Mahmoud Javadi Pour
“The embodiment of a century” One Hundred Years of Visual Arts of Iran
(Part Six)
Image Sources: “Pioneers of Contemporary Iranian Painting, First Generation,” 1997″
Pioneers of Iran’s Modern Art, Mahmoud Javadi Pour,” 2010
“Praise of the Day, Selected Works of Mahmoud Javadi Pour,” 2019
Writer and Director: Amir Soghrati
Research Assistant: Najwa Erfani
Motion Graphics: Masoud Talebani
Text Narrator: Amir Soghrati
Logo Design: Mohammad Fadaei
Editing: Mojtaba Fallahi
Project Manager: Harf-e Honar Studio
Producer: Institute for the Development of Contemporary Visual Arts
Supported by the General Directorate of Visual Arts, Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Islamic Republic of Iran
Mahmoud Javadi Pour is renowned for his intricate and detailed paintings of pottery workshops, local markets, and sunflowers. His delicate works, with precise details and vibrant colors, reflect his Iranian heritage. Over more than 75 years, he has contributed significantly to Iranian art, playing a crucial role in the evolution of contemporary Iranian art.
Mahmoud Javadi Pour, a painter, graphic designer, gallery owner, art researcher, and educator, was born on September 4, 1920, in Tehran. In 1941, he enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, then located within the Marvi Mosque on Nasser Khosrow Street, graduating in 1947.
Javadi Pour and his contemporaries, including Javad Hamidi (born 1918, Hamedan), Jalil Ziapour (born 1920, Bandar Anzali), Mehdi Vishkaei (born 1920, Rasht), Shokouh Riyazi (born 1921, Tehran), Abdollah Ameri Al-Hosseini (born 1922, Tehran), Manouchehr Yektai (born 1922, Tehran), Ahmad Esfandiari (born 1922, Tehran), Hossein Kazemi (born 1924, Tehran), and Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam (born 1924, Tehran), played a pivotal role in shaping modern painting in Iran. All were students of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, diverging from the painting principles promoted by Kamal-ol-Molk and his disciples, such as Alimohammad Heydarian.
Like Jalil Ziapour, Shokouh Riyazi, Javad Hamidi, and Manouchehr Yektai, Javadi Pour went abroad to further his studies. However, while they went to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Javadi Pour chose Germany. Having obtained a certificate in blacksmithing and machine building from the Iran-Germany Industrial School in Tehran in 1940, he went to the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 1951 and received a diploma in painting.
Germany remained an important destination for subsequent generations of Iranian artists, including Ali Nassir, Shahram Karimi, Masoud Saadeddin, Alireza Darvish, Vahid Khakdan, Hamid Rahmati, Jamal Bakhshpour, Shahab Mousavi Zadeh, Akbar Behkalam, Manouchehr Safarzadeh, Kambiz Dermabakhsh, and Ahmad Amin Nazar.
World War II ended on September 2, 1945. On February 4, 1946, the first Iranian Fine Arts Exhibition was held by the Iran-Soviet Cultural Relations Association. However, professional galleries had not yet been established in Iran. Four years later, in 1949, the Fine Arts Faculty was renamed the Faculty of Fine Arts, and Jalil Ziapour founded the Khorous Jangi (Fighting Rooster) Association and magazine in Tehran. The same year, Iran’s first professional gallery, the Apadana Gallery of Fine Arts, was established in Tehran by Mahmoud Javadi Pour, Hossein Kazemi, and Houshang Ajoudani. Nine years later, the first Tehran Biennial for painting and sculpture was initiated by Marco Grigorian. The establishment of Apadana was crucial, as it took five more years for other galleries to be founded. In 1954, Marco Grigorian established the Estetik Gallery in Ferdowsi Square, and Abdolreza Deraybeygi founded the Mas Gallery. The following year, in 1955, Jazeh Tabatabai opened the New Art Gallery on Bahar Street. Five years later, in 1960, the Kaboud Gallery was established by Parviz Tanavoli on Pahlavi Street. In 1961, Hanibal Alkhass started a gallery, and in 1964, the Saba, Borges, and Iran Hall galleries were established, all of which followed Apadana’s lead. However, despite being the first, Apadana did not have a long-lasting impact and was closed permanently after the death of Reza Jorjani during a speech at the gallery. Apadana, which opened on October 20, 1949, closed on April 13, 1950, but its influence continued in the country’s visual arts scene for years.
Javadi Pour was a pioneer of professional and modern graphic design in Iran. From 1944 to 1975, he designed bank documents such as securities, checks, and lottery tickets. In 1944, he introduced color printing in Iran. He designed important emblems, illustrated book covers, and stamps, and created posters. His graphic motifs and geometric designs are evident in his works based on Iranian poets’ verses from 1991 to 2011.
Despite modernism in painting introducing a new dialect in Iranian art, moving away from traditional nature and landscape depictions, modern Iranian painters like Mahmoud Javadi Pour, Ahmad Esfandiari, Abdollah Ameri Al-Hosseini, and Mohsen Vaziri Moghaddam continued to paint nature and landscapes in their unique styles. Their works often depict rural scenes from Tehran during the Pahlavi era, showcasing a peaceful, beautiful, and tranquil city, untroubled by urban issues and environmental chaos.
Mahmoud Javadi Pour’s paintings are devoid of the mundane and everyday struggles, free from the senseless violence of the era. He emphasized liberation, freedom, and beauty in his art. Described as having a free, wandering, and inquisitive spirit, Mahmoud Javadi Pour passed away in Germany on November 26, 2012. He was buried a few days later in the Artists’ Section of Behesht Zahra Cemetery in Tehran. His restless and wandering spirit can still be felt in his energetic, joyful, and serene paintings.
