Ahmad Vakili
Audio of the Entire Interview
Interview Transcript
Part 01
I am Ahmad Vakili, born in 1940 in Tehran
But my name has Ardabili because I am the grandfather of Ardabili
My mother was from Tabriz, the granddaughter of Haj Mirza Javad Mojtahed, who banned tobacco in Tabriz.
As much as my maternal family was constitutional, my paternal family was authoritarian
Since childhood, the tyrannical and constitutionalist quarrel has been one of the candies in our house.
He called this a tyrant with a burnt father, he called one a constitutionalist, for example, when they were arguing.
As a result, I grew up with a deeply cultural atmosphere in Azerbaijan
For one very big reason, I was called a doctor, that is, I was supposed to be a doctor
Why? My father was the eldest son of a lawyer
And at that time, and because of the feudalism that existed, they did not want their wealth to go out of their families and marry in ethnicity.
My father’s marriage, which I do not know very well, how it was at the age of 19, when he was with one of these lawyers, which my father did not like
But he did not dare to tell his father and he ran away and came to Tehran
That is, he wants to get rid of it. In fact, this was before the Democrats invaded Azerbaijan.
When my father comes to Tehran, he can no longer get married or one or two unsuccessful marriages
But his younger brothers all have sons and daughters
My father married my mother at the age of 53
And when he sees that all of them have an heir, he says that I actually married you to give birth to a name named Ahmad.
This is a bit humorous, but it is interesting that their first attempt is a girl
The second attempt is to be a girl again until Ahmad Agha comes
Ahmad Agha comes and there is a celebration, which means that there is no picture of my sisters in the hospital, but now I will give you these.
The photo of my father and mother and a baby named Ahmad Vakili was taken in the hospital
My dad is also beautiful, it turns out he is drunk, very happy
In short, when Ahmad Agha comes, then they say that Ahmad Agha came well, but he can’t and he must have a teammate.
Who beats again and becomes a girl, so a boy is formed in that family
And it was all based on the fact that I was born a slave, I am a very important person in this regard
I was born in Tehran, but our family spoke Turkish, and anyone who spoke Turkish with a Persian accent was ridiculed.
Well, you think that a family that sees that there is a possibility in Tehran
And he does not want to be behind the caravan and his children to be happy, they get up and come to Tehran
I went to school until the first grade of primary school, in the special primary school, Pichsheshmaroon street, Darakhti street, my school was there in the first and second grade of primary school
My aunt was married to Ayatollah Anwari, one of the famous people of Qom, and he was my aunt’s husband.
I remember very well that I was not well in serious discussions, but I well remember that Mr. Anwari came
My father asked them to make a request that we go to Ardabil or stay in Tehran
I remember well that it was summer and we were writing and they brought a Quran and
Sir, they opened it and they put a dozen in the middle of it and said congratulations and go, we also returned to Ardabil.
I studied in the third and fourth grades of Bandar Primary School in Ardabil, at Jafar Eslami School
In my paternal family, I used to say that they were a very old family, there were very, very fine manuscripts.
From Mir Emad, maybe there were different places and one of my hobbies was to go to my uncle
And I was saying that Saadi Golestan, which was one of Saadi Abdul Majeed Darvish’s Golestan and is in our family
Which is not more than two dozen, I know one of them is definitely London and the other is in our family
Uncle Jan let me see, for example, it was cute to go and wash your hands, do ablution, do this and do that
Then he would put it in front of me and turn the pages
It had a green cover and it’s really one of those beautiful memories of my childhood
Or, for example, different shrines, I remember, for example, one of them was my aunt
My aunts were more interested in silver and aristocratic items in the area They had gathered
But I remember a very beautiful reference from Mir Emad that was my aunt
When I was gone, I asked to see a Qur’an in my father’s hand
Two Qur’ans, a travel Qur’an and a very exquisite Qur’an that I still have
At the age of 12, I dared to tell my father that he would let me see this and kill him once.
He also grumbled that it’s worth it, he sat down and opened it again and I made a copy of it.
I remember copying his calligraphy and his gilding and I felt very, very good
It is noteworthy that our house was also a sash, colored sash
I with the reflection of sunlight in these colored glasses and the sound of sparrows
This is one of the things I remember as a child, which means I was always in the same color and I loved it.
As a child, I was told that you must be a doctor, I was really called a doctor
My uncles used to call me doctor and I used to come back, they did not say my name at all
But I said this to let you know that if I had ever really dared to say that painting was second-rate.
I had to become a doctor, based on that I read natural and natural guidance, we were formed in that space
I studied in the third and fourth grades in Ardabil, and in the fifth grade we returned to the same mother’s house that was twisted.
And unfortunately I do not remember the name of the primary school, but most importantly, I read the fifth and first grade in Tehran.
I first read middle school at Kharazmi School in Baharestan Square
I remember going down Safi Ali Shah Street and coming back
But in the second grade of middle school, I came to Ancestor School, a school that was also in the twists and turns
Our art teacher was a person named Habib Derakhshani, a student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran
And he started cheering me on, hey he cheered and I worked
Now in the art classrooms at that time everyone was busy, he was not a disciplined person either
And only we were one row, the other two were actually working in my air and we were polite
He told me one day that John’s son should come and go to the conservatory, the conservatory is the first one in Tonekabon
Then I dared to tell my father this
But we were more comfortable with my mother, we were really much more comfortable with my mother because of that space.
I told my mother that our teacher’s mother is very … oh! The books he brought from college were always in his hands
He would give me some, and I would take him home and copy him
I remember very well that, for example, we had a wall where I had copied Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings and hit the wall.
Everyone was saying that yes, look at my son, how well he paints and so on and so forth.
One day my mother told me to go and see what your father was saying
I went to him and saw that he was wearing his suit and tie, he said let ‘s go and see what this conservatory is saying.
I said to Yahoo, “Oh, no, for example, he agreed to let me go to the conservatory.”
I took his hand and Mr. Derakhshani wrote his address and gave it to him
There was no place far away, that is, Pirjamali alley was the second alley from Shariati street that came up, Tonekabon was its continuation.
That is, we reached it within 10 minutes, at 10 o’clock, for example, and between two calls
When we arrived, one of the children cursed another boy very badly
Believe me, he came back from there, I was completely melted
The world really fell apart on my head, it was so ugly
To the conservatories, at that time, the children were studying and they really went to it, or it was called that.
My hope was called, as if the world had really fallen on my head
He said here, see here what obscenity he is giving, you want to study here, come and go, in short, we are back
I was in the first and second grade of high school in Jam High School, and Aydin Aghdashloo also studied there
Abbas Kiarostami was there, many of the children of Pichshamer were studying there
There was an art section, I was painting there and there I became the first person in Tehran province many times
Until 1977, August 4, 1977, when my father died
My father died and I said I wanted to be a painter
The space was still very heavy, I could not describe it
My sister said painting? Do not say these things, our father’s soul is still like this and you should have become a doctor, now come and become an engineer
Come and take the industrial design entrance exam and I became the fourth person in the 1979 entrance exam in the field of industrial design
Part 02
I entered the Faculty of Decorative Arts in the fall of 1979. Well, imagine the revolutionary atmosphere of that time.
Bahman Borujeni had become the head of the Faculty of Decorative Arts
At that time, before the revolution, a plan called Farabi University was proposed
Farabi University wanted to consolidate these, the Faculty of Cinema, the Faculty of Decoration
Farabi himself had a penchant for architecture and these, he and music, they wanted to integrate these
Which was later done and became known as the University of Arts, and Farabi University lost its shape
I want to tell you that Bahman Borujeni, who in my opinion is a very great artist and I wish he did not really leave Iran, was the head of the faculty.
And well, because the revolution had taken place, many of the old plans had stopped
Before the revolution, I heard that it is, but well, this interruption has happened so big
Usually students who were good became assistants, assistants became masters
For the first time, the number of people who had become students in the field of art had also been cut off from court games
And they really came based on their abilities, and there were a lot of them
Bahman Borujeni had selected 4 people as assistants to come and work
One was Iraj Eskandari, who represents your presence, one was Hassan Keyvan, who is now in Australia and works mostly in architecture.
One was Abbas Yazdi, who now teaches handwriting at Surah University, and was a man named Hassan Safa.
Mr. Hassan Safa was very influential in my life, very much, he was one of Shahab Mousavizadeh’s students
And he understood me very well in terms of love, humanity and that
I would take my work to him and show it to him, then he would take it to his master to encourage me.
Then he introduced me to Bahman Boroujeni more and Mr. Boroujeni introduced me to Al-Khas
And well, I got a little bit older. In those first few months, they really saw that I was working more seriously than anyone else.
One of the bad memories of my life is the death of Mr. Safa, who loved to go to France and work for a while.
And they died in a car accident, it had a very bad effect on my life and a lot of my memories were shattered.
Anyway, in those 6 months I realized that this industrial design is not really useful to me
But again, I did not dare to go home, but I went to training and asked to change my major to painting.
In 1979, at that time, art trips were very common in art schools
Again, one of the things that really affected me was a trip that the students took with Mr. Bahman Boroujeni and the late Ruhbakhsh.
We were taken from this side, we went from Amol and Babylon to Mazandaran, we went from Royan to Kadir, it was a very beautiful ten that we worked there
I also remember Hamid Pazouki who was with us and we came from this side to Rasht and we slept in the governor’s office one night and how much we laughed and worked and returned to Tehran
We put up an exhibition in college, and you know all this again, I exploded like a bomb.
I was exhibiting for the first time, I saw the work of children, I had found my abilities
When the second semester started, the second semester actually became the spring of ’59, that is, the spring of ’59, and we registered and the Cultural Revolution took place.
Well, you think 19-year-olds, 18-year-olds, all scattered
During that period, I decided to continue working with some of the children
One of them was Mr. Khosrow Khosravi, one was Jamshid Haghighat Shenas, one was Karim Nasr
One was Abbas Mokhtar, who is currently painting in Gothenburg, Sweden
But what I’m telling you is the truth, I broke into a real estate company and showed them the house so that I could paint.
I had to take it 3 times a week and spin it and come until my life was over.
We would decide with the children and, for example, we would paint the door and the wall, we would raise some money again and we would travel and paint again.
It passed somehow, but it passed very, very hard, but you think the university started working again in 1362, but I had painted in these 3 years.
And it helped me for 3 years that you have to go this way anyway
What I believe in is that I was passionate about painting
Really, if I could not smell the paint, I would not sleep, I would paint a portrait of myself every night during those holidays.
I woke up in the morning and if last night was good, my day was good, if it was bad I would not go out anymore
Because I knew that wherever I went, I would get into fights, I would get upset like this.
Mr. Safa and Mr. Reza Derakhshani, both of whom were in Niavaran, and the late Al-Khas, whose house was in front of the parliament.
I would take my work to these people and show them, they would take the forms and come, or with Mr. Al-Khas as well.
At the same time, Mr. Al-Khaz, you know that he is one of the greatest and most influential teachers and painters of the last few decades.
Mr. Al-Khaz told me that your design son is good, go south and design a thousand
I started designing the coastal road ten by ten
I would ride small minibuses and, for example, come to Bandar Kang or Bandar Bushehr
I do not know Pars and these places now, I went all ten of them and they became the same black and white portraits that I worked from the south.
Now it might not be bad to know that I had run out of money so much that I had to make sure I could go back.
I went and got a bus ticket, but I could not stay in the inn anymore, I slept in a sleeping bag by the beach.
And in the morning I woke up from the weight of the shadow of an addict who was stealing my camera
I mean, I can not say that you are stealing because I am indebted.
Until you woke up, he left and left. In short, I came to Tehran and took things to Khasal.
And he really looked at each of them a thousand times, separated them, categorized them
He said that these are good and continue like this, really with a lot of kindness and without the slightest expectation
Without me even picking up a bouquet of flowers or having the money, he knew we were just working in love.
Or the late Hassan Safa, whose death affected us very much
At 3 midnight, a teacher told us to talk, work, do portraiture and then come later until 3 midnight, there was no obstacle
Or Mr. Reza Derakhshani, he really loved children who were nobody, nobody
Well, I had worked for 3 years when the university opened, many people were looking for work and business
Not that I did not go, but my main job was painting, I am the driver I tell you
I remember quite clearly that I was walking in front of the paint shop, getting help.
I used to say, for example, at that time a Winsor paint was 10 Tomans, for example, my salary was 300 Tomans.
I would say, for example, give me 30 tomans to buy 3 colors, I would store and keep it like this
I mean, all of this was for me to really paint
Part 03
In 1962, the university reopened, now I do not know who supported it, but Rouin Pakbaz left a class there
Mr. Pakbaz had challenged Iranian miniatures in his class
As you well know, we now have a large treasure trove of images from the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasebi and Baysanghari and the Jalayars.
And there was another person in the College of Fine Arts who was very dignified and serious
And he described the history of art very well, and his classes were very successful under the name of Mr. Nima Petgar
As a result, these two had an impact on those kids, that impact as far as I can remember and tell you
Sara Irvani, Mehrdad Mohebbali, Ahmad Nadalian, Ahmad Khilifard, Masoumeh Mozaffari, Soghari Zare
You see, all of them are painters, small farmers and some people that I do not remember well now, but there are more than that.
They started a serious discussion by modernizing the past painting of Iran
Following the conversations that Mr. Pakbaz, the turban, the Muslims, these people started talking about every meeting and every week, he continued there.
In any case, such a thing happened at the University of Tehran in 1962 and after its reopening
Bahman Borujeni invited Al-Khas at the Decorative University
Especially in college, with the respect that Borujeni had for him and the importance he attached to designing and working.
It created an atmosphere in which the children who designed were truly respected
And I remember learning a serious discussion about collage from Mr. Boroujeni with a split from him.
There was an illustration exhibition on the second floor of the School of Decoration
That a child had drawn a bird and was sticky in its place
Borujeni was upset to see how much they did not understand, you stick to what you draw with a painting, because you do not know
This has to change the identity, and he was right when you put an object in a canvas.
If its identity is the previous identity that you did not do, when it becomes another element, it is actually a visual space.
And we used to say yes, we did not understand very well, but we used to say that yes, if we are going to kill a bird, we must know how to kill it.
If we leave a leaf and its identity changes, let’s see, this is another understanding.
But the truth is, this argument was not something we deeply understood
Most of the discussions I and Banyasadi and Nasr started talking about
We talked more about the connection between the abstractness of the design
Understanding composition is a part of design, displacements, sizes, textures
The fact that an element is an abstract element is absolutely abstract
We work with the line but there is no definition of the line, well you are working with an element that is inherently abstract when you start working
You have to have an perception of abstraction or in front of the landscape, we soon realized that this is not a tree, it is a spot
We talked about showing the reality of the tree if we want to know it
It is not enough to kill the leaf, because there are a thousand insects on that leaf, do you understand?
So the essence of design is abstract, so we got to it and we really had a very, very serious discussion.
Serious identity discussions, I told you that one was clean and the other was special, saying what do you want to say with the card, what is the point?
It had 2 words, I want to say this here, first of all, everyone who showed a task twice was upset.
He used to say that you have never seen two works in one exhibition, be so active that you are new.
Another said, “Do not work, be a man and go among the people and work. What is gambling?
The term was to inspire Ms. Balabal Yazneh and remember to sit on the couch to paint.
Work, what is the difference between you and a baker, he has to work 8 hours to live, you also have to work 8 hours
How can you say that I did not work for 6 months, what is the reason for this?
I had several design exhibitions in college, it helped a lot to get to know me better
Or, for example, to know that I am a serious person in the field of visual arts and painting
I graduated from university in 1987 in order to have a livelihood and be able to get married
I entered the children’s universe and we started working there
And a group of illustrators formed in the children’s universe, which is an important part of my life
Karim Nasr, Me, Ali Khodaei, Fariba Plato, Akbar Nikanpour and Banyasadi
The 6 of us there were very serious discussions about the picture, we had just graduated
And that period until 1990, when I won the Bologna Award, one of the most important sections of children’s visuals was formed in the children’s universe.
Part 04
It was in 1967 that the war ended and I went and announced the need for the IRGC propaganda to go and spend my military service.
Before me, I remember that Khosrow Khosravi and Abbas Mirsharifi, who were children of the University of Tehran, had gone there.
Then I went there to get a declaration of need and to spend my military service there
These trips that we went and worked on all the time, had a good result with a lot of work
And in fact, it was our first official and group exhibition in the design office that Mr. Motamedi was running.
And it was a place where he sold furniture and such, but we hit the walls with our work and
I had worked on portraits of Arshad Tahmasebi, who also received a lot of attention, and our views
It was me and Abbas Mokhtar, Karim Nasr and Jamshid Haghighat, who fortunately left his poster from the time when Jamshid also remembers that he put up the poster.
In 1966, it was a group exhibition. In the same year of 1966, it was 6 months later in Mashhad that I had my first solo exhibition.
In 1968, in Noor Gallery, he was right in front of the same IRGC propaganda on Kheradmand Street
And Mr. Nouri had the theory of that gallery, I left the same works that I had done in the scenes and the class.
I remember very well that the exhibition was crowded and that Mr. Nader Ebrahimi, two of his daughters, were my students.
And through that, the exhibition came and we were talking about things
When I saw Yahoo, his face changed and he said, “Oh, what are you doing here?”
I went back and saw that Hannibal Al-Khaz, for example, had been back from the United States for a month
And the secretary of a studio in Wise North, came from there and saw that there was an exhibition and something happened there.
In other words, since then, we have had more contact with Al-Khas and
I went to my studio, which was in the basement of Yousefabad, but Karim Nasr had left at that time.
Karim Nasr worked with me there for 1 year and then went out
Mr. Al-Khaz was re-taught and I attended their classes again
The private form of teaching was much more serious, the university was a little more closed, but the free university was a little better
And I started my master’s degree, I was teaching the same course in different universities, I taught a lot of flying
I remember I went to Sistan and Baluchestan University for 5 years and I taught once every 5 years for 5 years
I had very good students from there, and there was a special atmosphere there
The children had no place to have fun at all and worked hard
Now, for example, maybe 6-7 of the good students of that period are now good and serious painters and curators and have a special space for themselves.
And I teach the academic form and the private form of teaching continues to this day
I went abroad several times, one of which was during my military service, when I won an award at the Bologna Biennale.
That Mr. Khatami was a minister at that time and I did not imagine at all that I could go in the middle of the military
I remember well that I went and talked to them and they made a service passport for me in a really 48 hours.
I was also able to go to Italy and there I started to see and see things well up close.
One was my trip that made a big impact, the other was my trip to Sita for 4 months in Paris and
I really got acquainted with the painting scene today, and since then, since 2006, there have been a number of symposia in Europe that
They invite a lot of painters my own age and I go and work.
There is a lot of positive atmosphere there, it is repeated almost every year and we are together for 1 month and we work.
These are also the influences that I had on my travels, they were very good for me, they helped me a lot to know myself and my work, my strengths and weaknesses.
Part 05
The revolution changed everything, the economy and everything was going to change, so it happened in art
Well, we were very interested and wanted to know if this is really a perception of modernity that came from the West.
At that time, imperialism and the West were our enemies, and neither the East nor the West was our enemy
We wanted to write something ourselves, so now I believe we made a big mistake
And really a 7-8 year old and very serious effort that what modernism is all about
One said Picasso was a swindler and one said he was a servant, and all those years we had very serious discussions that
Should there be modernity or not?
On the one hand, the children on the left, who, well, were mostly intellectual children on the left, or who had such intellectual inclinations, advocated socialist realism.
Mr. Al-Khaz paid more attention to Latin American painters
They encouraged their students to make murals, large murals.
And they theorized that literature is not something we should remove from our realm of image
That is, we should not go the way of Kandinsky and the West, and that in itself is a great component
We must be narrative painters with an understanding of contemporary art and modern art of the time
And slowly the children of the seminary, who also wanted to start a stream of art that
It mostly covered Islamic and revolutionary values
Well, but the number was very small, slowly they got better, they got facilities and finally something happened
This movement of revolutionary art and Islamic art made efforts both in the field of miniature and in the field of visual painting, tripod painting or mural painting.
Well, these conflicts, now I say that it wasted a lot of time on us, a lot
And in this situation, when I am 55-6 years old, when I am asked that it was difficult, it does not bother me at all because it was very difficult.
This is a very small word for kids who really worked at the time
Without the slightest sale, without any expectations, and maybe he did it himself
Let our love for art prove more to us whether we do it or not
But it was a really difficult situation, in the period when I started designing
My ideals were really great painters that I loved as much as Rembrandt, really
Or, for example, the painters of socialist realism, who, for example, liked Sarov’s work very much.
Because I had a hand in the portrait myself and thought he was a great painter.
I did a lot of academic design, I always had a model, I traveled a lot, hard, alone or with friends
We went on several trips with Mr. Nasr, for example, I want to say that all those times that this is actually
The revolutionary atmosphere had almost confused everyone, we got to work
I was very involved in drawing and engraving and I was working
I went to a teacher’s course on mythology, which was very interesting to me
From the beginning, many of my works were not material and earthly
I was killing people at their best, I thought this person would not be more beautiful in this character and in this space.
And this is how I saw the world, as a result of which I had a penchant for myth, and so I began to work on my engravings.
Which is still going on, apart from other things I do, it is still going on
And I believe that myth is something that humans make, even moment by moment
Because they have to tie this connection, the connection between life and existence, to something
As a result, this theme has always been in my work
There is no doubt that my attitude is influenced by the atmosphere that Borujeni created for me
Borujeni says the same thing, that is, he taught me to be a channel that I can search with nature and in nature.
They said that what you do in the north should be different from what you do in Yazd, and that was really the case and I still believe in it.
The way I deal with nature is somehow derived from my own myths
That is, I do not look for ugly things, I do not look for garbage
Some people, for example, go and find scrap cars, I delete these
In the nature of nature, I think there are things that painters can discover and deepen their connection with nature.
Even if they look at the environment from any angle, nature is really the greatest master of a painter, the greatest
For example, I learned from Mr. Boroujeni that he had an exaggerated 4 by 9 meter sign about going back and forth from Hajj.
He started working with 2-3 dry paints and pens
I said, sir, work this big? He said it would be okay now and it really didn’t matter to him, no
This is what we learned from him that he can take the possibilities of that device with any means
He had taught us so much to be influenced by that impression of nature that we did not think much
We would start to convey that connection, we might draw a line, we might paint
We could clean it up with oil altogether and start working again
The more improvisation there was, the more Mr. Borujeni encouraged
And even now I strongly believe that it is right not to be in bondage that the canvas must be white
On the canvas we started working, it was white, we started working
Only that relationship was important, and the tool was really the least important thing they taught us in education
Even now, I teach in the same way, that is, I believe in my heart that the watercolor class is wrong, the pencil class is wrong.
The fact that you are taking a course, for example, I took a watercolor course, this is a charlatan game
In watercolor, I was only taught two sentences, one is to go from light to bold and one is to push water.
But I have repeated it so many times that now I have a heartfelt belief that no one has my technique
That is to say, it happens in such a way that so many people try and make mistakes to reach that character
Which is formed from design, from the relationship it has with nature
Painting has no end, that is, if a painting is done correctly, from the first moment it starts, everything starts together.
And as it goes on, everything goes on together, in an instant you decide to take your hand off
You could go on, you could go on again
This is probably the hardest thing I have ever realized in painting and it is very difficult to convey
That is, everyone thinks that Rembrandt’s work is half done if it is not
But he could have continued, you know what I mean, he could have continued
This is a very complex point in painting in my opinion
Wherever it really excites me that this is beautiful, this is where I can do an exploration, I do it.
In periods like elegies and these, why, a little bit of them became more complex
Because these themes had to happen one after the other
I had to transfer that general space of my mind, I was compiling a bit of these so that more of my work space would be transferred.
In 1372, these mythical tendencies of mine grew a little more
And I put on a hand-printed exhibition of being expelled from heaven
I mean, at that time, I was working on portraits, which means you can see my portraits
From the moment I picked up the pen, I’ve been working until the last thing I did last week, behind you.
So one part of my view of painting is that if you want to do something, you have to do it.
You should not design for him in advance, he is love, no one can tell you to do this or that
And we must not stop the leaks that we have been working on for so many years
Part 06
All the serious questions that my peers and I had about art were completely erased
That we wanted to redefine painting because a revolutionary was supporting us.
He supported it in the sense that we have to have something new, a revolution, and we have to have a new movement
This atmosphere has completely disappeared, even now in the market, if you are a little realistic, 2 groups are selling work.
And from the action of Tehran and the galleries and these, they are one of the pre-revolutionary painters
One of those who have recently become a painter in the last 10 years
All those who asked are almost or researched
That is, since the construction period that actually took place in Iran, the doors of Europe and the United States have reopened
And those who wanted to move in the same direction slowly gained power
As a result, the university was also affected by the fact that, of course, they are more right, their path must be more serious.
I did not believe it and I do not, I think we are in a country that the world is jealous of
And because of its antiquity, because of its historical background, because of its culture, because of its knowledge and words
It really had a cultural heart, there was a situation where the Khayyams came
There was a circumstance that Shahnameh is Baysanghari
There were circumstances that there is a mosque in Isfahan, those are the inscriptions
Well, a painting that does not pay attention to these and opens the doors of its mind to Europe and America, in my opinion, has betrayed
Art that loses its identity like this, loses its past
The despicable markets of Dubai, the UAE, Qatar, and these are the criteria for me to sell and art.
I believe in the intellectual realm, the realm that believes in its own past
It happens to its young, it can not pass by them
And the current situation that I see and the internet has played a very, very big role in that
Or this extraordinarily fast notification will get you nowhere
That is, when a way of thinking enters a field, philosophers argue
This controversy took place between the arguments and the Enlightenment for a thousand years
He said it was the foot of the wooden reasoners, the foot of the hard wood was disobedient
You know, there has always been this controversy, the Enlightenment was the only period that our philosophers did not argue.
Immediately at the end of the Qajar period, whenever he went to Europe, he became a utopia
He took everything he had, he took everything he took, he took everything he took and he must have been right, he must have been right
Lack of controversy led to the deviation of art, the deviation of art in the true sense
That is, he showed himself in art again, in a dress that immediately became a Shapoo hat
And the architecture changed, the central courtyard and things that were so beautiful were all destroyed, everyone
Because no one stopped to say, sir, why that’s right
Do you know why Papart was formed in America at all?
Papart was objecting to this at all, it was the culmination of modernism, minimalism, simplification, and Yahoo, a blue level and a red level.
You know, intellectuals are always really protesting against these currents
There are two ways to deal with the fact that art is becoming elite
One was concept art and one was papart
Folk art and the fact that everyone does good at brainstorming, because viewers go from one exhibition to another.
This happened in America, where we think it would be bad if we were there
I do not believe we should be there, but two important styles in art happened
He wanted to say that Baba Honar belongs to the people, he should influence the people and change the way
It is very important to create a world where this world is not completely disconnected from today’s world
But provide a way for you to enter a newer space
If you make it right, you will definitely get creative
The artist comes from society, society has a burden, this time it is cultural, it is historical and social, it is economic
I believe that in this moment, to fall in love at the age of 56, is very simple
And the same thing happened to a French artist of the same age, two different sciences
You know, two worlds that are completely different, it is the result of one community, it is one space, it is one flirtation, I have another space as opposed to
If we compare these two well and touch on their differences, we will surely realize that the painter, the artist, is a social phenomenon.
I do not want to chant, I do not want to say that you are going to save society, it saves society, but later they will understand more.
Part 07
That part of my life where I was able to make a completely individual decision that I would paint as an industrial designer
It affected me a lot because I was able to stand by my word and try for it.
To work, to work, to be able to paint, was to peel
In fact, it somehow separated me from that space and entered this space
I had to be myself and decide for myself how to proceed
I think that enthusiasm of the revolution had the same effect
Maybe, for example, I could not dare so much, but I saw that everything was changing, so why not me?
That I think that part was very, very important, it kept me on my feet a lot
We were not on the ground at all, that is, our puberty became one with the revolution, everything became an ideal
And it was not bad at all to trample on your ideal, there was no other choice at all, you know what I mean.
That is, for those who, like me, wanted to pursue a career in art, there was no other choice
I mean, you either had to be or you were disappearing, this is how I came this way
Really with this intention, my legs are shaking now even when I remember it
I remembered that we stole bread hanging from hunger, I had nothing
I saw the bread that was hung in front of the bakery, I was alone, I was open and I had nothing
I went and jumped, not all of them came to my hand, half of it came and I ran and ate it
Well, these seem very unlikely now, very much
It did not happen, it should not have happened, it is true that it should not have happened
Working around the clock, traveling without an account and books
I have 4,000 designs, I did not think about where to show them, nor did I think about which collection it is at all
Well, if I were to go through my life once, nothing would give me as much energy as painting, nothing, no space or no pleasure.
I have not traveled once in my whole life to say that I have extended my leg, but I am not very satisfied.
But to go well, for example, to the pool, I do not know, eat and sleep for 6 days, I have not done any of these things until now.
My travels have always been related to painting, that is, it has always been a tool with me
To do this, I really enjoy the verb, I enjoy the design verb
I do not think about the next one at all, that is, because I have a connection with him and I had it, I continued it.
Some students say, “Sir, do you think we will become painters or not?”
I say that after 40 years I have a pen in my hand, it is 3 midnight, I am designing a work
I said to myself, oh man, if you were sick, you would not do this, why did you come, why?
It happens too much to fail, too much
I mean, the path is not going to be formulated correctly, once you see the pen moves like water
And he’s running away at all, and you have to control him a little bit
There is a time when with a previous decision and effort you start working and working and tearing and throwing away
In 1959, I met a person named Arshad Tahmasebi, who is a good researcher and musician.
And I went to Chavosh to do his apprenticeship, I remember he bought a real instrument and
And then again, based on the same problems with moneylessness and these, I sold the one he had bought for 9,000 tomans.
I had to sell and I could not continue and I bought a set that Mr. Arya Dadbeh, Mr. Ebadi’s student, bought.
Then something like this happened in my life, I became a senior student and I learned something from him
And musicians were always around me, always, once a week, singers would come to my house in Yusufabad and sing there.
I was very interested in Radif, then I firmly believed that improvisation in Iranian music has a very positive effect on the work.
This means that if you start producing a work of art with a previous mental background, you will definitely get stuck.
That was one of the things that music taught me
How important is improvisation in music that you achieve with a range of rhythms and rhythms?
You enter a space to present, that is, to reach your presence without making a decision
I mean, this was the peak of the dignity of painting for me, when I saw a concert by Lotfi, who had written three, and he came to play.
And since I knew the devices, I cut the horn like this until the last moment that Baba was in the three-leaflet brochure, then he said no, I saw Mahour coming
Then I saw how much space there is in Iranian painting, why we did not use this discussion
That is why Iranian music is always popular in my classes
Children do not like it, but I say by force, you should listen, you should learn what music’s reward is in the field of Eastern art.
And I always used it in my work, I didn’t really decide how to start and how to end
And in my opinion, more visualization should be familiar with music, especially Iranian music
Not national music and these, traditional music that everyone thinks is old, everyone thinks its era is over
A stagnation about Isfahan is a corner, 10 first-rate artists I will show you 10 interpretations
The ending is the same, but that says one thing, I want to say that that introverted character really exists in our traditional music.
I somehow need my painting, I’m not a decision maker for it, I was never
Well, it changes a lot of things, it changes a lot of equations
But there are some people that I envied from the bottom of my heart, too much, that is, I thought they were too big.
And the connection they made with painting was very, very heavenly
One is Leonardo, I always thought it was a pen somewhere else
There seems to be another, Francisco, it seems that one says so much work, so much effort
Believe me, he works for miles, he works for miles in Prado, I am not exaggerating, you go, his work is not finished
That is, if you think that you will see Goya in one day, you are definitely wrong
Another is Picasso who worked until 3 days before his death and how thirsty he really was for work, how much he destroyed himself and rebuilt
At the height of Yahoo’s fame, he changed his style, these want a lot of characters
I mean, at the age of 60, whatever you had, and everyone knows you, your name has become global, come and say that I really want to do this.
Did you know that in history, Picasso was once invited to a party?
And under the invitation card it was written that bow tie is mandatory at this party, it was a very formal party
Picasso wears a bow tie but does not wear a shirt, see how confident he is
I mean, it says you have no right to tell me what to do and what not to do, otherwise I would not be Picasso.
This is very little in Iran, very very little
As an artist in this turbulent past, what was the best advice you could get?
First greetings and then endurance, Hannibal Al-Khas told me my son first greetings then endurance
That is, he would tell everyone that those he saw were good, he would first greet them and squeeze his hand, and he would say that the benefits were lasting.
This is the most beautiful sentence I have ever heard