Masoud Arabshahi
“The Embodiment of a Century”: One Hundred Years of Visual Arts of Iran
(Part Sixteen)
Image Source:
Pioneers of Avant-garde Art in Iran, Masoud Arabshahi, 2001
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
Masoud Arabshahi, a painter and sculptor, was born on September 19, 1935, in Tehran. In his youth, he studied painting under Mahmoud Olya, who was one of Kamalolmolk’s students.
In 1956, he attended the School of Fine Arts for Boys, where he studied alongside Sadegh Tabrizi, Faramarz Pilaram, and Mansour Ghandriz. In 1960, the School of Decorative Arts was established by Houshang Kazemi. Fourteen years later (1974), the school was renamed the College of Decorative Arts, and after the revolution, it became the University of Art.
Hossein Zendehroodi, Faramarz Pilaram, Sadegh Tabrizi, Masoud Arabshahi, and Mansour Ghandriz were among the first students of this school.
Interestingly, these five graduates of the School of Decorative Arts were also prominent artists of the Saqqakhaneh movement. Seventeen years later, along with Parviz Tanavoli, Jazeh Tabatabai, and Nasser Ovissi, they were among the eight artists whose works were exhibited at the Saqqakhaneh Exhibition during the opening of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran in October 1977. Although Arabshahi was a key member of the Saqqakhaneh movement, he was the only artist in this group who did not focus on the elements of modernism, Iranian, or Islamic art but instead was interested in ancient and mythological motifs.
During his student years, Arabshahi became familiar with ancient motifs and studied Iranian and Mesopotamian myths. He became interested in making prominent sculptures by participating in pottery workshops at the Ministry of Culture and Art. His use of ancient symbols from the Sassanian and Achaemenid periods, images of Assyrian and Sumerian ancient rituals such as lotus and tree of life, and drawing the wheel and circle as symbols of the sun in Mesopotamian culture, propelled his works beyond the modernist trend of the Saqqakhaneh movement to an international language in terms of idea and form.
In 1965, he exhibited his prominent sculptures for the first time at the University of Tehran.
Four years later, in 1969, he began constructing the prominent sculpture for the Shahyad Square in Tehran. The construction of this 600-square-meter work took three years. In 1970, he executed the prominent sculpture for the Iranian Industries and Mines Chamber building. Two years later, in addition to constructing the prominent sculpture for the Industrial Management Center building, he created a sculpture for installation in one of the parks in southern Tehran, which had won first prize in a competition. In 1985, he created an aluminum sculpture for installation in the courtyard of the California Insurance Building. Executing the prominent sculpture for the Behshahr Industrial Group building (1973), the entrance of the Ministry of Agriculture building (1975), the West Hollywood building in Los Angeles (1992), and the Martyr Modarres Highway (1995) were among his other significant works.
Arabshahi, who used concrete, steel, bronze, gypsum, copper, ceramics, and ceramics in his prominent sculptures, also used metal rings, bronze plates, gypsum, thread, rope, and other materials in his paintings. Due to these materials, his paintings transform from two-dimensional to three-dimensional works. Materials in his paintings play a determining role in the visual structure of the work and have been transformed into his unique visual language. Geometric patterns, spirals, mandalas or cosmic diagrams, ambiguous and fluid shapes, mythical figures, structured and engineered forms, and drawing self-referential and transcendent forms, along with volumetric and expressive coloring, as well as linear drawings and delicate designs, all demonstrate the diversity of his visual experiences in his works.
In 2001, an exhibition reviewing the works of Masoud Arabshahi and Hossein Zendehroodi from the series of exhibitions of pioneers of Iranian avant-garde art was held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran and received great acclaim. He, who has always been noted for his innovations, tirelessly devoted himself to work and activity, and exhibited many of his works in Iran and abroad.
Masoud Arabshahi, who left behind diverse and creative works for the city of Tehran, closed his eyes to the world on September 13, 2019, leaving a unique treasure of his art for Iranian art.
