Painting must take artist’s soul to the sky: Iranian modernist painter

TEHRAN,May 26(MNA) -- Contemporary Iranian artist Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam, famous for his abstract forms and designs, believes painting must fill an artist’s entire being and take his soul to the sky. Speaking at the ongoing exhibition of his works arranged in his honor at Tehran’s Fravahar Gallery, Italy-based Vaziri-Moqaddam said that an artist must first move with nature and make changes with nature finally to reach what he wants, and that is the abstract form of art. Painting is a phenomenon, which emerges from within the mind, blood and heart of an artist; it is true that the main medium is nature, but when an individual stands in front of an easel, nature melts before his knowledge, he said to the participants in the gallery. In his career, Vaziri-Moqaddam has created most of his abstract forms and designs using the media of sand, metal, plastic and wood. He later talked bout the process of his works and the forms he uses in his artworks. “When I was in Iran, I used to work on nature, landscapes and portraits, but when I travelled to Europe to continue my studies, I realized that I needed to find myself in art and should not copy works by other artists. “I reached this point that an artist’s mind must always be ready to receive new inspirations; sometimes we need to sit for hours to feel something new from our surroundings,” he said. He continued saying that he never took his paintings to the market to sell, “painting always created love and strong determination within me.” He expressed hope that the youth would become good artists in the future and concluded that he is going to compile a book, which will contain all of his speeches. Fravahar Gallery is holding a retrospective of Vaziri-Moqaddam, which opened on May 8. A selection of old and new works by the master has been put on show, while five other artists are also hanging their works in honor of the master, including Babak Etminani, Hadi Jamali, Reza Hosseini, Reza Khodadadi, and Homayun Salimi. The exhibit will be running until May 30 at the gallery located at No.2, Golestan St., off Africa Blvd.