Aydin Aghdashloo

Aydin Aghdashloo

Aghdashloo in 2003
Born Aydin Aghdashloo
(1940-10-30)October 30, 1940
Rasht, Iran
Nationality Iranian (Iran)
Education University of Tehran
Known for Painting, Art history, Art criticism, Graphic design
Notable work Memories of Destruction
Falling Angels
Spouse(s)

Shohreh Aghdashloo
(1972–1979)
Firouzeh Athari
(1981-present)

Children Tara Aghdashloo

Aydin Aghdashloo (Persian: آیدین آغداشلو‎‎; born October 30, 1940) is an Iranian painter, author, art critic, art historian and graphic designer.[1]

He currently lives in Tehran, Iran, and lectures in different Iranian Universities besides his professional work.

Biography

Early life

Aydin Aghdashloo was born in Rasht, Iran. His father, Mammad Aghdashloo (born Mammad Hajiev) was an engineer and the Labour Minister in Azerbaijan Democratic Republic between 1919 and 1920. After the invasion of Azerbaijan by the Soviet Red Army in 1920, he and his wife Nahida, Aydin's mother, had to flee Baku, Azerbaijan, and take refuge in Tabriz, Iran. To avoid identification by the Soviet spies in Iran, Mammad changed his last name from Hajiev to Aghdashloo and later moved to Rasht, where Aydin was born, and finally to Tehran when Aghdashloo was 5 years old.

Aydin Aghdashloo started selling his paintings from the age of 14, two years after his father's death as a result of kidney complications.[2]

Shah's era

Aghdashloo was appointed by the Shahbanu (Empress) of Iran, Farah Pahlavi, as the "Head of Artistic Affairs of Shahbanu's Special Bureau". His responsibilities included purchase of artworks from contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet for the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. He also helped establish the Reza Abbasi Museum in Tehran in 1977 and was the head of the museum until 1979.[3]

He married his first wife, Iranian actress Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar, aka Shohreh Aghdashloo, in 1971. They divorced in 1979.

After 1979

After the Iranian revolution of 1979, Aghdashloo lost both his official jobs and was under threat by Khomeini's regime and was barred from leaving Iran for over 10 years, until 1989.[4]

Aghdashloo had to adjust himself to the new strict rules imposed by the government to control and Islamicize arts and culture. Before being allowed to teach in Iranian universities in 1981, he started his private art classes which he still continues to teach, beside lecturing in a number of universities in Iran.[5] He was also the first artist to exhibit his artwork at Tehran's Assar Art Gallery in the late 1990s.

He married Firouzeh Athari in 1981 from which they have a son (Takin Aghdashloo) and a daughter (Tara Aghdashloo).

Work

Paintings

Early in his career, Aghdashloo took great interest in the Renaissance and Sandro Botticelli's paintings in particular. He even used to test his own skills by copying Botticelli's works to the last detail. His admiration for Renaissance paintings lead to the creation of his "Memories of Destruction" series in the early 1970s which became his most celebrated and famous series.[6] In these series Aghdashloo depicts destruction of identity and beauty by painting a complete Renaissance masterpiece and then partially destroy or deface it.[7]

"Memories of Destruction" continued after 1979 but went through a transformation in which Islamic art became his main model instead of Renaissance art, while in both periods he uses Islamic and Renaissance models simultaneously.[8]

He also uses Persian miniatures extensively in his paintings after 1979. The crumpled Persian miniature series are the best example.[9]

Other

Besides painting, Aghdashloo is an expert in Iranian pre-Islamic and Islamic art history and artifacts. He assesses items for auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's.

Aghdashloo has published eight books; three articles collections, two paintings collections and two researches in Iranian art history.[10]

He has been teaching art and art history in a number of universities in Iran since 1981.

Awards and recognition

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Aydeen Aghdashloo (Iranian, b. 1940)". Christie's. 2010-04-15. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  2. ↑ "Life Chronology, Aydin Aghdashloo's Official Website". aghdashloo.com. 2004. Archived from the original on June 12, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  3. ↑ "آغداشلو، عابری کنار دیوار". Jadid Online. 2009-01-30. Archived from the original on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  4. ↑ "Iranian art offers window to changing world". Orange County Register. 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
  5. ↑ "Aydin Aghdashloo (Iran, b. 1940)". Bonhams. 2008-11-24. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  6. ↑ "Aydin Aghdashloo laments global cultural degradation". Gulf News. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  7. ↑ "Aydeen Aghdashloo (Iranian, b. 1940)". Christie's. 2008-04-30. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  8. ↑ "Biography, Aydin Aghdashloo's Official Website". aghdashloo.com. November 1993. Archived from the original on March 13, 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  9. ↑ "Paintings, Aydin Aghdashloo's Official Website". aghdashloo.com. 1980. Archived from the original on April 14, 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  10. ↑ "Books, Aydin Aghdashloo's Official Website". aghdashloo.com. 2008. Archived from the original on 24 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  11. ↑ http://www.bbc.com/persian/arts/2016/01/160113_l41_visualarts_aidin_aghdashloo_french_medal

Lucie-Smith, Edward (September 1999). Art Today. Phaidon Press. ISBN 0-7148-3888-8. 

External links

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