Australian artist Dominic Ryan hangs anti-war paintings at Tehran show

TEHRAN,Sept.29(MNA) -- A collection of anti-war paintings created by the Australian artist Dominic Ryan is currently on display in an exhibition at the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) in Tehran. Entitled “Make Art Not War”, the showcase runs until October 3, the IAF announced in a press release on Wednesday. In an introduction to his exhibition, Ryan pointed to Picasso’s 1937 painting “Guernica”, an artwork that subsequently became the most celebrated anti-war image of the twentieth century. He said that he has held several exhibitions in eight different war-torn regions during past fourteen years to show the calamities of war. In June 2008, Dominic Ryan, after spending ten years in conflict zones, decided to recreate another image to reflect the horrors of the twenty first century and serve as a message to what we cannot allow to happen again. The artist, who had founded a small NGO called the Peace Project in 1994 where art installations with humanitarian messages were erected, has been moved to create another statement about injustice, suffering and war.