At the age of seven,I started painting in a self motivated way untill I was twelve. since the very beginning, I created objective paintings parallel with subjective paintings . My paintings  weren’t childish at all and had a big tendency to reflect the reality.

Then I stopped painting for seven years due to doing some sports.One year after high school graduation in experimental sience ,in 1989, I was admitted in Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran university in painting(1990),since then I have constantly been painting and drawing.

My activities at university include painting and drawing practices , representation using different ways and techniques ,also abstract experiences in different styles(1990 to 1994).

Remarkably enough, I did all these experiments out of curiosity , personal needs and researches and not for the sake of university courses.I then served military fo two years and continued my studying for M.A degree  in illustration at Fine Arts University of Tehran(1997 to 2000).It is worth mentioning that I have always had this instinctive  tendency to do painting parallel  with drawing. Moreover,since childhood I had great interest in miniature,architecture, handy crafts ,ancient patterns and local and national Iranian patterns.

Since the beginning of university I believed that representation needed to be learnt in order to get to know the nature (as a pattern which could be refered to for years) as the first step of painting and then we could get into obscure layers o nature and the universe overall.

In this regard , after graduation in master degree I got into taking intermittent experiments(2004 to 2011).

While doing master degree ,the entity which still is one of the most important elements of my works , was subconsiously formed and I define it as my individual style , formation , quality,signature and therefore the comprehensive definition of entity.

The stage above sounds like walking on from the young ages to the middle ages as taking risks , trial and errors and experiments are the elements to form intermittent experiences.

It’s at this stage that the artist gets to know himself and his interests and eventually realises the principal and predominant characteristics in his works,which typically are the pillars of intermittent experiences. The characteristics which are repeated even when the subject or the theme is different or by the time form a better combination.Besides,the works that are created throughout this stage can’t be properly named”works of art” , although considering the experiences process the artist talent , ingenuity and individual characteristics can be defined.However, the artistic future of the artist can’t certainly be perdicted.

Unlike the youth today who tend to scramble to have exhibitions, which is due to the existance of numerous art galleries and financial issues and has led current works of arts into a sameness , after M.A graduation I had many experiences without rushing into gaining my individual style or exposing my works. The out come of taking those experiences was the emerge of three characteristics in my works :drawing and destruction , improvisation and collage which still are the most important entity of my works.

Overally though my experiences process had always expanded in different aspects and hadn’t been a linear process.As I believe ,since the eighteen century, due to the infinite cultural,artistic and financial interavtions in the world , the linear  movement of art has changed into a comprehensive process and has also been accelerated by the rate of impact in the modern world today.

Considering this fact , unlike many artists who tend to have a linear approach to art the fact that is conflicting the nature of modern life therefore turns it into an out-of-date language I have always tried to experience different languages and have always believed in order to gain my individual language needed three formation entities in my works which are being precise , flexible and appealing .

In my point of view linear experience today , except for a very few cases , won’t provide the mentioned opportunity for the artist .The worth mentioning fact is the codition in which my works were created and that is turning from Abstraction back to Realism .In fact the move from Realism to Abstraction lasted through 1990 to 2004 and turned other way round afterwards.

This process caused the emerge of a language in my works which was the compromise between Abstraction and Realism , and that is since 2005 my works are categorised as Realistic representations while the creation process is done using Abstract tricks and techniques.It is worth mentioning the process above is gained by raising questions in the field of language of painting and studying about the world contemporary art and painting process.Today we can talk more definitely about the convert of dynamic contemporary artists from Abstraction to Realism in their works.The fact that has led the contemporary realist art to have a new and different language from realist works in the last centuries.As it seems the different quality of this language is the result of the artists understanding of Abstraction which proves the impact of non-linear and expanded painting process through out last two centuries. Considering this , I’ve been expanding the form and the concept of my works by using different subjects during last years.Additionally I am one of those artists who enters into conceptual arts from fine arts.

In fact, since my first exhibition (2002_ Laleh gallery) respecting aesthetics,which originates in the history of art,my works have had considerable conceptual aspects ,therefore my works have been centered by these two concepts.The first category has been centered by “conceptual ideas” and the second by “critical and pathological view”. Sometimes parallel and sometimes in cooperation with each other in my works .In addition to that syutying a series of forms and concept can leadus to a good knowledge of an artist’s working approach.Stages through which an artist has got into creating a work of art after passing academic circles and doing experiments and via this he offers an image to the world of cenception.Considering this , an Iranian painter can work on his countries ancient patterns in the condition that there is a mutual relation ,by using his individual image (if prefered) he can interact his homeland’s conceptual elements.

The other thing I should mention is that besides my occasional works , since 2002 I’ve been occupied with certain subjects and themes from time to time and they sometimes lasted months or sometimes years.There have been times that I was working on two or three different themes at the same time and after each was done, I got them displayed.some of these working periods were never over though , so they were never displayed.Most importantly ,  I never opted  one of these themes to repeat during the years and the reason was my curiosity ,tendency for changes and my understanding of the nature of art.In addition to that , from the very beginning as I was well-aware of  the condition in my country and conceptual art, I knew  that my approach to display different themes conflicted the condition(specially conceptual market).The on-going policy has always ment to make painters from young ages repeat their themes and individual characteristics in their works which forms a quality and that is familiarity.

As soon as any kind of person such as the gallery owner,curator,collector or the visitors of conceptual art ( of any kind ) have a look at the art work can tell the identity of the painter and his repeated characteristic very soon makes it a “brand” , which is a good guarantee of fame and sale . Refering to my experiences ,I believe this is not professional at all as overally this brand qhality is the fruit of the current policy and the market , so the majority of young artists in order to get to this stop trying different techniques , styles and atmospheres .

I also need to mention the book “THE NOTES” which counts as one of my past years accomplishments and is about the responsibility to pave the ways for the new generations . The matter that has never been considered in Iran is  caring about on-the-spot subjective ideas , organising them and bringing them into life . That pretty serious therefore time-consuming process will value personal aesthetic ideas , decoration , narration , character and situation creation  , having more conceptual ideas , individual theme repetition ,etc. in a very short time and made the existing paintings as valuable as  complete art works for me and the others . That’s why I have put “THE NOTES” drawings on exhibitions for three times in recent years and they have been taken as a new genre by the majority of visitors . I need to thank my true friend and dear artist “Mostafa Eghbali” who has borne the hardship to collect , scan and edit the works for the book “THE NOTES” on his own . “mr Mehdi Sadeghi” the head of “Rasm” publication who printed and published the book as well and wish these two true friends great happiness and success.

I need to indicate the use of carbon paper for my drawings , the thing I’ve never observed elsewhere that I applied and exposed in order to create a new culture in drawing . In this drawing technique ( which constantly changes the use of carnob paper ) ,the distance made by carbon paper , same as manual printing , created a new tone which makes it different from the direct touch of pencil and paper .

Finally , like many other Iranian painters , I have dedicated some of my time to teach painting for different reasons . This has been the main part of my life for twenty seven years . I made assumption that this opportunity could be used to create a chance for myself . moreover , the content of my teaching has been the same during three decades of teaching , never attempted to impose my personal style and handwriting to my students . I ‘ve always believed teaching in Iran is a demanding job as we never have access to authentic paintings .

Considering the condition , I have done my best to teach and convey the original styles and methods , so my references have always been the masterpieces . As I believe ,after doing an academic course  students need to initiate their own personal lines and enter experimental periods . In fact , I have thought them painting basics and not more . Remarkably , as explaind , my teaching process is not a brief one as painting basics and principles are numerous subjects and time-consuming to which there is no short-cut .

What is being typical in our country is that after a short time doing a course in a workshop , learners tend to work similar to their instructor , as instructors only teach their personal techniques . This matter clearly conflicts the mentioned condition in the world today and non-linear movement of art . This is linear art era approach when the artists used to follow specific patterns and place at the time . that’s how only a few people can come out as genius artists .Teaching art based on the instructor’s handwriting creates mutual satisfaction between the learner and the instructor for a short time , but causes learner’s genuine ability’s suppression in a long time .Being aware of this fact , the thing I teach is far from my own performance which keeps my learners and me in a safe zone.

The fact of great importance is my technical achievement aside from teaching experiences .That is “floating drawing”,as I named it , which is the outcome of two strategic points in painting and drawing .Firstly, floating drawing is the mixture of getting to the whole from the details and getting to details from the whole . Secondly, as I believe , floating drawing comes from the condition in painting which has been dominant as the result of experiencing expanded approach since the middle of the twentieth century . The most important quality of the approach is the return from abstraction to realism and it is based on the return idea ,which I personally experienced.So I think we can consider that as the following basics of drawing . The memorable point is that I never thought of recording that as a personal achievement as I believe this is not only the outcome of my efforts over a long time, but it also the underlying quality of this refers to the approach of returning from abstraction to realism in working lists of today’s well-known artists.That’s why I made myself to share it with others and teach it to technically qualified people.

…and a short chat

In January 1378, in the first international fair of contemporary art in Tehran modern art museum, professor “Marko Mangotezo” lectured about modern art statue and Iranian artists, he emphasized on “prominent pattern”. A pattern that has been presented in the USA- New York specifically. He also added, as the pattern become known worldwide , an Italian artist should work five times more than an American artist to be known, accordingly, an Iranian artist needs to work twenty times more than an American one or live in the USA. About the criteria that he mentioned, I believe that what an Iranian artist needs – before “prominent pattern”- is to know his own works. Historically, since Safavieh and regarding tradition and modernism interaction experiences, our visual arts faced with different fractions and the experience of “identity” has been failed. It seems that the main problem of painting-and other visual arts- in Iran is the lack of attention to fundamental problems that is the results of non-scientific view to art structure in the world. So, in my idea, according to what “Marko Mangotezo” mentioned, an Iranian artist should try twenty times more than an American one to fill such gaps that we have been faced to during these three centuries. Therefore, facing with west experiences (because of scientific parameters) and passing through them, is vital for our artists and will show our capacities and help us to correct the faults that have always been ignored by Iranian artists.