Sadegh Tabrizi
Audio of the Entire Interview
Interview Transcript
Part 01
From Childhood to Training in the Fine Arts Conservatory
What is the date of your birth?
February 22, 1938.
Are you born in Tehran?
Yes.
Is not it interesting that you have born in Tehran and your family name is Tabrizi?-
My grandfather was born and lived in Meshkinshahr one of the cities of Eastern Azerbaijan
he migrated to Tehran and at the time of Reza Shah when an ID card was issuing for everyone, people were asked what family name
do you like to have and usually they refer to their origin
It is enough strange that my grandpa did not announce his birth place as his family name and claimed he is from Tabriz
Indeed, this name has faced me to some problems and
many times has caused some misunderstanding.
Why?
When I was in London, I became familiar with a carpet seller who took me to Selfridge
In the 9th floor of the Selfridge there was a coffee shop which was a meeting place for Iranian residents
When we went there, we met a 90 years old man who was called Dr. Moshiri
He had a Taqar hat made of lamb skin
He had placed his hat on the table
I am introduced to him as Mr. Tabrizi
He started to speak Turkish to me. I told him: “Sorry I do not know Turkish.”
He became angry with me and blamed me:
“Damn you, why call yourself Tabrizi while you do not know Turkish?”
I won’t to answer his insult to keep his respect, I told him:
“Sorry it is not my fault that my name is Tabrizi
Since the time I have known myself,
I was called Tabrizi.” He angrily said: “No it is your fault. You had two options
“First you made yourself to learn Turkish language and second you chose to change your name.”
when I thought deeply I came to this idea that he is right and
I had failed with regard to my family name, therefore I am deserved to be blamed.
My father was a painter. He painted delicate sections of the buildings
Those days he painted the chimneys and other stucco sections of the buildings
In fact, he ornamented buildings and in this relation
he had friendly connection with Qollar,Modabber and Blokifar
In some cases, he asked their help for his own work:
For example, for depicting a perspective, a vista or a portrait
For this reason, from the age of 5 or 6 I saw them with
my father and since I was the only boy of the family
I was always with my father. Even before I was sent to primary school
I was familiar with painting and painters
of our house that made my mother angry with me,
because she was obliged with great difficulty to erase those scribbles
In fact, I started painting from those days
When I grew a little more I used to accompany my father and
I learnt some principles of paintings
I remember clearly that when my father was asked to depict a vista or a landscape
he invited Blokifar to draw for him and in this cases I sat at his side
and gave him various pigments and I also saw what he is doing
For example, I observed how he made design of stone on the wall and
in the streaks of the stones
he drew the pictures of gazelle, rabbit, and the profile of man’s face
As if in the streaks of stones there were somethings like man or flowers and
liked them and I followed him closely
Once on the ladder I was designing the ceiling in the house a man whom
I remember his name was Mr. Hendizadeh and he was working in the Keshavarzi Bank
While he was smoking opium was looking at me and
I was designing a cross line in the mid of the seeds and
placing points in them as Blokifar had taught me
Suddenly he said I believe your son at length will become a spell writer.
The ladders were bilateral and from very young ages my father forced me to work
and gradually I undertook the duties of Qollar
Blokifar and Modabber and I did whatever they were to do
I was fifteen when my first painting was published on the cover of a book
When I was a student of the third grade in Dar-ol-fonoon high school
I had a conflict with the teacher of chemistry and he flunked me intentionally
For this reason, in the mid of the educational year I left Dar-ol-fonoon
and I enlisted in the Sina high school
in Amiriyeh Street, Moez Soltan Square.
It was a private high school and its owners were two brothers
The place of high school was a three story building with brick facade
In our class there were only 15 chairs
The chairs that possess a plate for writing but
at the session of examination around 90 students appeared from nowhere
All of them belong to the same class and every once time two or
three of them attended in the class and I
as a permanent student, every once a time I see a new student in the class
Anyhow that high school was not a place for studying and at the
same year due to the immoral conduct of one of the students all of us were flunked
I was enough lucky that our English teacher was our painting teacher too
One day I showed him one of my paintings that I had copied it of Hafez’s book of poetry
He told me that you are talented in painting,
and advised me to enroll in a conservatory after finishing
the first coursed of high school.
I was flunked and after one year elapse I enrolled in a conservatory.
You mean after the first phase of the high school?
Yes, after the termination of the first phase of
high school i.e. after the first three years of high school. I passed the 3 year
course of conservatory and received the certificate of plastic Arts, equal to high school diploma.
In which year you enrolled in conservatory?
I entered conservatory in 1956 and completed the course in 1959
The subjects of teachings were varied
I chose the miniature branch. I think when I enrolled in the conservatory,
it possessed three branches: sculpturing, modern Cezanne Style painting, and miniature
that those days I felt miniature is more harmonious with my nature and mood
I attended in the miniature classes and fortunately our teachers were really skilled artists
but the only problem was that they do not like to transfer their experiences to their apprentices
When you ask them to teach you something, they encountered you
in a way that you are a pick pocket and you want to rob their pocket
They conducted in this way, they tried to teach you only in the scale of conservatory not more
Are you alluding to Mr. Hossein Behzad and Mr. Tajvidi?
Incidentally Behzad does not conduct in this way,
but I afraid to ask him to correct my work,
because he suddenly exploded and cross off the work with
a pencil and blamed you why have you drawn this hand here?
The hand should be placed here. For this reason, we dare not to show our works to him.
The course of conservatory was a good opportunity for talented students,
because any of the student who placed at the top
he was sent to Paris to follow his trainings and could enjoy in the artistic space of Paris
Unfortunately, none of the students who were sent to Paris,
could exploit of the opportunity has been given to him while
he could benefit from the Paris museums,
libraries and galleries to improve his artistic talent and to become a great artist
Most of them returned empty handed.
For example, there was a young man called Shoeybi-e-Khiaban Azar
he had come from Tabriz and for the sake he had no place to stay
he had resided in the conservatory; as the result he was always present in the classes
Whenever one of the masters asked us to perform a project and all
the students complete their assignment
since he had no work to do, he made 5 items of the same project.
He was very grave and conducted ethically with masters and finally he became the top student
He was sent to France and after half term he returned.
I asked him did you learn French language within 3 months?
His answer was negative. I asked him how did you speak with your masters?
He said I speak to my master in Turkish language. I asked him: “Do your master could understand you?”
He placed his mouth to my ear and whispered: “My master is a nice girl and I have fallen in her love.”
Now you can imagine, the young man who knows not even a French word
and speaks Turkish with her master,
and has fallen in the love of his teacher what type of tragedy could create
After a few months we heard that Shoeibi has
placed his head on the rail of train and had exploded his head
I want to say the output of the project that the top students were sent
to France to promote their abilities was not a fruitful manner
I can say the only one who benefitted from this project was Parviz Tanavoli.
I believe if Parviz has not been sent to Italy, undoubtedly he was still Parviz Tanavoli
Therefore, you need not to go to foreign countries to become a prominent artist,
a real artist merely needs an intrinsic talent,
you should possess it, otherwise no training could make you an artist.
The days of conservatory was interesting and lovely days for the sake that in the
high school only the hours that we had the subjects of painting or calligraphy I was happy
but the students of high school took not these classes seriously
they rather to learn something, sneered at their teachers. In those classes
I was not satisfy enough and ceaselessly I was waiting
for the formation of the classes of calligraphy or painting
When I enrolled in the conservatory the condition was changed,
and a great part of classes allotted to painting and
– -we were benefitted from the most skilled masters such as
Hossein Behzad, Mohammad Tajvidi, Hadi Aqdasiyyeh
, Nosratollah Yousefi and Hossein Altafi
the masters who were rivaling with the greatest painters of the world
These masters were trying to train us; that our number was not more than five.
And I enjoy a lot in their classes and try to learn as much as possible.
Marco was not teaching in Armenia, namely he possessed
not any class, but he founded the workshop of engraving in Armenia
In this workshop he had only an apprentice and only one person joined him
That one was Hossein Zandehroodi. The tableau of Ashoora which has been performed
in ten sessions is the output of the workshop had been founded by Marco
That tableau is the result of Marco’s teachings. Marco printed
it for him and at length Marco brought it with himself from Armenia
At the present time that tableau is at the disposal of Tanavoli
As it is said recently Zendehroodi with the stereotypes which are at his possession
by engraving on the linoleum had performed another tableau and has sold it to British Museum
and last year in a prodigious ceremony it was unveiled in that Museum
Since its composition is different from tableau which is at the possession of Tanavoli
is different with Zendehroodi’s tableau. It shows that this tableau is different from the other one
perhaps Zendehroodi purposely has done it to make a difference between the two tableaus
To me the new composition is more beautiful than the other one
Nevertheless, I did not see any other work has been done in the Marco’s workshop
Even one day I attended in one of the Marco’s classes and
created a work that did not satisfy me and I did not like it
Obviously if I liked the work that I had created, I would attend in his classes.
Nonetheless Marco due to his nobility encouraged me to stay in his classes
As a whole Marco was a real lovely gentleman.
Part 02
Study in the Faculty of Decorative Arts
Throughout Iran there were four art schools, two of them were located
in Tehran one for boys and the other one for girls
and the third and the fourth ones were in Isfahan and Tabriz
Art of Tehran University under the supervision of
Mohammad Ali Heydariyan who was one of disciples of Kamal-ol-molk
did not accept these students under the excuse that their trainings
were incorrect and we will have problems with them
because at first we should erase from their minds whatever
they have learnt within three years and then teach them the correct ideas,
while if we accept the students has finished the course of high school – no matter from which branch
since their mind is clear from any prejudice they are more ready to accept new ideas.
For the sake of such approach all the students were
graduated from art schools were obliged to be employed
in the Ministry of Education as painting teacher or to join the offices with low positions
At length Pahlbod the then Minister of Culture and Art decided to found a higher Art School
to accept the students have been graduated from conservatories or art schools
In fact, against the Mr. Ali Mohammad Heydariyan’s approach
an Art College was established that we were its first students.
The Art College was founded in 1960 and as soon as it was
founded all the people who were graduated from conservatoires
within the last 7 or 8 years despite the fact they were employed by
the Ministry of Education were accepted by this college
Of course many students have entered into this college to receive a certificate to
promote in the administrative hierarchy but some of them
were really art lovers and have come to follow the art works
Of course, Arabshahi, Qandriz, Pilaram and me were the students of the second group.
For example, when Zendehroodi who was granted a scholarship and was sent to Paris
he forsook the classes in 1960 and stayed there
forever and for the present time he is the resident of France.
I can claim definitely that by the foundation of the college around 70
to 80 people enrolled in the college but only a few of them had come to follow painting
Many of them felt that despite their primary assumption they could not follow
the process and in the midway left the college
or they stayed and after lagging for a long time with great difficulties received
a certificate to promote in their administrative hierarchy.
When the college of Decorative Arts was established
Tanavoli had a great role in its foundation His main assistant in this enterprise was Mr. Kazemi
They both with great effort followed all the processes and undoubtedly without their cooperation
and their intellectual collaboration such a training institution never take form
After establishment of the college Tanavoli himself started to teach there as the master of sculpture.
In this faculty we witness various events. For example, Mr. Pahlbod the Minister of Culture
and Art sent Mr. Tajvidi to France to invite great masters for teaching.
Before it, such an invitation has never been occurred
Akbar Tajvidi was a skillful painter, he was the son of
Hadi Tajvidi and the brother of Mohammad Tajvidi
He knows French language very good and speaks fluently
Interesting enough he had learnt French by himself in Tehran.
One day he spoke French with Pahlbod and Mr.
Minister became happy and gave this mission to him
When he went Paris he decided to invite the top students
of Beaux-Arts and in this way by the help of these masters
we became familiar with the latest European artistic systems.
Presence of these masters were very precious and they
opened to us the gates of the arts of the time
At the same time a library was established in the faculty
before it we had never seen library at all and no library was at our reach
The library turned to a tryst for us, namely most of the time
Arabshai and I were roaming and studying there.
What did you do with foreign language?
Each of these French masters had chosen an interpreter for themselves
namely some of the Iranian masters knew French and transferred their teachings
As a whole the practical work based upon watching not speaking or reading
in fact, it is an empirical work. For example
when a master is teaching perspective,
it is enough for the student to look closely to find out how he starts and how he finishes
You need not to know a foreign language too much
It was not theory; it was a practical work.
Addition to me the students of that educational year
who gained fame were Zendehroodi, Pilaram and Arabshahi
Bangiz was a student of a year, lower than us.
The students who regarded the art work seriously were the same people
that I have named above and up to the present time they are working seriously too
For example, Oveysi was the employee of Ministry of Foreign Affairs or
Tanavoli was in Italy for the sake that he had become the top student
When we were student Tanavoli was the master of the college
Of course Tanavoli himself has contributed in the formation
of the College of Decorative Arts and he was one of the members
of founding board and with the help of Engineer Kazemi he founded the College
and both of them were teaching in the College.
Tanavoli taught sculpture
Of course Tanavoli was an exceptional master
He taught the students and he ran a workshop too.
I remember he made a sculpture of a lion of 70×60 centimeters
and then molded it and made a lion of ceramic.
He made this sculpture in the workshop of the College
He also taught designing and encouraged the students to design
Tanavili was a good teacher
I learnt a lot of him, not merely the art work but also the manner of life due to his advices.
During the years of studentship who were teaching you?
As I said before we had two or three French masters their names were Brauner,
Gérard, Jaubert and two Iranian masters
Engineer Kazemi and Engineer Saffāri
the latter one was the son of major General Saffāri, an exceptional outstanding person.
He was an expert in all the fields.
He was a first grade architecture,
decorator and painter and also he was a prominent researcher he was a man of knowledge.
Kazemi himself was a distinguished graphic designer
One of our subjects in the college was decorative painting; for example,
the tomato’s tin needs a cover to be painted; such painting is called decorative painting.
Or the packaging of the box of pistachio or anything else.
These paintings are not called artistic works, but are merely a decorative job.
The other subject of teaching was cloth painting and the other one was graphics.
These branches of art were not taught in the Faculty of Fine Art of Tehran University
of course we were taught internal decoration and sculpture.
For three years we studied the subjects that I mentioned above;
from the fourth grade the subject become specialized and
the students were faced to some options
They could choose internal decoration, decorative painting,
cloth designing, graphic or sculpture.
Arabshahi and I chose internal architecture, Mr. Pilaram chose painting
and Qandriz unfortunately was dead after a car crash
We graduated from the faculty within 6 years.
For us the course of the faculty lasted 5 years: 4 years for general teaching,
one year for becoming an expert in one of the branches
In fact, the course of faulty was 4 years
three years for general teachings, one year for becoming
an expert and one year for receiving M.A
within a six year course, because we did not attend
in the designing classes we had a master of designing named Monsieur Brauner
we thought since we knew how design why should we
spend our time by attending in the designing classes
One day Dr. Kia summoned us and said:
“If all of you are Picasso why have you come to the college?”
The college possesses a format if you have come to study,
you should follow the regulations too
We did not show any attention to him. As the result we were forced to remain
in the faculty for another year to study designing
Any how the course of the faculty came to end and
we were hasty to benefit from 20 years studying
I should mention it when I was a sophomore, I was known as a painter
and I was one of the persons who had founded the Iran Hall
by the help of my friends and in this hall
I was the only person whose works were sold. In fact, my works were sold incessantly.
Part 03
Beginning the Professional Activities and Founding the Iran Hall
By graduating from the college of Decorative Arts as I said before
I wished to try the governmental job with a university certificate
because I had a bad experience when
I joined the governmental office with the high school diploma
I applied for the Ministry of Interior Affairs which was a valid reputable ministry
and I was employed as an engineer to establish the engineering
offices in the centers of the provinces
Before it, the centers of provinces were obliged to send all the
specifications of the buildings they plan to build and in Tehran
with regard to these specifications,
the plan was drawn and returned to the place of performance
In order to realize the policy of self-efficiency
the Ministry decided to establish Engineering Office in the centers of
the provinces to perform their projects independently
I was employed provided to work out of Tehran
Since I liked to live in the north of Iran
I announced if any office is to be founded in Mazandaran
I will accept this employment,
otherwise I wont to be employed
I am told there is an empty position in Mazandaran and they sent me there
Our boss in Mazandaran was Engineer Zolfonoon,
one of the engineers who was the classmate of Engineer Seyhoon
When I arrived Mazandaran
he told me I should introduce you to the governor
He accompanied me to the office of the governor
We went into his office and greeted him
but he did not reply both of us and suddenly he started to reproach engineer Zolfonoon:
“What this condition means?
At least build a public toilet, people in the corner of the street stand and … .
It does not mean, the office of the municipality of Abbas Abad locates in an attic,
like the notary public office of the slum areas
The municipality should possess a high character,
a dignity, it should have a beautiful building
construct a building for it. He started to reproached him.
I told myself: “Let’s go. Where have I come? Being employed
by the Ministry of Interior Affairs was a wrong choice What a conduct is it?”
He did not even shake hand with me neither offer us to sit, nor he asked us:
offended with him. I told myself is it fair to stand there and to be blamed?
I took a look at his office
It was a hall around 30×10×4 meters. It was one
of the building had been constructed during Reza Shah
There was nothing in the hall but 20 to 30 rickety chairs for the nomads
The only decoration of the wall was a tableau
of the picture of the Shah who had raised his right hand to greet
The hall was very bare for a governor.
” I said: “Mr. governor!” He retorted: “What is the matter?” I asked him:
“Do not you think that the walls of your hall is very brae?”
He replied: “Yes, I know it.” I told him: “Do not you think it needs to be decorated?”
What is your idea if I decorate your walls free of charge?”
He asked: “How is it possible?” I said this is my job
I have graduated from the college of Decorative Arts and I am a well-known painter
and Mr. Kavoos Baqaee the owner of the gallery of Borghese is my colleague.
He said: “Ah are you working with Kavoos. He is my close friend;
he was from Malayer
He said: “Go Shahi, there is a land and we want to build a park for children
Go there and do something.”
That day was Thursday, I got a shuttle that with 20 Rials took the travelers from Sari to Shahi
I knocked the door of mayor’s house. He came out from the session
of opium smoking The smell of opium was hanging around him
. I told him I am sent by the governor to draw a plan for
a children park the land that you are planning to build
He gave me the address of the land and I went there.
it was a little trapezoid form. I measured it with my steps and drew its plan in my mind
In the afternoon of the same day I returned Tehran with the shuttles
These shuttles were a number of Mercedes Benz that go
on a round trip between Tehran and Mazandaran
In Tehran I had a Chassis board 120×80cm
I placed a Canson paper on it and started to etude it and
I drew the plan of the Shahi Children Park,
exactly like the assignments of the faculty
I made it rendu completely and made a façade of a part of it
which showed the children are playing see – saw and are sliding from sledge
In this park there were trees and benches that the people
could lounge. In fact, I depicted a beautiful painting
On Saturday morning I took it to the governor.
The governor could not believe the park he had suggested
to build on Thursday to see its plan on Saturday
He said: “Very good. I would give it to the municipality of Shahi
I gave it and I returned.
Once in a winter due to the snow had fallen for successive
days I did not go Mazandaran
I thought it is impossible to travel. After few days
I came to this idea that I can’t stay in Tehran up to the end of winter
and I took the ticket of train and I left Tehran with
this safety vehicle, at the morning I reached Sari
and while I was waiting for a Taxi; one of my colleagues
with his car stopped before me
and ride me, he was Engineer Shahidi from Torbat-e-Heydariyeh
and ride me, he was Engineer Shahidi from Torbat-e-Heydariyeh
“what do you mean?” He said: “You are replaced by Engineer Zolfonoon.
Every day the governor seeks after you.”
I did not believe this point, but when we stepped in the office
the janitor who never greeted me bowed before me
At the spot by observing the approach of janitor the news was verified.
I hastily reached myself to the governorship
I found out the governor is waiting for me
In short I became the head of the Mazandaran Engineering office
Those days I was only 29 and no head in the Ministry
of Interior Affairs was so young as me
the youngest one was Engineer Kaveh,
After six or seven months of being the head of the office
I was invited to the Minister’s Office
Those days Abdol Reza Ansari was the minister of Interior Affairs
I went Tehran and entered to the Minister’s office
As I arrived the manager of the Minister’s Office who was a dumpy man
asked me to go to another office and I saw Arabshahi was sitting there
I found out that the reason of invitation relates to painting
Arabshahi had come a quarter sooner than me
When I arrived and all the people who had been summoned,
came together, the manager informed the Minister
Suddenly I saw the Minister himself opened the door to
the office we were waiting he embraced both of us
and lead us towards his own office and said
“I did not know that you are my colleagues in this Ministry” – as if
his wife had told him two celebrated painters
are working in the Ministry of Interior Affairs and then
he had sought and had found us
The minister on our honorary held a banquet and invited all the governors
through the country and gave us a prodigious lunch
in the 7th floor of the Ministry’s building
. In this banquet the Minister said that these two artists should return to Tehran
because the flame of their talent will be extinguished in the small
towns and they should be transferred to Tehran
As a whole I was only one year in Sari and through an official order the governor accepted
with the Minister’s request to transfer me to Tehran
In 1972 I left the Ministry forever.
Please talk about the incident of Talar-e-Naqsh
Talar-e-Naqsh or Talar-e-Iran is the first gallery
that possessed a solid foundation
it was inaugurated in 1964 and its founders were Momayyez and Qandriz
Namely if these two persons were not, or better to say
if Momayyez was not present in this issue the gallery never took form
One day Momayyez said when two persons are going to a picnic,
one of them undertook to pay the expenses and then they divided it between themselves
We asked: “What do you mean?”
He retorted: “This group should possess a head and it was
decided to cast lots to see who would be chosen between Momayyez and Qandriz
At length Momayyez with 4 more votes was chosen.
Within five minutes he became the head of the gallery
I told myself: “It was better to say that I want to be the head of the Talar
There was no need to follow this complicated procedure and to cast lots
I was the only artist who sold a work in that gallery
The price of my work was started from150 Tomans (equal to 25$)
One day I went the gallery and Cyrus Malek said that
I have sold one of your works at an amount of 300 Tomans
It meant that the price of my works have been doubled
and from 150 Tomans has jumped to 300 Tomans
I asked where is its money
He said the money is at the disposal of Pakbaz
I asked Pakbaz to return the money of the sold tableau
he said that Momayyez has said that the gallery
needs some money for its expenditures
and we should spend this amount for the gallery.
I said: “There was no regulation to say that whoever sold
a tableau should pay the expenditures of the gallery
The Fine Arts Office had undertaken to pay an amount as the rights of atelier
Namely there was an accord that an artist would rent
an atelier and secured its apparatus
and conclude a contract and run it by accepting apprentices or work in it
and then the artist would refer to the Fine Arts Office to receive his atelier’s right
Gallery’s fees included the same right too
When we talked with the office managers they told us
“You can rent a gallery and then ask us to pay its rent fee
I added that I am not responsible to pay
the expenditures of the gallery and if there is any accord
the other participants should pay too.”
Pakbaz said: “No the other participants should not pay any money
because they did not sell any tableau at all
” I told him: “it is not my fault that the other participant’s works have not been sold
It is not a reasonable logic that the one who has sold
his work should pay the expenditures of the gallery
I was offended for this approach
I felt that they are not conducting me fairly
while at the beginning of the establishment of Talar
Pilaram paid 50 Tomans and Arabshahi 40 Tomans and I paid 300 Tomans
since I could sell my tableaus and also I work for the journals
I have money to support the Talar
Besides it when we need gunny in the gallery
I took two fragments of the gunnies of the Faculty
(they need it to keep wet the clay sculptures and every night
the sculptors wrapped the unfinished sculpture with the wet gunny)
and the dean of the Faculty called me the gunny monger up to the day of graduation
He accused me as the gunny robber and it was its passim
You have taken the gunnies and did not back them.
I told the dean we are using it for our tableaus and as soon as
our work being completed I would return them
I need the gunnies to cover the brick walls of the Talar
otherwise we should cover the walls with a plaster of calk
but we had neither time nor its expenses
while with these gunnies we covered there free of charge
and we hang our tableaus on the walls
It was my contributions in the establishment of the Talar
which was at least ten times more than the others
But when I ask them to return my 300 Tomans – those days this
figure was equal to the salary of a teacher
around today’s 700 to 800 thousands Tomans – they treated
me unfairly and I was offended by this approach.
One day Momayyez with an instructive tone, as if he is my boss told me
Forough Farrokhzad likes your works
give her one of your works as a gift
I retorted: “If she likes my works she can buy any of them
Momayyez said: “Do you know if your work be displayed in her house
it is good for you. Do you know what type of people are associating with her?
I told him: “It is obvious the people who are associating with Forough would go to galleries too
In short against the Momayyez insistence I said if you like to gift
her one of my works you can buy one of them for her
but I am not the one to gift any one
This was a reaction against his authoritative conduct.
If he asked me friendly not from the position of a boss, of course
I would give him and it was not important for me at all
I could perform a new tableau within one or two hours
He said: “Ok. I buy it 50 Tomans
I told him: “Recently one of my works has been sold at an amount of 300 Tomans
And at length I did not give that work to Momayyez and
I felt this conflict would continue
so I left the Talar
When I left the Talar, Pilaram and Arabshahi left too
But Qandriz stayed there
He participated in a collective exhibition
It was the last time that he was there; then he also abandoned the Talar.
After Qandirz left the Talar, he joined us and we – Qandriz, Pilaram, Arabshai and I
established an office for internal decoration in Amir Akram Square,
in Vali Asr Ave. Our office was located in a newly founded passage and
wo of the shops asked us to perform their internal decoration
Although our furniture was not ready yet; we hired two
assistants. Unfortunately,
Qandriz was killed in a crash
Arabshahi said what we can do, we have no help but to follow the project
but Pilaram for the sake of his attachment to Qandriz was too depressed to follow the project
he said in the absence of Qandriz he is not able to continue the project
In fact, I have been matched with Arabshahi and Pilaram was matched with Qandriz
Anyhow with this accident, the project was deserted forever.
Part 04
The Study of the Works
The day I went conservatory as a trainee to choose the branch of my training
I visited the class of sculpture and it did not attract me
then I went the class of painting I felt I do not like it because they followed the Cézanne style
and I preferred the painting be like the painting
I like the classic painting more than other schools of paintings
I went to the class of miniature I saw one of the students
Mostafa Basiji, who was the trainee of master Zaviyeh was drawing a miniature
his work was really beautiful
I chose that class heartedly.
I went to the office of conservatory and announced, Mr. Asghar Davoodi
the dean of college that I have chosen the class of miniature
He was astonished due to the fact I was his student and to pass the
university entering examination I have attended his classes.
Indeed, he tried to change my idea, as if it was very distasteful for him that I work on miniature
But I had made my decision
Indeed, when I was in the third grade I came to this idea that my choice was wrong
and I blamed myself why I have chosen miniature as a professional branch?
It was better for me to choose painting but It was too late
Nevertheless, from that day, I started to work in the field of painting
too and I tried to improve my designing
But when I was painting, unconsciously under the influence of my experiences
and the teachings of the classes of miniature
I was tempted to use the delicacy and finesse of miniature in my works
Therefore, I started to etude on the basis of Iranian miniature
but the result of the work was conspicuously expressionistic and
almost you can see an abstract work that possesses the taint of miniature
They were my first works that I displayed in the Iran Talar and were welcomed greatly
and they were the only works have been sold in the inauguration ceremony of the exhibition.
After being graduated from conservatory, we have no chance to enter in any university
Tehran University had refused to accept us on the basis
of senseless reasons that I have mentioned before
Indispensably I joined the Office of Fine Arts and started to work in the ceramic workshop
In this workshop they made various types of potteries and we were painting them
sometimes we ourselves made somethings with clay.
Even I had learnt the processes of pottery and I could make pitchers of 15cm high
Then an incident happens there
A mosque was built in the Ferdowsi Avenue at the adjacent of Keyhan Paper office
and the inscriptions of the mosque were sent to the
ceramic workshop of the Office of Fine Arts to be written there
An old calligrapher named Sanaee started to write on the tiles with the sols script
I looked closely at these writing and
I felt that this script possesses a prodigious structure
For example, imagine the letter of “ع” or “ه” in the sols script,
how beautiful they are
The movements of the letters are really splendid
I decided to use these letters and their words as a motif and to create
a painting work that its motifs would be these letters and its words rather
than items like tree glass, goblet, flower and so on
Then I started to work on a 70×70 panel made of 15×15 tiles and decorated the panel with these letters
I used any letter that I liked and placed those letters on this panel
The outcome was a composition that was not legible but was made of letters
some of them formed a word but possess not any meaning
I placed it in the furnace and what came out was really pleasant
it made me really satisfied.
The satisfaction was beyond my expectation
In this way up to the time that I was in the Office of Fine Arts
I was using the sols scripts on the pitchers
The first painting scripts in Iran are the same works that
I have performed in 1959 in the Office of Fine Arts.
I have preserved some of those pitchers and I have kept them yet
In 1962 I exposed that sols epitaph in the International Ceramic Exhibition
in Czechoslovakia and I have a set fit of that exhibition too.
I was strongly under the influence of the Iranian Islamic elements
Due to these religious elements are present in all the aspects of our life
and they seem inseparable from the context of life
As a whole whatever could be placed in this ambience, could impress me
In fact, I employed all these elements
none of them was ignored and I used to them in all my works in the tile working,
mirror working, plaster working stucco, moqarnas
(honey comb working) mosaic working, carpet designing and so on.
In the coffee house paintings or in the dervish canvases there is
a personage who is very interesting and always tempted me depict him
This personage is Khooli.
He is punished in the court of Mokhtar due to hiding the cut off head of Imam Hossein in the oven
the punishment of Khooli is placing him in a cauldron of boiling water
What surprising is, the indifferent face of Khooli in the boiling water
He shows no reaction of being boiled, if he was smiling, it did not surprise me
He is very calm in the caldron while he is placed in the boiling water
It was very interesting to me why Khooli does not show any reaction while he should cry,
and wail and his face should be haggard. His character seemed funny
When I was working in the Ministry of Interior Affairs this idea came to me
that to create a brilliant feat of the personage of Khooli.
Now that he is not uneasy in a caldron full of boiling water
certainly he feels that he is in a flower box full of flower and
he is very happy that he is sitting in the mid of the flowers.
I started to paint these scenes
I draw a caldron and placed him in it while he is
laughing and some spray of flowers have come out from his side
It means that the fire has rendered to rose bower as it was rendered in the story of Ibrahim
In another tableau I depicted all the various tortures that Mokhtar
had inflicted upon other evil people who murdered Imam Hossein on the body of Khooli
as if he had been endured all these tortures
For example
the body of Sanan ibn Anas, one of the Imam Hossein’s murderer was
punched and the lightening candles were placed in its holes
and I depicted Khooli was undergone this torture or the body of one
of the other murderer was cut to half with the saw
and I depicted the body of Khooli had been sawn or someone else was buried alive and
I depicted Khooli has been buried alive or someone is killed while an axe
has splitted the pate of his head or the another one’s flesh was pinched by pincer
and I depicted Khooli whose flesh was pinched by a pincer
As I thought to inflict all these torture to Khooli suddenly many ideas rush to me
For example, in Jack London’s The Call of Wild
I had read that people of Eskimo place their disable old people
in the mid of a circle of fire and the wolves encircle her
and as soon as the fire getting to extinguish the wolves attack
and tear the old one and indeed they devour the old body
Eventually I thought that a herd of dogs could encircle the caldron that Khooli is stewing in it.
The subjects that I have worked on are the known subjects
For example, the last Supper of Christ could be the last Supper of Khooli too
or the ceremony of transferring the dowry of a bride could be
attributed to Khooli too and some other subjects like these
I decided to perform them and to hold an exhibition to display all of them in the form of a package
I thought since I am an expert in miniature perhaps due to my inclination to this art
the faces of my personages take the forms of the miniature features and whatever I do
I can’t create the ambience of the coffee shop painting
I asked myself if such an idea would come to Qollar or Modabber
what they would do and how they would depict these subjects
I made decision to consult with one of the coffee shop painters and
at length I talked with Abbas Blokifar and I explained for him what I want to do.
He accepted to help me and I started to design and he depicted them
when the tableaus were completed we both placed our signature in the margin of the tableaus
Therefore, on any tableau there are two signatures: one of them is mine as the designer
and the idea processor and the other one belongs to Blokifar as the painter
And the present tableau is one of those works that their numbers are
totally 36 tableaus which were displayed in the Seyhoon Gallery
It is important to say that up to the present time even in the
biennales no tableau was welcomed by the visitors as this one
at the present time I have 34 or 35 of those 36 tableaus
and I have placed them in the panels that each panel includes ten tableaus
Each panel shows an incident or a complete session as
most of the coffee shop paintings are in the same way.
I have some works which are not exposed yet
The works are inspired from the books had been printed in the lithography manner
The books like Amir Arsalan, the celebrated, the book of Heydari Attack and the Nezsami’s
Five Book (Khamsa) which are illustrated in the time of
their creation and I aggrandize them up to 5 or 6 times
Their first dimension, say, was 12×12cm and I made them 60×60
and printed them and of course I amended them
but in fact the origin of the works are the same old paintings with some little changes.
What is noteworthy is that within the years I was working on these illustrations
I observed many of the artists of our homeland like those who illustrate the books are unknown
most people even do not know their names while they are not unimportant or discredit artists
They have performed attractive works
For example, one of the points which has been forgotten and
these illustration reminds us is the presence of elephant in the battels
Elephant were very important factors in the battel field because
the weapons of the warriors were sword
sabre, dagger, lancer and so on and the elephants were not vulnerable against these weapons and
due to their immensity at the time of attack could trample the enemy
In one of these illustrations I saw an elephant has snatched the cut off head of a man with its trunk
as if it was a ball and it seemed to me that such an imagination was very attractive.
Our people do not pay any attention to these illustrations
either they did not see them or if they have seen since those picture
were very small they did not understand their artistic nature
For this reason, I have aggrandized them to show their reality and purposely
I have emphasized on the parts that
I have regarded more attractive in such a way that those parts could be seen easily
and people could understand the delicacies and
the attitudes as well as the manner of approach of the artists to these issues.
In 1969 one night Iraj Pezeshkzad – the great Iranian satirist – came my home and gave me
and added in this first 30 pages all the people of the novel have
been introduced and you can imagine their characters
through those pages and on the basis of these characters you can design the cover
Accidentally I had a journey and I was obliged to be in airport at the 4 A.M
but I won’t to say “no” to Pezeshkzad; for this reason, as soon as he left my house
I started to work and before 4 A.M
I completed the design
The design of Dāee Jan (the main character of the novel) was colorful
and the other features were black and white. Later – around 4 or 5
years after the book was published – its serial was shown in the Iran National Television
The painting that I wish to allude appeared as the guideline of the serial
and the director had chosen the man who was to play the role of Dāee Jan on the
basis of the design of the cover of the book I had designed.
After the publication of book one day Iraj Pezeshkzad came my home again and
gave me a volume of the book and 1000 Tomans
The main point is the sentence he had written in
its complimentary page that makes me full of enjoyment. I read:
“Your art bestowed dignity to my book.” This complimentary sentence
shows how humble is that great man in spite of his high position in the field of writing.
In the same year (1969) Hilton Hotel decided
to establish an immense hall of 1200 sq. m. without any column
Its decorator was an English man named Mr. Billy
The hall was constructed by an Israeli company
Mr. Billy invited me to draw two tableaus one for the
inner section of the hall and the other for the back ward wall
I painted on the stucco
I ask to install a scaffold there and then I painted a verse
of the Surah of Noor (light) from the holy Quran
Of course I have no plan to propagate my belief
it was merely an ornament for the sake that I want to exploit the beauties of sols script
as I have benefitted from this script in my artistic works such as ceramic works.
One day Sharif Imami came to visit there
I came down from the scaffold, he patted on my shoulder and shake hand with me and said
“What a good idea that you have chosen the verse
of Noor for this hall, because the name of this hall is Noor.”
But later the managers of the hotel told me that the Shah do not like the Arabian script
and they suggested to replace it with couplets of Hafez poem
Of course I cared not their suggestion and
the managers of the hotel dared not to erase those writings.
They made a velvet curtain measured 50 meters and covered the verse
The curtain had covered the verse of Qoran up to the victory the Revolution.
The year that I constructed the building of gallery (1973)
I had an office that the walls surrounded it were totally 32 sq. m.
and I made decision to show the events of the advent of Islam from
the very beginning to the present time on a drape to cover all the walls
So I talked about my plan to Abbas Blokifar
I explained for him that I want to show the events of Islam
from the time that Mohammad was appointed as a prophet
in the Hara Cave and the Cherub Gabriel appeared to him
to give the message of God and the prophet’s wars against pagans
and the events were happened in the length of history and
I want to show all of them in a drape
I planned to show the appearance of the occult Imam too
After a part of drape was completed,
we decided to keep the remained part in the form of designing
and Blokifar paint and complete them in front of people
Exactly the same way that occurred in the coffee shops
Blokifar appreciated my plan and started to ready
the canvass of the drape and designed it from the beginning
But since he did not perform such a great work in his life,
he was obsessed by the feeling
of disability and ceaselessly changed the composition of the scenes
Indeed, he was right because he could not reach to
the composition that he had in his mind
For five years from 1973 to 1978 he worked on this tableau
Of course he did not spend all these years on this tableau,
but every year he works at least five months on this project
and at length by the victory of Revolution it was completed
In the throes of the Revolution we decided to
change the appearance of the occult Imam
to the appearance of Imam Khomeine and
capturing the Embassy of USA and the events that occurred in those days
Therefore, we added 3 meters more to the drape.
But the number of the events were adding continuously; for example
the imposed war and the other related incidents and
we come to this result if we want to depict all events
we need another 100 meters of drape and we forsook
the idea utterly and cut off the 3 meters which have been added
and we contented to display the scenes that we have worked before
If we wanted to continue the project,
we were obliged to show the ceremony of flagellations
and the ceremony of the mourning of the 10th of Muharram and the donation of food and so on.
Blokifar started to coloring and before completing the background
he was invited to Azad University to teach there and
I lost Blokifar and I could not color the drape without the help of Blokifar
After many years remaining for him inevitably
I asked Biuk Ahmari, the traditional painter to complete the drape
Ahmari was a painter who follows the manner
of the works of artists such as Aqa Baqer, Aqa Zaman and Aqa Sadeg
Ahmari started to work and after working on 6 or 7 meters of the
drape asked me to summon Blokifar to talk with him about the subjects of the events
One day Blokifar came and explained the scenes,
when he was leaving us, he said that in the mid of the tableau
there are some complicated scenes that Ahmari could not come along with them
I felt Blokifar inclined to complete it personally
Therefore, when Ahmari left Iran to Germany to visit his children
I asked Blokifar would he like to finish the work that he himself has started
He accepted and started to work; but he was not the same Blokifar, once I knew
You can’t trust on him anymore; one day he came to follow the project
and then ten days he was absent
because he committed himself to everyone and caused muddle up in the project.
I came to this result that working with Blokifar is time wasting
Therefore, I put aside that seven meters that Blokifar had worked and
when Ahmari came back I restarted the work with him and at length we completed it.
In this drape unlike the Ahmari’s coffee shop painting
most of the paintings are in Qajar style
For example, both Blokifar and Qollar delineate their personages
and with the help of a line they separate the various fractions
The drape became very beautiful and
those who have seen it – it was exposed here in Sari – appreciated it
and many of them told me that this work among my artistic
works, is like a seal of a ring and never lose it.
Those days unlike today that most of the painters choose religious
and epic subjects, they chose festive and lyrical subjects
Most of the subjects of our miniatures was the picture of a girls and boys
who had interlocked to each other which in our jargon language is called grasping
In fact, of each ten tableaus that I have worked in
my life which approximately started from 1961 or even from 1959
and has continued up to the present time, at least the subject of half of them were grasping.
The mounted men and the horse riders that I have depicted are in this ambience
and sometimes I have depicted the mounted men who are in the battlefield
The subject of the most of my collages related to war
and also I have created the picture of the mounted men who are against each other
For example, a group of riding men are coming from one side
and another group are arriving from the opposite side to fight.
When I drew these paintings while the other painters draw
around these pictures or in the margin of their tableaus
the pictures of birds and flowers, trees and houses and
other buildings or as it is widely practiced in the miniatures they illuminate them
I started to write Nastaliq and broken Nastaliq Script in various spots of the tableau in sporadic form
Gradually I came to this conclusion that if I place these depicted details in a frame
they themselves would be an artistic work
I tried it and the result was very conspicuous and
made me to draw a great number of these paintings
which possessed the ambience of non-eligible broken Nastaliq on the parchment
They are the abstract of Nastaliq script
These works were displayed in Paris in 1972.
As a whole the works of 17 Iranian painter were selected by Michel Type
then he chose the works of 4 artists namely the works of
Zenderoodi, Pilaram, Sepehri and me to display in a specific exhibition.
In 1997 the Ministry of Islamic culture and
Guidance sent a number of the painters to the Artic China Expo in Pecking.
In the expo I had a stall that I painted the abstract works
on the parchment and since the painting was performed on the leather
by with black pigment which were similar to Chinese works,
the Chinese People felt they are familiar to them
In the heat of my job a Chinese girl who was the owner of an atelier in china
came to me and asked me the price of one of my tableaus
I told her the price of it is 3000$, she said: “Can you hear the sound?”
” I asked her which sound are you talking about. She replied:
“The sound of the breakage of my heart.”
I told her I give you at the price of 2000$.”
Mrs. Ariya from Aro Gallery was standing at my side and said:
“I plead you to give her any price that she offers. I will pay you the remnant of your price.”
At length I asked her how much do you want to pay. She replied All my money is 600$.”
I gave her the tableau at the price that she offered
Recently I saw that professor Yarshater has printed
the photo of that tableau on the cover of a book of poetry.
I am glad that the destiny of that tableau is to be placed
on the cover of a book which Yarshater loved it.
Part 05
The Coffee Shop Painting: The View of an Artist
Is it possible to explain the quiddities and specifications of Saqqa Khaneh?
The school of Saqqah Kaneh is not really a school, it is a name that the deceased
Karim Imami has given to these paintings which employ the traditional
Iranian and religious motifs. As a whole it is merely a name
The contents of the paintings have no close relation with this name
for example the works of Arabshahi is far from the definition that Karim Imami offers
Imami who has coined this expression says we place our works under this name
to grant an integrity to our works a round 70 to 80 years ago
when the first group of painters like Javad Hamidi
Ahmad Esfandiyari, Hooshang Pezeshknia, came back from Europe
and started to create some works under the influence
of modern European art, their works were regarded as modern art
Their works were different from the classic paintings,
it means that they were different with the followers of Kamol-ol-molk
and in fact they were standing against them. For example
when Zia Poor came back from France and placed his
first painting on an easel in the Darakhshesh Farhangiayn Center
located in New Lalehzar, his work was disgusted by the artists
who were the followers of the school of Kamal-ol-molk
the artists like Mirza Hossein Khan Sheikh, Ismael Ashtiyani
and others who opposed him alongside the miniaturists
They all excommunicated Zia Poor for the sake
of the work he had created, they believed it is not a painting at all.
The appearance of the modernist, like Zia Poor, messed up their calmness
in fact caused an upheaval in the field of painting, because he was a revolutionary man
he was not a timid or a modest person
he was intrinsically an unrest man
the man of turbulence and enjoyed to debate, he was stubborn
and his conduct raised the wrath of others
and at length he was beaten and was cast in the canal of water
But he stood, he resisted, he delivered speech,
today a book has been published in 500 pages all are the speeches of Zia Poor
One could say that Zia Poor tried very much to introduce the
modern art and indeed our modern society greatly indebted to him
In fact, the starting point of modernism
in painting is the time that the painters tried to use Iranian motifs
and subjects in their paintings,
namely they inclined to modernization by preserving their homeland nature
But the works had been created those days were not determinant
For example, they paint the Bazaar of Tehran,
or paint a man who carries a basket full of fowls to sell them
The subjects of the painting were done by water color
– as Karim Imami says – were a man with a calumet
a turquoise dome, the shrine of an Imamzadeh
a veiled woman (a woman covered by chadoor)
a veiled woman while she has embraced her child
These were the subjects of their paintings or for example they depict
the Bazaar of the Blacksmiths
These types of paintings did not attract the native people
but it was interesting for tourists after visiting
\the Bazaar to buy a tableau that shows a corner of the Tehran Bazaar
But they are not essentially an artistic work that survive
for generations; they are not determinant tableau
The painters who are called the Saqqa Khaneh painters
followed the same manner but in a more expansive arena
They tried to employ the western technics with Iranian motifs
For example, Naser Ovaisi who in the years of 1953 – 1954 was busy
to amend the tableaus of Qajar era in the office of Fine Arts
under the influence of modern views depicted the women of Qajar era
while they have mounted a horse and wrote a short line in its margin
an say Ovaisi was the first member of Saqqa Khaneh school
who employed the western technics
with Iranian motifs and then Zhazeh Tabatabaee follow
Of course the Zhazeh work does not possess the freshness of the works of Ovaisi.
Nevertheless, his sculptures due to the things he employed
in them were really beautiful and were more attractive than his paintings
Therefore, among the works of Zhazeh some of his sculptures were really successful
and one of them which was called the Fiery Bird was awarded a prize in the first biennale
Or Tanavoli who was working as a sculptor in Italy when returned Iran while
he was only 22 held his first exhibition and exposed his works in Iran Hall
The subjects of his sculptures were different from the work of traditional sculptor
he chose the subject such as Khosrow Parviz (one of the Iran pre-Islamic kings)
or the sculpture of Farhad, the mountain splitter (the hero of an amorous, story)
Tanavoli shows Iranian motifs in his works in various manners
In 1930 Zendehroodi in the atelier of Marco Grigoorian started to
create the curtain of Ashura – the scene of Imam Hossein’s murder – around
this tableau we read a hemistich:
“Who is the Hossein that all people of the world are enthralled with him?”
(an elegy by Mulla Mohsen Vaez Kashefi) This curtain is made of ten sessions
Each session was performed by a painter in their own isolated atelier
In 1959 I performed my share on a ceramic panel
in the ceramic workshop of the Office of Fine Arts
Those days Tanavoli was still in Italy
or Zendehroodi has not been graduated from conservatory
but when their works were displayed in a single exhibition
every one observed that there is a harmony between them
as if there was an interrelation in them and
but when their works were displayed in a single exhibition
every one observed that there is a harmony between them
such relation caused Karim Imami to give the name of
Saqqa Khaneh to the paintings that employ these motifs
This name was given to these works, but it was not a pre-thought name
or based upon a process that a group
of people come together to establish a new school.
Tanavoli claimed that one day he and Zendehroodi went the Bazaar of Shah Abdul Azim
and bought dozen talismans and the Saqqa Khaneh painting started from that day
Zendehroodi denied this claim and says:
“I saw a written spell on a shirt which is preserved in Iran Ancient Museum
certainly all the people who have visited the Iran Ancient Museum have seen that shirt too
That spell made me to paint it.” In fact, he refused the Tanavoli’s claim
that Tanavoli and Zendehroodi have created the school of Saqqa Khaneh and
he claims the school should be named the school of Zendehroodi
He had interviewed with the English journal of
-“East and Art Report” I have that issue of the journal – the reporter asked him,
are you one of the founders of Saqqa Khaneh School?
He replied: “Why do you call it the school of Saqqa Khaneh?
It is the Zendehroodi school.”. Of course if we consider his claim fairly, he is not far from the reality.
Let us ask you about other arts, like novel, poetry, cinema, theater and music.
I never painting in the absence of music
Music has always been my intimate companion. In fact,
I have no inclination to Iranian music
even it irritates my nerves, I am fascinated by the classic music
and my main entertainment is classic music.
What is your greatest challenge and how have you come along with it?
I can say the greatest challenge of an artist is his aspiration to be known
A well-known name is the aspiration of any artist
But achieving this goal is not easy, sometimes an artist should
work 4 to 5 years or even 5 to 6 years to be known in the art society
These 5 or 6 years seem to him more than 50 to 60 years
but when he is known, the time passes hastily in such a way that I am confounded how
I am 75 and I can’t believe the passage of time.
If you were not a painter, what do you wish to be?
I have never thought about this issue, but I think whatever
I choose to be, of course I would stand at the summit of that field
For example, when I refer to a dentist I can evaluate him and
I know how much he is expert in his job
and I feel if I were to be a dentist I would be the best dentist
in my homeland or if I were to choose any other job
I would be the most prominent one in that job,
for the sake that I am very committed to whatever I am doing.
What is the impact of artistic activities on your life?
My wife reproaches me why are you always at home, why you do not go out
She says that man should leave the house every morning and return at night
I am kidding you, but its impression upon me was very strong
Its most outstanding impression is that
I need not any other entertainment or any other hobby
I feel I do not like to do anything else save painting
I want to say one day I take part in a party
I feel I have wasted my time and I have spent a day of my life in vanity
I feel I have lost something and that lost things is not anything but the tools of painting
The most pleasant moments for me is sitting in front of an easel
I am one of the few happy people whose hobby has been the main source of their income
As a whole I have an entertainment that secure my subsistence.
What is your idea about criticism in the plastic art?
The answer of this question is very clear
Criticism is a necessity for improving; but unfortunately we have not a healthy criticism
All the critics are very conservative they avoid to say a word lest the artist be offended
They try to talk discreetly about the works of a painter, poet,
film maker and try to pass cautiously from the weak points of an artist
As the result any nonsense is regarded as an artistic work
and no one dares to criticize it.
Do you know any real critic?
Unfortunately, most of our critics are the people of hireling namely they receive money to praise others.
What about the negative criticism?
To me it is not important at all. I care not what the
other people say and how they think about my works
I do my own work. In no time the view of others has directed me,
if I were to show attention to other’s views
I would never become a painter, when I started to paint my uncle (brother’s mothers)
and my sister’s husband reproached me that painting
is not a profession for a man they advised me to find a job
and with abomination said: “If you like to paint,
it does not matter choose a job to secure your future.”
What is the key of success in your art work?
When I was ten since my family was poor I felt that
I have not any support, I can’t place my foot on a solid ground
from that time, that is from the age of 10 I decided to overcome the poverty
and I thought deeply about this issue and I chose various ways
I have written a book of memories and in this book I have mentioned all these issues
I believe any young people who read this book could find the path of success in his life
Of course in USA there are many successful people who have written their own biographies
under the title of “successful people” and these books appear as a handbook for them
In fact, when I wrote my memories I had no plan to address the young people
but at the present time I believe if they study this book,
especially the young adults over 15 it would impress them.
What type of new direction your works would choose?
In future I plan to complete the half-finished works
Of course I aspire to step in new arena too, but I do not think to change my direction
I think before completing these 200 unfinished tableaus I would choose an innovative approach too.
Now what is your greatest Aspiration?
My greatest aspiration is to benefiting from all my life moments to create new works.