Saeed Shahlapour
Audio of the Entire Interview
Interview Transcript
Part 01
I was born in a family with an Azerbaijani father and a Tehran mother, in December 1323 in Tehran.
My father was from a relatively cultured Azerbaijani family who had studied in Tabriz at the time.
And then he came to Tehran and entered the Tehran Railway School and was one of the first graduates of that school.
Which was during the launch of the railway and the beginning of the railway
My mother was from generation to generation in Tehran and I was born in the area of Mokhtari and Amirieh crossroads.
In an arbitrary alley, which, of course, has now been renamed, and I have grown up in different cities of Iran
Because my father was on the railway, I immigrated to Ahvaz when I was 3 years old
Of course, I do not know the exact details, but I remember, for example, one of the oldest memories that come to my mind from my childhood.
It was a matter of the king being shot, and my uncles are happy about this, I remember that, so I listened but I did not know what
I often ask myself how these tendencies and attention to social issues are formed in me.
I think well because I was born at a time when our society, later when I read history, was at a certain time.
The riots and the upheavals and the displacements and the Second World War
I can say that I was born in a family that was somehow involved in the political events of that time.
Right now or not, but they were sensitive anyway, because of what I always remember from my childhood.
Pictures of rallies where I, for example, held my grandmother’s hand and took me to watch
For example, the words of my little uncles or various newspapers that were always dumped on the floor at home
These oldest mental images of mine have always had the same political color and glaze
I spent elementary and high school in Ahvaz and Abadan because I lived at a distance from my grandparents and studied in Abadan.
For example, because Ahvaz and Abadan were always hot, we used to come with my mother in the summers and live in Arak, for 3 months in the summer.
I remember his hearings and demonstrations in Arak
Or, for example, I even remember July 20, I remember the day after July 30
Early in the morning, when we came to leave the place where we were guests, it was at the source of the funeral of the martyrs of July 20th.
I will never forget the face of the old man who walked in front of this funeral and chanted and cursed Ghavam and the king.
And I do not remember that there were many corpses that were carried on limbs instead of coffins, these pictures are left with me
One of the things I can say was that my little uncle played a big role in my life
Soon I became a book reader, which means I was really in the fourth grade of elementary school in Abadan
I went to culture school because there was a library there that was of interest to its teachers and there were books there.
I remember, for example, reading Jack London’s works at that time
I remember reading all of Jack London’s works that were translated at the time, Jerry on the Island, Pirates of the Gulf
And I will never forget that at that time I had a success in school, for example, in exams.
My uncle or aunt said what do you want us to buy for you?
In Abadan, there was always a bookstore in the center of the city, and when I passed in front of it, I saw different books.
There was a book at the time called The Shadow by Bernard Shaw
It was translated and I really wanted to read it but I could not even pronounce the name correctly
I said Jandrak, then I said I want Jandrak’s book to buy when my aunt and I went
When I told the salesman Jandrak, he told me no, this is Jandrak
For example, when I took this book, I was in the fourth grade of elementary school and I wanted to see what this play was like.
In the same Abadan or where we were, except for the school library, for example, the black and white magazine of that time, there was a magazine that was always at home and my uncles used to buy it.
And I read a lot of the day in them, I was a lot of readers, I started reading books very soon
And I can say that we soon forgot about childhood and grew up
And much sooner than necessary, I read books that may have been too early for that age
For example, a person who was in the sixth or seventh grade of high school, reads a blind owl and does not understand anything.
But its melancholy atmosphere affects the person mentally and visually
Later, when I thought about it, I saw that well, I read it then, I did not take anything from it.
But his pictures remained for me, I had more pictures left
Well, I read a lot, I read a lot, whether it was a newspaper or a magazine
The same newspaper and reading magazine, especially Speed Black Magazine
He introduced me to other events, for example, after the seventh grade when I came to Tehran
And I studied the eighth, ninth and tenth grades at Rahnama School on Moniriyeh Street
Well, at that time I was reading newspapers and books, I was reading the verses of that time like Ferdowsi, Sepidosiah and these
And sometimes in these I was informed about cultural events
Suppose one of those things I learned in the eighth grade of high school
Finding a place called the Culture Hall, now on Hafez Street, next to Reza Shah Kabir School, now called Shahid Bahonar University
Next to it was a hall called the Culture Hall, which still has a painting of the same name
He would occasionally exhibit there, and I remember one of those things in my eighth grade.
I saw the exhibition poster that they had brought to school and struck
In the name of Iran Droudy’s exhibition, perhaps I saw the first Iran Droudy exhibition in this culture hall
And that was very interesting to me, of course I read articles in newspapers or magazines of that time
And that is why I found it there because it was one of the places where exhibitions were held in Tehran.
Or again, at that time, the Ministry of Culture and Arts had a gallery at that time
Next to Shahedokht High School on Shah Abad Street at that time or Majles Street, Baharestan now
There was a building there called Reza Abbasi Hall, where the Ministry of Culture and Arts was exhibiting.
I remember, for example, that Sohrab Sepehri’s first exhibition in Iran after his trip to Japan was there, and I saw it.
Or the first exhibition that Al-Khas came from the United States and coincided with the death of his father
And he had made works about his father’s death and exhibited them there
Or I saw the exhibition of other people’s works or in the same culture hall of the exhibition of Tanavoli’s works that had just arrived from Italy.
I have been interested in painting since I was a child and I do not know why
In the past and at that time, my contemporaries must remember that many painters had a shop like any other job.
And there they painted and put their paintings behind the window
Painters also had jobs similar to carpenters, blacksmiths and tailors, and were not far from the social environment.
Jafar Petgar at the crossroads of the Republic, which was called Shah’s crossroads at that time, although it was a crossroads
We were going down an alley, a little lower than the Asian cinema, at the end of an alley that leads to Palestine Street.
It was a street where they had a workshop, which is now one of these medical equipment stores
I passed in front of this workshop or Jafar Petgar shop every day
And I always saw through the glass, for example, these memories are for the seventh or eighth grade of high school
And I always regretted seeing some young people sitting there studying.
But the facilities of my father, who was a simple railroad worker, did not allow me to pay for tuition and go to this class.
But I was learning from behind the shop windows, I was learning from looking at the work of the painters
There was a shop called Yamin To Lalehzar, in front of the former Iranian cinema, which is now closed.
This agency had Winsor paints in Iran, so all the painters would go and buy from there.
As a young man who was painting, I would go and buy my paints from there.
Well, I would walk this route and then I would come to the hotel I was rejected
Or Sokhan Bookstore, which was next to Naderi Hotel, I would stand there and look at the books.
Well, sometimes my finances allowed me to buy
I do not remember, for example, with the same money I had bought the book The Passion of Life of Van Gogh, which was published at that time.
And I had read and I was very much in that dream ….. and the fantasies of that time and this life and these
It was very memorable for a teenager like me, still enjoying the book
And even now, every time I remember it, that time is fascinating to me
Part 02
I went to high school in Tehran, so my father was a railway employee with a normal income and high facilities.
And I had an allowance to cover my painting expenses, which was 1 toman a day
Of this 1 toman, 8 rials was for the bus, that is, 4 times we have to go by bus from Jomhouri or Valiasr streets.
Because our house was on Nahid Alley on Fakhr Razi Street, we had to walk to Valiasr
There we would get on a bus and get off at Moniriyeh and go to high school
And I would go back and because at that time the schools were two shifts, it was 4 times and I was walking all these 4 times.
That I can raise this money and go and buy my paintings
Suppose a pair of Winsor paint tubes was 7 tomans and 5 thousand
Well, I was finally able to buy 4 tubes of paint a month with all my money.
Of course, anyway, my parents or uncles did other things that I could have bought, but it was like that anyway.
I remember that we had a house at that time after we came to Tehran from Ahvaz and Khuzestan.
We lived there near the desired alley again, well, the house we rented
He had a room that I had, so I was painting in it from morning till night, reading books and other things, as well as studying.
It was in 1941-40 that my father moved to Mashhad, one of the reasons being that I had reached the ninth grade.
And I wanted to go to the Fine Arts Conservatory, because every year the Fine Arts Conservatory put an exhibition of their work in the same twist.
And I would go and see them and I really wanted to go there and read the painting seriously.
In this case, it can be said that my uncle was against and in a way, my parents
Even somehow they moved to Mashhad because I could not read paintings.
Of course, I am at your service today, which was not bad, I personally think that it was in my favor today.
Because my uncle, who had a lot of influence on me, argued that you have to make decisions soon
To choose the future of your life, you have your paintings to do well
At that time, you could not go to university from the conservatory and after graduating from the conservatory
And my uncle insisted that you go to high school, get your diploma
Then make the final decision, then you can better decide whether you really like the field or you think based on emotions.
During my high school years in Mashhad, I also painted
Given the more or less events I had studied, I also considered myself a modernist painter, for example.
For this reason, it was very interesting that I had painted 2 works from there and in Mashhad
And I posted for the fourth Tehran Biennale at that time and one of them was accepted and they put on an exhibition
He was also very attractive to me and now my job is accepted
At that time, for example, there was a bookstore in Mashhad called Boroumand Bookstore
Which really covers every magazine that comes out in Tehran
I remember that he brought the idea of art there and I bought it
It was this newspaper and reading magazine that I can say through which I was acquainted with and up-to-date with the currents of art and literature of the time.
I did the same thing again and because I wanted to paint, I was rejected in high school for another year.
And I changed my school again and finally in 1945 I got a diploma and took an exam at the University of Tehran.
When I graduated and came to Tehran, the new art gallery for Jazeh Tabatabai was first on Bahar Street.
It was a building where Jazz had a gallery that, for example, exhibited his own work and sometimes the work of others.
Later, Tanavoli did not reach Motahhari Street in Valiasr at the same time
His right hand was a second floor from the bottom up, and there was a gallery called the Blue Gallery
He also exhibited his works there, and I saw the first live exhibition of the works he had taken from the prayers there.
Later, other galleries were opened bit by bit, but until then, only a few galleries that Were government
And private gallery did not mean today, for example, later Ms. Seyhoun opened Seyhoun Gallery
Or Burgess Gallery in Soraya Street at that time or Somayeh Now, at the intersection of Villa
There is now a stock exchange company in that building and where the Burgess Gallery was
My interest at that time was painting, but at that time I had started slowly and I was also making sculptures.
Which I used to make with chalk and then shave, now something similar to what I saw in the exhibitions in those days or I had seen their photos.
Anyway, in 1945, I was accepted to the University of Tehran in the field of sculpture with the first rank
One of the reasons I tried my hand at sculpture was because I was painting and I was painting a lot more.
And at that time I painted all of them and sometimes I did some work with mud, plaster and wood.
Maybe because I did not know and did not know at all how to work
It was as if I thought I could paint and go back and study sculpture
Of course, the fact is that until college, when I was painting well, I never really had anything called a teacher, never
And one of my educational places was the places I mentioned
Apart from these places or somewhere on Lalehzar Street, there was an alley where there was a club called Mehregan Club.
Which was a great university for graduates
And that was one of the intellectual places in Tehran that I went to because of the exhibitions they put up there.
I was created because of the very newspapers and magazines I read.
Otherwise, it would not be the case that these things are reflected like today, when an exhibition is held in a certain gallery.
Suppose that at that time the Tehran Visual Arts Biennale, which was always held in the Golestan complex and in the White Palace, for example, for 2-3 years.
The first, the second and the third, and if I’m not mistaken, the fourth was also held there, for example, I would go and see some of these
And most of my training was through these, seeing these, seeing exhibitions
And those were the few resources that were really scarce at the time
The only book that came out at that time, even a little later, of course
There were really few articles, for example, in the magazine Sokhan, Dr. Ehsan Yarshater wrote articles about today’s art.
At that time, those articles were education anyway, today, if you stick to that book, because later those articles became books.
It may make you laugh a lot compared to today’s information
But the fact is that they were good beginnings
The collection of these books on the visual arts was very small and rare, nothing
Sometimes, for example, I remember that a newspaper came up, if I am not mistaken, called Setareh Tehran.
Nasser Khodayar was its editor, and later this Thursday or Friday he will publish a number
Which in that issue only reflected artistic issues, exhibitions, reviews, theater, cinema or articles like these
For example, it was one of those things that introduced me to some areas
I can say that I got acquainted with something that was not for that age much earlier than necessary
Part 03
My entry into the Faculty of Fine Arts, which was in the year 45, that is, the academic year 45-46, I passed the entrance exam in the same September of 45 and was accepted with the score of the first student.
At the same time, I took an exam at the Faculty of Decorative Arts, where I finished third, and then I stayed at the Faculty of Fine Arts.
At that time, the Faculty of Fine Arts had painting, sculpture, architecture, theater and music.
Of course, later the field of industrial design was added, I entered the field of sculpture and started working
But the fact is that at that time, especially sculpture was not yet formed
And the educational system of the university at that time was such that the hierarchy of assistant professor, secretary, associate professor and professor was very similar to European academies.
That means you were not an associate professor, you could not judge at all
It was Mr. Tanavoli, later Mrs. Saliani came, then Mr. Arjang, Mr. Kalantari who taught design
None of them had the right to judge our work, they could only guide
The judge of the faculty was Engineer Seyhoun himself, he was an engineer Sanei, Dr. Moghadam had a doctorate in art history and they judged the works.
Of course, there were protests in the college at that time, like Mirfandersky, which reflected a new trend in the college.
Coincidentally, the same year I took the entrance exam, the University of Tehran recognized the diploma of the Fine Arts Conservatory.
They could take the exam at the University of Tehran
There were many interdisciplinary relationships, not like now, that is, there were very close relationships between painting, sculpture and architecture.
We even had a lot of lessons in common that we even worked on together
And on the other hand, due to my interests, I also socialized a lot with the children of architecture.
And I even collaborated on their projects, like making models or designing and rendering their projects.
Because then it was not like now to have a computer and these things, everything had to be done by hand
For this reason, since then, I have not actually studied architecture, but with the basics.
Like modeling, like reading maps, like perspectives and plans, and all kinds of things
In this collaboration and helping my fellow students in the field of architecture, I was familiar with the topics of architecture.
I remember at that time that we had a course called research method in the first year of college
That Dr. Arianpour came and taught and really when Dr. Arianpour came to teach
Only for our class, for example, we and the painters, we saw people coming from all over the University of Tehran to this class.
The doctor did not stop at all, that is, it was really a busy class
There was a course called Visual Design, which is basically the same course as the basics of today’s colleges.
Which Dr. Mirfenderski taught, and most of the time this lesson is taught collectively
And he taught in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Fine Arts, meaning that there were all three disciplines that he did not explain, sometimes even in smaller classes.
The fact is that our discipline had poor faculty cohesion and was not yet formed.
That is, during 3-4 years, slowly, these new ones came in order
However, the atmosphere of the Faculty of Fine Arts at that time had the advantage of being versatile
I mean, I would go to the oval class and sit in a corner
It was a wish that we did not necessarily have to go through the unit
When he is teaching Beizai, I go and sit in his classroom
Or when, for example, I remember, if I am not mistaken, Dr. Mahmoud Khoshnam was the editor of Roudaki magazine
He would come sometimes and we would go to college and sit down.
And many of the lessons were like this, or we used to have studios on campus.
There was a lot of interdisciplinary dialogue, but not now. This dialogue, this interdisciplinary dialogue is very rare.
At the same time as the college, I said little by little that political activities had started next to him
And I was drawn to these currents within the framework of the same thoughts and family tradition.
The dialogue of the university at that time was political, however, and study circles and discussions began little by little.
Of course, at the same time, I have been in the college since the second year because of these associations
I got acquainted with Qandriz Hall, with Mr. Pakbaz and Mr. Judet
And because I was working, I was painting and I brought my work for them to see
I also had my first solo painting exhibition in Qandriz Hall in 1948
When I was a student, I still joined the Kandriz Hall group, where we used to gather together
Of course, for the painting work and the joint exhibitions that we put together
We also discussed various topics and topics of contemporary art
One of the attractions of that time, in my opinion, was the active intellectuals
The painting exhibition was coming, you just did not see it go, now they come and take a look and leave
Nobody grabs the painter by the collar, why did you draw this, what do you mean?
Now some painters write something on the wall or in a brochure, again no one grabs their collars
I do not want to say that it is a mistake to write, but this is not a dialogue, this is not a dialogue, this is not an artistic debt.
I was in the third or fourth year of college, now I do not remember exactly the year, maybe it was 49
For example, Bahman Mohasses had exhibited the same figures in Seyhoun Gallery
Well, I remember we had a long discussion with him about why this, why these figures are like this.
Why are these figures so castrated, why are they shaped, why are they without arms, why are they without legs, we argued, we got involved
Well, now the painter was giving his explanations, we might be convinced or not, we might talk.
And there were times when we really acted like a student and we worked hard but we were not passive.
Of course, I do not want to criticize that now it is like this, now every generation must have its own ways and behaviors
But we acted like this, we thought like this
Anyway, in those years, these were our discussions and dialogues, and our political activities had also begun.
Part 04
I had just graduated and had given up my project that I wanted to go to England
In the same student relationships that were groups and forums and conversations and discussions and so on.
And indirect links to the Fada’i organization, in which I was arrested
But our group had not done any special work yet
My arrest and imprisonment is almost reminiscent of that summer and it was hot and coincided with
The Asian Games, which were held for the first time in Tehran, coincided
I was there and then when I was released, it was no longer possible to go abroad
– Were you released in 1956?
No, I was arrested 53 and released 54 in the same year
I came out of prison and I had to go about my daily life and study for a while.
I re-sculpted, because of the same familiarity I had with architectural work during college.
Based on my experience or home remodeling work, I represented, for example, interior decoration
I supervised or did architectural and construction work
I worked after I went out, and the social environment was not so bad
Now, my reaction to the atmosphere after this prison was even sharper
Especially since after the same year that I came out of prison, little by little during my activities and studies
I came to the conclusion that my job as a painter and sculptor was not appropriate for our time.
First, I thought and came to the conclusion that painting could not be a social struggle
It is not possible for me to fight with my paintings unless I am a social person who shows it in my paintings.
But this cannot be a social struggle, and suppose it changes the structure of society
For this reason, I believed in direct struggle, and I came to the conclusion that no more
My job as a painter and sculptor is over, I am no longer going to work
Little by little, I almost put the work aside, it was more like this
Even in the 1957s and during the revolution, when even other companies were closed
We had opened a bookstore in the same line of bookstores in front of the university
It was a basement and it was going down and it was a small shop and I was starting a bookstore and that’s what started the revolution
With the revolution, in fact, little by little, I became a full-time political activist
Of course, for this I say profession, not in the sense of income, but in any case, in terms of time, I spent most of my time in political activities.
Until I was arrested in 1961, I was released in 1967 after the trial
Of course, I spent more time in prison, that is, I spent 6 years in prison, that is, exactly from the beginning of 1962 to the end of 1967.
After I was released from prison in 1967, I quickly started working hard
I mean, I really worked around the clock, so after 9 months I had a very big painting exhibition
In Puffer Gallery on Takhtavous or Motahhari Street
It was a very large gallery because it was one of the new galleries that was opening after these years of war.
Seyhoun Gallery was open, this was open, several other galleries like Sheikh Gallery were open
Anyway, the exhibition was successful and I did not sell badly, which at least helped me to live until the next exhibition.
This exhibition was in 1968, then I put on another exhibition and in 1969 I migrated to Kelardasht
Of course, after I came out of prison, I always wanted to leave Tehran
But my dear friend, who was a classmate and family friend from college, Ms. Parvaneh Etemadi, encouraged me to go to Kelardasht.
And even the land that is now my house was actually his gift that was next to his house
He had bought a plot of land there to build a house, so I went there and started building a workshop.
And I was there all the time, and it was there that I was able to sculpt
Because it was really not possible in Tehran and in one house, and it was difficult to sculpt
Especially since I used to work with metal before, my type of work did not allow me to work at home in Tehran.
In 1970, I started sculpting and sculpting again with wood
The revolution caused a long hiatus in all areas
For this reason, many of those who had been trained in painting and sculpture before the revolution and had just come out and were working
With the revolution, everything ended and closed, so many of our contemporaries either left Iran and emigrated or left this job altogether.
– Who were they?
But the people who are working now from all my periods that I serve you were the same Ms. Etemadi.
Among those who stay and are prominent in sculpture are, for example, Mr. Nematollahi, Ms. Simin Ekrami from the younger years.
Like Mr. Anoushfar who was our senior year and they are mostly in ceramics
Mr. Victor Daresh or UF Daresh was one of my senior graduates before the revolution, 3-4 years earlier than me.
After graduating, he started teaching at the university, which he had been teaching until a few years ago.
They were one of the few pre-revolutionary teachers who taught after the revolution, they were an Assyrian minority
And he played a very important role in sculpture education after our revolution, he said
I have already offered my services to you, and when I was a student, I taught art history in fine art conservatories.
After the revolution, I taught sculpture for 2 years at the Faculty of Decorative Arts, which later became the University of Art.
In 1984, I was invited to the University of Arts again as a visiting lecturer
Of course, it was 1 day a week and I could not do more than this, 1 day a week at the University of Arts in these few years
I have been teaching sculpture for 9 years now and I am there anyway
Part 05
Before the revolution, which was said to be a kind of college experience, it could be said that it was a search for the same activities in Qandriz.
It can be said that it was a kind of educational behavior for me
But after the revolution, when I returned from prison, the beginning of which may have been in the prison itself
Of course, we did not have many facilities there, but by working on paper and such
I even remember being in solitary confinement during interrogation
On the same envelopes that the fruit was sometimes given to us in
With a pen that we had somehow picked up during the interrogation, we started painting again.
During the period when I went to Gohardasht prison after the end of the trial, there were more facilities there, such as paper, pencil and pen.
The possibilities increased and I was doing something, of course one of the things was that sometimes we would paint on fabric.
We used to do this on the fabric of clothes, which is now 2-3 stones, or by embroidery.
Of course, I also worked a lot on the fabric with watercolors
We had a very small watercolor and we had some inks there
I was putting a combination of dyes on the fabric, which unfortunately for some reason we had to get rid of.
The first group of works after my imprisonment is a work called Ball and Tree
These trees are vertical lines that can be said to evoke the tree and the colored balls that are
For me, those colored balls were a kind of association of children who played with these balls and are no more after 1967.
And those trees that were very black trees and mostly long trunks
Later, I mean, as a spectator, I looked at them
I could see that these were a kind of association with the vertical lines of the prison, as if the cannons came out of it.
After the first period, which was balls and trees, I have a period that has the same balls and thorns.
In a way, maybe after the joy that one has after prison anyway
Because he had a joy and a sorrow
It can be said that in the period of thorns, the same things happened again
There are always reflections of social conditions in my work
Not in the very general sense, intentionally and consciously, I do not like it, but I have a look at it.
Again, I did different things that I can not focus on right now
I have courses that are, for example, one of his works, but there is always a corner in all of them
In some of my work from the period of balls, there are also balls that are in corners, for example, a single ball.
Which is kind of in my mind the dark corners of the cell
There were also other periods in which the skeletons of animals were introduced into allegory
It is always, for example, a view from the outside and a situation inside, a table, a skeleton, a fallen fish, such are such cases.
I have another period open, which was after this, which is my Iron Age
Again, these irons and iron sculptures go back to the same thorns
But the way it works is different, the other is triangular and metal sharpness
Curves and these sharpnesses are very sterilized or abbreviated or a modern look at the same forms.
These curved forms and sharp forms in my Iron Age works
Once again, the issue of demons came to the fore, which is what you see
The theme of that poem is the widespread oppression of the eagle over the city by Rumi
The devils are the eagle of oppression for me that these foundations are more of a kind of association with the same building blocks
I still have some work to do in this regard, which now goes back to my past memories
There is also some work that, of course, if you visit Kelardasht once, you will see
The theme of these forms of acid spraying is a series of work that I am doing under the name of making Isfahan
The faces of women are made of iron and metal, of course, but the same for me
It is the mutilated faces that became like this due to acid
I also have some work to do is a continuation of the same and a continuation of the same paintings that I had in a period after my release
Part 06
There are two issues that are much debated in all these years, one is the issue of the artist’s social commitment and one is the issue of tradition and identity and these debates.
You see, I live in a prosperous society called Iran, I have a history and culture that I studied.
I have not even studied, after all, if I pass by a mosque, I see a tile that is different from the structure of a church.
Under my feet is a carpet that has a pattern that is different from the patterns that we assume are in Europe and under the foot of a European.
To the door and the wall, the way we build and the architecture we have, that is, visually, however, my visual memory is different from that of a European painter or sculptor.
My studies, my life and these, whether I like it or not, if they allow me and if I am not an imitator who just wants to copy by force, these will affect me.
I always ask myself, in these parts that I do, I say, sir, if Behzad was painting about these discussions?
But as an artist in his own time, it is a reflection of the events of his day
The first time we go and see the works of Herat in its famous miniature
Or in different periods of miniature, when we sit down and look at the paintings of that period
For example, we see what is the difference between Tabriz school and Shiraz, all the miniatures of Tabriz school are building plans, you do not see open space anywhere
But, for example, the school of Shiraz is a plain and it is the atmosphere of water and the people are next to the atmosphere of water and nightingale and mud and these
These are reflections of two different living conditions, the city of Tabriz is a city that has always been attacked
It was always closed and all the buildings and narrow alleys were like this, which was naturally reflected in the Tabriz school in this way.
But from that you can see that Shiraz school is for a period when there is life and peace in the city anyway.
Whether I like it or not, as a painter and an Iranian, I live in Iran
I have a culture that I studied, read, saw and left as much as I could
Anyway, it affects me, there is something called Islamic culture with its Shiite form, whether I like it or not.
Anyway, whatever I do, if I do not make a specific decision and let myself go
I am an Iranian painter, an Iranian sculptor
It is even natural to look at them, get ideas from them and see from them
See the world move from a place to globalization that is not from today and yesterday
From the Safavid era, we see that the world is moving towards globalization
Naturally, cultures that are more bullying now affect the world more
But we see what Picasso’s own European modernism draws from primitive African culture.
Or what is the achievement of Matisse French modernism from our past paintings and this is in many works of the whole world
Just as he had the right, under the influence of Iranian painting, to take away the idea and make his own painting.
As a person, I see their work here and there, and of course due to my cultural background.
What I do is reflect the specific characteristics of society
However, when you sit down and read it as a person, look at it and critique it.
You can see the roots of what happened in each era
For example, my diploma project had seminars called decay and extinction.
Which were all the same bodies torn and crushed, which was a reflection of those years.
In any case, at least we heard that, for example, there was torture in prisons in 1953, 1954 and 1955.
However, in general, these cases are in my work
The fact is, I’m much more inclined to express myself subconsciously
I let that subconscious act on its own, I often find myself after every new task and realize it myself.
This is how I sit down and beforehand, yes, I draw some lines, but the process of doing it starts from the moment it comes to mind.
I draw and draw and then go to the essence of my work, most of the time it is not really planned at all.
Of course, this is based on my experience and what I have learned, and it is a matter of structure and form.
But how these elements come in is often the way it comes in, and I think that Oh good and I love it
When it ‘s over, I feel like I’ve realized a part of myself
You see, I think a lot of times there are associations, sometimes for example, suppose I read a news story that affects me and something evokes
I see an object and it reminds me of one thing and evokes another.
Different elements sometimes come together that do not seem to be synchronous
But in my mind they may have certain connections and associations
See, for example, these corners that are in my work, after the work is finished, I feel that
Otherwise, this reminder is, for example, a memory or the image of the corner of the cell
But it has no allegory or symbolism at all, even if it is, I did not choose
It happened in my mind, you might interpret it, but these things have a kind of appeal to me in addition to their visual appeal.
It kind of evokes in me that this arrangement is happening
Well, there are definitely artists who plan the whole structure of their work
But I come up with ideas, and to see them flush it out, it’s really fun
One of the fascinations of painting for me all the time
It has always been that even if an idea or thought came up, it was exactly like entering a labyrinth that I do not know when and how to get out of it
Many times, especially in painting, when I really started something
Steps I changed, deleted, added, I really don’t see if I was really filming all of that from the beginning
The end result has nothing to do with the beginning
Most of the time my work time is short, maybe for example I paint 24 in a row to finish a work
In fact, if I can not finish a task continuously, I may find it soft
It’s like writing a dream or a dream that if you don’t write right away, you may not remember it at all.
But the fact is that in this process and stages of drawing a painting
It has happened many times that I myself, when the work is finished, say that I was under the work of something else, how did I get to this path?
I work very spontaneously, I do not know, or you saw in the writings
This is kind of the beginning of a writing that somehow, I do not say the word evacuation, but you are throwing yourself out
Because 5 days later, when you read your writing, you wonder who I wrote these things, what I wrote.
There are some differences in sculpture, in sculpture you can not work improvised
After all, it has a generality that you already think about, and it has a manufacturing process that takes time on its own.
Now they are in some work that this process is at all technical steps that no longer have a creative aspect
If so, creativity is in form and structure, not in concept and meaning
In my sculptures, when I think and draw a line, at the stage I draw, I may draw a few frames.
And then I enter the performance, from there it can be said more that I am a performer who is making the volume equivalent of my thoughts
Of course, in the same direction, I naturally make changes in accordance with that
But sometimes, really, if I can’t collect it right away, sometimes you see that it’s half-done, which I leave later.
One of the things I offer you in connection with working with wood
I had some experience with wood as a student, but it was hard work for me
It was not very attractive from the executive point of view because it was slow and I am a person who now, according to the distance, many people say that I am a hyper.
I would like it done very soon and my work would be completed quickly and the wood would be slow for me
But due to the atmosphere there, I got acquainted with a chainsaw
These were the saws that the foresters cut with those trees
And I thought about getting the electric type and working on it
I used it especially for the main loading stage
Of course, I also use other tools that many artists use now.
But it really wasn’t like that at the time, and I had to take some initiative in using these tools.
Sometimes I even make things myself that with the help of those power tools I can use wood more quickly.
My first exhibitions, which were of wooden sculptures, were 2 to my first and second exhibitions
Both were exhibitions that I held in the private space of my home
For one major reason, these were the torsos of the human body
And at the same time, I was exhibiting sculptures in my house in Amirabad, and most of them were sold.
However, since coming to prison, my main source of income has been painting, sculpture and architecture
After the Puffer Gallery exhibition, I had an exhibition at Mansoureh Hosseini Gallery
Later, I was more present in various group and group exhibitions
And since that date I have been painting, sculpting and architecting continuously
Of course, my architecture in Kelardasht was just the architecture of buildings that I somehow built for my friends or acquaintances
Not in the sense that I go to do a construction work and their photos now if you see them on sites or photos in the album
They are works that are like my sculptures, which means that it is practically a work that can be said to be manual and calm
Of course, all the steps from design to final execution, even the interior decoration and arrangement of elements were with me, now I had all kinds of
A few years ago, one or two of these were accepted in the first round of the Agha Khan Award
I mean, it went in the first stage, but now it may not be that important, but it was accepted in the first stage.
Or once one or two of my works entered the first stage of the Tehran Architecture Award
Of course, I did not mean architecture education in that sense
Part 07
I always said that I am a painter, sculptor and architect, I use the word artist less.
Painting is art, but not every painting is art, cinema is art, but every film that is not art is
Many paint, many sculpture, many architect
It does not matter if they are architects, they built, built and built a building
They made something in sculpture, but is it art?
You see, it is the same in all professions, every writing, every painting is just a painting, it is determined by others to be art.
I am a painter, there is no discussion in this because I do the act of painting, these are my opinions
I make sculpture because I made sculpture, I am an architect because I made architecture
And I’m a teacher because I’m a teacher, but am I a good teacher? This is determined by the students and others
Am I an artist painter? This is again determined by others
Am I an artist sculptor? Again, this is determined by others
I really try never to use this word, I can not use it at all
There is no doubt that just as a carpenter goes in the morning and does carpentry and sets the table and says I am a carpenter
I also go and say, sir, I also make sculptures in my work, I am a painter because I do
Now, whether they are good or bad, whether they last or not, it does not matter much to me
This transition has been more interesting to me, this move, you see, is an important action like Sisyphus
We are not going to get somewhere, we are going to do this
I think like this, I do not know what will happen after me
I came into this world and I had an opportunity, I did these things, I do not regret anything in my life
Only if I come to this world again will I correct one or two of its points
Otherwise, I will go the same way, for sure, all the good and the bad, the fact that it is attractive to me.
Still, every time I remember them, they are fine, I do not regret anything in that sense.
Like all my peers as a child, I was somewhere based on what I read and wrote.
I wanted to get somewhere, that is, I remember that I was a child and from a place where I was painting.
My dream was that, for example, depending on what I knew, one of the first people I saw and heard in the environment was a painting called Kamal al-Molk.
My dream was to become a perfectionist, too. Later, as I got older, I became acquainted with the great artists of the world.
My dream was to be Michelangelo, to be Da Vinci, to be Rembrandt
These are for the age when you have a positive ambition, you have a destination or you are moving forward.
Of course, it depends on what your destination is, what you want to cross, where you want to go.
The further you go, the more bullying your patterns become, but from somewhere I got the problem that no one is going to look like anyone else at all.
Everyone has their place, just as gladiolus is a very good flower, rose is also good, neither gladiolus is better than rose nor rose is better.
The little flower that falls on the grass and these are all attractive, the world without each of these has something missing
I can use now dozens of different factors such as social conditions, historical conditions, social status
The times in which we live are important. Suppose, for example, that I had many friends who were good sculptors or painters.
The revolution and the war naturally dispersed them in various forms
Or some others went looking for bread and water and other life and it was not possible for them to return
Some emigrated and went and got lost there, and I have no news of them anymore
There are many factors in our lives that work against my will and yours
As a person, I tried to achieve as much as I wanted with my own will.
But this request was not specific after another time, that other route was attractive
It’s fascinating to me that I’m doing something, it’s not that I have to get to a point
Is it really fun to go to my workshop and work or to paint?
I have often thought to myself that I jokingly tell my friends to see that when I paint, maybe you will.
I am going through the last moments of my life
I enjoy this action, how good it is now that I have enjoyed it
There is someone who gives me pleasure and takes the money and takes it
Ellen, well, now you say, sir, at the age of 70, well, everyone becomes a mystic
Maybe you are right and absolutely right, I wanted to change the whole world at the age of 40, 50, 30
To be at the end of the world, to be the greatest and the best, to be so-and-so, yes
But life goes on, little by little, if you think about it, you will slowly realize this.
That you can not change the world alone, but your own height can affect an epsilon in this world
If you can make the world around you softer, sweeter and more beautiful, this is my pleasure.
All people have a mission in every situation, that is, they do one thing
One is a mechanical engineer and is doing a job right
A car collects and sends well, a doctor does the same
We all take action, whether we like it or not
The older one gets, the more realistic one becomes
And he knows from experience that he has an opportunity in this world
Some are 30 years old, some are 40 years old, some are 60 years old, some are 70 years old, so we have a useful life.
It should be a fact in one’s practice that I finally have a life, maybe 6 months, maybe 2 more days or 10 more years.
I don’t think anyone in this world can say that I did what I wanted to do and I have nothing left to do.
As one moves forward, ideas and thoughts move forward
Surely tomorrow I will have some thoughts that I do not do today, I can not say that my work is over, I do not want to build anything anymore
Now look, I will not go the spiral path, I will not suddenly go this way and that way
It is a continuation of the path, that is, finally a few more works in the same direction
I don’t know, maybe in a month I will really have a pressure on my head, which is a new move.
But we are all more shaped than we are at this age when sudden events or a revolution suddenly occur in our souls.
In my opinion, this is although I have always really tried and will try to be as up-to-date as I can be.
Buy an up-to-date book, listen to the news of the day, read a newspaper, read a magazine
Stay up to date and go to exhibitions if I get a chance to see a movie
Still, well, I try to go to most of Tehran’s exhibitions
While in many of these exhibitions I never or less see my peers and contemporaries or I do not see them coming at all.
I do not want to chant too much that my life is not separate from art, but in reality it was
I’m even home, although I recently enlarged my workshop a little, but the two were never cut off together.
For example, if there is a room called a workshop and the door is locked, I would eat lunch and tea and entertain my guests.
I also had a canvas and I worked, but I could not do my woodwork or blacksmithing in the middle of the living room.
But anyway, I had a place next to it as a workshop, which means it really was like this.
I mean, I never have anything called frustration in that sense
Because I believed that the world has a rotation beyond my will, beyond the will of all the will-seekers of the world
I always hoped that the world could not go wrong like this, as it has never happened before.
Any mistake that is corrected sooner or later, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow is better than today
And many of these things that bother me today will not happen tomorrow
Just as many of the things that afflicted us yesterday and afflicted our fathers no longer exist, the world is different.
Most of the time I say be careful, I really say that now
This is the hard way you came, if you do not have the ability, go for your life right now
Because most of the time, when young people come, they all want to be like my childhood or Van Gogh or Michelangelo.
And many of these people get depressed after a while for various reasons
I go back and say don’t think too much about where you want to go, think about how you are going
It’s important to go, it’s important to move, it doesn’t matter where we get to, it’s important that I am in this line
I am on this path and I am moving, now whoever goes to some extent
Not everyone reaches the summit. One climbs a thousand meters, one 2,000 meters
But everyone should try to use up their energy to the end