother’s english teacher and he recognized me in the
street rightaway because me and my brother were so much looked like

I showed him my academy that i named ‘sayeh’
his appearance was well-timed in my life because he couldn’t say out of shame
but he thought i’m wasting my talent

I never forget,he asked me how much money i invested here
and i said i got all of the money from my father to start the academy

When he saw my paintings and my students, he forced me to leave zahedan immidiately
the day after i flew to tehran that i’ve been once before to attend
ping-pong contest

I stayed for two days in an apartment in the third day,i cleaned up nicely
because i knew how important it was,i left everything behind in zahedan for that chance

I went to meet mr. abolhasani in his house,he welcomed me
and praised me in front of her wife

Something inside me knew that a new chapter in my life is going to occur

We walked together from hesabi crossroad to enghelab street,
durin our long walk he insisted that i have to learn philosophy,english
and made a list of some books i have to read…

Part 03


I reached a school where there were talking about morality of painting.
I was a rural and proverbial boy who enetered the school

I realized that i should tie and hide my long hair under my shirt and sit politely
fortunately or not, Mr.Aghdashloo was teaching art history that day

About contemprorary art
I don’t remember the detail of his saying but
i remember i couldn’t stop my tears from falling

For why i realised it too late about the school where they teach painting
and they talk about topics that i need to revelate them in my mind
revelation is a new word

Let’s say searching because i don’t ike the word revelation, how late
since the echool was mix and i was proverbial, i went to another room

 

Mr.Aghdshloo reached behind me and asked what happened?
i replied that i realized where i’m coming
he said like, you will be ok, you will be ok,i don’t remember exactly

I learnt how watercolour paint for about 1 or 2 months
his class had a specific descipline

There were good painters such as Houman Mortazavi,
Farid Jahangir and Shohreh Mehranin Aghdashloo class those days
which said to be the best of his classes

I don’t believe in it, who knows what would be the end of these classes
in my opinion, 1 or 2 months sketching from the model with pencil

Aghdashloo told me to correct others’ painting
and i became his sketching assistant for about 5 or 6 years

But for the painting i follow the schedule in the class like
first colour pencil, then black pencil, then watercolour, then gouache
and finally oils and pastel

I tried to follow the rythm and learn anywhere i had problems
at the same time i used my own apartment at Kooye Nasr(Gisha)
as workshop and do my paintings

And i took many files every week to the class
he asked me to hang them on the wall to let the students watch
and it wasn’t related to Mr.Aghdashloo’s Paintings at all

I was painting Tehran with all the smoke above it,
i get close to BiBi Shahrbanoo Mountain
i had renault 5 which i use its hood as a board to paint

Then i put the papers and equipments beside me and start to work
then i wrap the papers and put it i the back of car and return
it means i always brought large volume of work to the class

After maybe1 or 2 years which i was his assistant
he told me that he can’t teach me anymore about painting
and it’s up to me to stay or not

And then i attend his sketching class on mondays
for my own amusement

I had a lot of extra time at the same time i attend his class for 2 days and i also work in that time
so i decided to join Calligraphers Assosiation and i level up mt handwriting

And i went to see professors’ handwriting
and i liked Mr.Foradi’s handwriting very much
my first show was handwriting’s show at Aftab House

Mr.Abtahi and Mr.Foradi gave me practices to bring them next week
at the time we have to sit and wait to check my handwriting
i start sketching the people sitting there with ballpoint pen

And eventually the edge of pen broke and Mr.Foradi fixed it for me
Mr.Foradi excited when he saw me sitting like him and asked me to sit beside him


Since the next class he took my pen and gave me the ink and asked me to stand beside him


In the moral of Iranian Calligraphers, they always like to choose someone
alike them as replacement for themseves to continue their style

And he saw it in me
the day i invited him to my painting show, he stands at the doorstep
while he was saying such a student i educate


“I got the honour degree from Calligraphers Assosisation”
he was sad that i do conceptual art and feel sorry about it

One of these days that Tehran was under attack during the war
I had an American Jeep, Renault 5 and other cars to go out of Tehran
to work and held a public show on invite some people to view my works privately

And sell my works, one of these days my friend called me and asked
to take Mr.Ali Golestaneh with you to Yazd

Ali Golestaneh is 20 years older than me
I’m talking about 30 years ago
our friendship is 30 years old

I wnet to his home and ring the bell to ask him to go to Yazd
he was scaring from the bombing and sleeping at a school every night

In his sleeping bag, he was painting in Spain for 20 years
with lots of experience and can’t skip his name
among the best contemporary artists in the world

I learn alot from him, i learn to be professional in painting
being professional in painting means
“well i was 26 years old ne we drove to Bushehr to paint”

He came with a file and box of colour pencils and i was full of feelings
and was about to talk about art then he said stop, shouldn’t talk about the painting


Well, that discomfort me and i thought to myself why i brought
him with me but later when we sat, find the view and angles
and work for hours

Our trip took couple of months, and the last day when we were in Yazd
at our parental home he said Mostafa, now it’s the time to ask your questions about the art

I also like to talk about my paintings, Nafiseh Riahi and others joined us later
and we analyze our paintings which we arrange around the house
from 9 pm till morning

Sometimes we argue or get excited
and it effects o my professional deed

That give away your painting and give it to others easily
which it was my attitude. Don’t give your work weird prices
and let your painting leave you easily

And live its own life, eventully it brought jealousy among other teachers
like my brother Ali Dashti who came from Uk to Iran
after 30 years for my wedding

When he saw my paintings situation and the cycle of paintings in Tehran
which he liked it too, he studied System Engineering, Psychology
and he was thinking in a totally different way


He also went into painting, not painting itself but criticism and
works around painting. He was making the group and
organize them

The colonies house in Pasadaran one year 1371
wouldn’t get finish without Ali dashti

Because it has some administrative affairs, someone who can
speak and then he took me to
UK, Germany and other places for couple of years

And he took me not to painters’ gallery but their home and studio
and he had a main role for instructios which helped me

Not just to find myself that apparently i do the same thing i was
doing since childhood which means painting with
my own description

And i can say it’s me, originally me but who knows where i was
and how i formed without these teachers

Part 06


I choose the subject myself, Subject does’nt choose me
i find the topic according to the data in my mind, leanings
and my Instinct


And behind my work audience is not waiting.
Darely i can say, i never work for anybody’s order


Firstly, this idea never come improvisingly
Indeed for the professional painter who always
got all the neccessary equipments in their studio

Equipments which they worked with, it is
possible they don’t sleep and suddenly the new idea
come to their mind and find the materials for it

Ideas come to me seasonally. For example it is a while
i’m thinking about 1×1 cube glasses which hanged from
the ceiling by wire

Well, this idea developing over and over till
i call Mr.X how to cut and glue and eventually
there will be some etude on the wall

I call it painter’s description not sculpture same as
that house of colonies which alight to Modern art area

This is critics and othe rexperts’ job to see
how much modern art accommodates
in the universe and that excited me

Look, this idea already in my mind, this idea
is not watercolour or acrylic painting because

If it was the idea, i would have acrylic colour,
paintbrush and every other’s equipment to begin

I should have prepare raw materials frst for
some of my ideas then adopt mysef to the idea
and then perform it like an engineer

Does your work product of your mind
or inspired by outter space?

Recently, most of it is product of my mind
but this is a mind which feed by the nature

When the canvas is infront of me, i know what
would be the ending, therefore i would lose my concentration
if someone stares at me or talk to me

Because incident wouldn’t affect finishing of my
recent painting and i wouldnt sign my work if it
isn’t what i wanted to be

It means i know where the colour dries, and what
would happen next. Then i will imagine
the final work in my mind

My painting style is watercolour with watercolour papers
such as Fabriano papers which is imported or
Iranians papers produced here or Indian papers

This watercolours’ equipments is always with me,
also acrylic colours on the cloth and oils for a short time

I also copied one of Rembrandt works in Mr.Aso’s class
with oil to see how painter use the colours
on each other with high quality and follow it
 

And recently i use only acrylic because we can take watercolour
and viscous colour from professional acrylic colour

and on cloth, canvas, and exceptionally on the board

Eventualy i choose all the colours, for example i use
orange down the canvas and let it dry a bit by sun
and immediately i use the dark colour on top of it


And again let it rest in the sun, orange colours come as cracks
from beneath which look like the edges of volcanos or
some places on earthbed

And what i want from it? i want the audience moved by it and
look at the story behind it not just seeing
flower, bird and nightingale in the picture

I mostly inspired by Iranian architecture rather than
Iranian paintings because architecture should be there
first and then put the painting on it

But if i do a work someday, for example in one period i had
some works which i show in a gallery and someone told me
your works is look like a painter name Pierre Kirkeby

I’ve never seen Pierre Kirkeby in any catalogues, in the couple of
years i was in Germany and i could visit his work place so i did it

And i saw he thinks of painting life in a same way as me

Personally, sometime i feel connection
with some painters

Some painters don’t know where their work finish.
They continue working on their work till they destroy it

I exactly know ehre my work is done by istinct. Sometimes the
work should stay at its sketch but it’s already done in that stage.

I think when you stop painting is where you shoudn’t touch it again.

Does it happen to you how to finish the work in the middle of it?

Yes, manytimes, a lot.
I had a show in Mansour Hosseini’s gallery
who is painter himself. All my works were ready

One of my work needed to be bigger which i did its etude and
put the initial colours on it. Apart from the show and painting
this work doesn’t give the expected result

It didn’t give me the result for couple of nights.
I used many colours’ tube and work on it
till the 4th or 5th night which i slept over my painting

My child took my head and said subject doesn’t give you
the result and you feel good, forget the painting and
be calm, be calm.

And the warm feeling around my head for 5-6 hours after couple
nights which i couldn’t get the result from my work caused me to
get up next day

And did the final things on my work and surprisingly
get the result on the same day that Mr.Karl Stamminger
and his wife who already passed away came

And he really liked the painting but he asked Dashti
where do you want to show this 5×2 meter work in Tehran?
Do we have such gallery? I said we found it somehow.

 

Part 07


What problems have you faced at the beginning?

What would be the problem? it is the colour that is not the one you want
or the work shop that is not give you the right result to perform your work

Which force you to work in the yard or when you work in the nature
and not only anyone passing by or support you they even make trouble for you

Asking what are you doing? What is your job? and being nosy
there are so many problems but i tried to make something else
out of it

For example i believed that painting could be a char of coa and paper
or could be a hand moving on sand and then take a picture
Nowadays there is camera for photo shooting

 

I passed through the problems and reach the other side of it
to make the efficient progress

Painting needs an initial sketch like any other art, we should know
how much colour, which paintbrush, and what equipments fro the beginning


And first see the blueprint in his mind, then sketching it,
and finally colourate it to finish the progress


If suddenly run out of one colour in the middle of work,
should call the shop to bring the colour would make problems.
These probems are all academics.

Problems could never stop prodcing my work
but i could stop producing my work

You mean you beccome your ow problem?
I become my own problem with airy execuses
like someone already full of it or doesn’t like to show his work

So eventually if there is problem, it is me otherwise
there is no problem for a professional painter on the earth

Sometimes i was thinking that painting free me from thinking
and sometimes mean couple of years ago

But then i realize not only free you from thinking even make
an extra problems for you because you will be responsible for
what you show to the public

Responsibility for the sight of audiences and i think your job
would be harder as long as you become more professional
in this field and maybe the joy of solving problems

Which make you think what should i paint now?
what shoud i do now to satsfy myself?
apart from economic part, viewer and audience

Because it very easy path. I know it very well which painting is
close to the money and how to paint to make money out of it easily.
Because i know the path very well.

I’m very well connect with grocer and others but this is not
what satisfies me to move forward with all these data untill
i wrote in my last show that “I’m not able to continue this kind of paintings”

I never take a show so easy, that show needs a poster,
paint dimension, cleanness, illumination and
the writing to show who is the painter audience dealing with

Exhibition is an introduction to give an artist the feeling
that public also view his work rather than persoal viewer at its workshop

And this gives the painter an extra energy.
Whether the viwer likes it or not i feel so good for judging by them.

I wont help the audiences by giving title to my works.
I do not care a lot how much they understand it or not.
If they ask me for a specific part of my work i would explain it.


And if i feel someone is buying my work and prepare the cheque
but there is a wrong will behind his purpose of buying i would rather
lose the cheque than selling my work by lying about it.

There are almost 10 types of people who bought my works.
One who likes my painting and then buy and know the space to hang it.

One who buy the painting as investment to sell it more later.
one who likes the painter himself and want to have
his work as a remembrance and so on

We don’t have more than 1 or 2 experts who don’t have
enough time to expertise. Darely i can say we have painter
but we don’t have critic in Iran

We have painter but we don’t have professional gallery.
The reason that we don’t have critics or they are low educated
is they work in so many different fields at the same time.

This applies to galleries too, running the gallery is a professional business
but having painting show is one of their business for most of them.
and this is how they run the gallery.

I regret not having criticism because if there was good one
the professionals less suffer to enter the smaller subjects.

Because it is correct to say this paiting is good or bad and
the rest is just words and false description
but this is what a critic should say apparently

Part 08


There’s deep uneasiness inside me,my only calmness inside is when i travel by driving
or when one of my paintings meets my standard

Whatever i paint,comes exactly from inside of me

The uneasiness inside me causes from alot of things i see around me
i just know there is riot inside

Because of that i work seasonal,i never touch the paintbrush
except when my mind comes to a calmness

I’m thinking about my impatience and what kind of things may have caused it all the time
i’m sure some of social problems like traffic
or historical cities i loved are shattered is one of the reasons

 

Me not being so successful in my marriage and with my children could be another one

When i go to ‘Chogha Zanbil’ after 20 years and see the changes or when i visit ‘Shah Mosque’
full of trellis inside that you can’t enjoy the view,these are one of many reasons for me not being calm

But these kind of things cannot affect on my paintings to be dark or bright


I see myself as a grain in this whole universe
if i go anywhere else in this world,my paintings won’t change

Now that i live in tehran i’m forcing my mind to think about myself instead of the universe
i prefer to think about my lifetime and the years a head of me

There’s not a single day in my life without waking up in the middle of the night thinking about a painting

Ofcourse my father was full of questions about life until the last day he was alive,just like me

I think sometimes you don’t choose the way,the way itself
takes you somewhere you didn’t expect

-would you please talk about your book called ‘Kharchang haye Blourin'(crystal crab)?
-I never intended to write this book,i thik of it as my brothe’s book

I was so upset because of his death i thought i will be dead too one year after that at the most
now i think of it i see 17 years has passed

In the first ‘Ali Dashti’ s anniversary, i painted some abstract works
with rough expressionism in it and exhibited
all of the collection in ‘Niavaran Cultural Center’

Andi wrote a context about the gallery that i rented it from a baluchi poem,the meaning
of the poem was somethin like that : ‘ when you see the full moon in the sky
remember the one’s you love’

After a few years, i reached to a compromise with my brother’s death and proceeded my works
but after some years i felt a responsibility in me to write something about ali

He was a good writer himself and he always wrote on a daily diary he had

I started writing’Kharchang haye Blourin’ in an autumn and finished it in another autumn
in the same place we’re talking.

After finishing it, it felt nothing different than a painting i always do
althoug i don’t see my writing as a profession

-What is your feelings about other artistic fields like music?
– if i had a the nature of being a musician inside me i would never go towards painting

Because i think there is nothing better than music in the whole world

In a symbolic way there is a natural music in the world’s nature,
and after that we can talk about the musical instruments

Me never had a chance to learn a musical instrument is one of my big regrets in my life

I almost always listen to ‘Qawwali’ music during my work in my studio

Or some old Tajik and Afghan musics that i like so much
sometimes i listen to classical music too

-who do you like the most in painters?
– i respect ‘Henri Matisse’ so much and i adore ‘Pierre-Auguste Renoir’
and i think there is a holy privacy around him

And i always wonder how is it possible to be some one like
‘Leonardo da Vinci’ or”Michelangelo Caravaggio’
in the same period of time that gladiators detached their heads in fights

The best cooments i ever heard that affected me was from my father who always said to me :
‘Dn’t talk too much and work instead.’


Another one was my brother’s last will to me before just before he died
‘Be kind to people,Don’t blame other people because you are an artist,
you have responsibilities about them and not the opposite

-What is you advice to visual arts students?
-Your only rael teacher is your sharp looking to the world outside

Then after that you should train your sharp look in a good academy
i hope the numbers of good academies increase in this country

-how do you explain yourself?
-i have a hard thick crust outside but when you pass that i’m so tenderhearted

When i forced to lie some day,that day will be one of my worst days in my life

-What is your biggest wish rightnow?
-A black ‘Toyoyota Land Cruise’ (laghing) just kidding

My biggest wish is to find my new studio and perform what i have in mind
then expose it in a new gallery

Part 09


I think traditional art is more applied art which means someone makes
a pot to drink in it and also paint the edges

And call it pottery art but this is pottery or Carpet art, they make it to use
tile that uses as architectural material. Tiling art, Fretwork art, Calligraphy art
even calligraphy art


There are questios that can they called art or they are just an industry
that reach its perfection. It is obvious that someone who weave the carpet is
more elegant than someone who serves in the military

It is obvious that a calligraphers is more elegant than someone
who drives loader. it should be a difference somewhere.
Modern art means an art which shaped in the new century

And its root come from a different region, and it was there with different type.
and it starts in Iran 150 years ago or maybe more

There were so many foreigners who came here to skis landscapes.
it wasnt camera to help sketching

Modern art in 21st century has its own place in the art, and they have
their own language and audiences in European countries, USA, and other places
and they are moving in their own cycle

In my opinion there were no changes in contemporary arts after
Safavi’s Era and its architecture and its miniature and who knows they might
be no changes for the next 200-300 years like Architecture

Or like many other things, yes there are some attempts but i just
give my opinion. The problem comes from an extreme westrnization
in this plateau

And this means except your heart and kindness which is Iranian, everything else here
such as light, decoration, everything we see here, the way of sitting
and our fashion style is western

When they forget that perspective, colour, camera even the paint brush
all come to this plateau from the west or even east like chinese
paint brush after Safavi era

I think it’s only our hearts that remain Iranian. Human culture is like
an old mother who might not be able to give milk or answer to our requests
but at least she receives respect

And you can’t put all of it on Painter, painter is like an aerialist who
try to excite people even if he lose his life for it
many other people forget their tasks

It’s not just about being engineer or doctor, you need an expert and consultant
from painters, filmmakers and good architects
it should be a architecture first to be able to paint in its

Sadly they claim that we don’t have painter to use which i believe
we have enough but maybe the monetary cycle that “a painter
needs get something for his consultaton to live” bother them


Because 99% of people want to get something by not giving

Contemporary arts got attention since the world start looking at
cinema industry in Iran
i see it good but it needs time to find its place among the arts here

It needs time for finding its place, for example Sohrab Sepehri painting might
be in the museum of Contemporart arts in Iran or Has high value here
but it never get an extra value in other countries

Whereas a filmmaker like Mr.Kiarostami has a strong place in cinema
eventhough i’m not an expert in cinema. About the painting it will find
its place but for now should work hard and don’t complain and never expect
painting to solve the component

Collective wisdom should find good painters and support them til the
young painter who works doesn’t have a daily living problem
becuse now its the time that a good painter create when he lives with ease not in pressure

Should help him, Municipality should gives him a studio to work
many painters don’t have a place to paint in Iran

The problem with our contemporary arts is that our practitioners are not expert
in one thing which means a gallery owners try to do translation, writing,
calligraphy, video art and modern work together not just one specific art

This is sad why a painter should think of other things instead of painting

Who were the most effective iranian painters for the past 50-60 years?

Mr.Aydin Aghdashloo, Mrs.Parvaneh Etemadi, Ali Golestaneh, Vahed Khakdan
Ali Nasir, Mrs.Bita Fayazi, Farid Jahangir. they were effective according to my taste
but if i just wanna say they will reach100-200 painters

I hope the human reach the understanding and knowledge
that earth is the only place to live
i hope he thinks more logical this time

I lost faith when i lost my parents, my hair got white, lose teeth
can say losing weight but getting ready to die easier in the next 30 years

Which i find a definition for death to easily say it’s time to go
and lay down and wait for death, this is my hope
what else?

I’ve been asking you question till now
now i want you question yourself, imagine Mr.Mostafa Dashti sits
there and you want to ask him a question
what would be your question?

Mostafa Dashti, why are talking alot
work and act a bit

So, why are you talking a lot?


I will be talk less
give love and so on…