BIOGRAPHY
Seyed A. Shariatpanahi (b.1938)Seyed Asadollah is undoubtedly one of the most influential visual artists in Middle-East who has had a profound impact on art while creating master pieces and teaching art.
In 1965, he entered Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran University and studied art painting under supervision of those who are recognized as pioneers of the visual arts in Iran.
From 1975 till 1996, he had been member of jury in the annual festival of arts painting, held by ministry of education in Iran, where the talented students were identified.
In his early work in 1970s and after completion of bachelor program, he was impacted by Cubism. Human body in a variety of different configurations and viewpoints was the main focus of his artworks which were analyzed, broken and deformed in a two-dimensional form in a greater context.
He continued this in the same manner until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, when Iranian society experienced profound changes in the political regime. Changes were experienced in every section of social life and the arts, including the visual arts, were no exception. His career was influenced by revolutionary excesses and he was banned for a year from serving in the organization of education. Shariatpanai who was in his early way of professional career, had to put away all his paintings and stop painting to save his life.
His works are the scene of the interaction of modernity and the traditional world in such a way that his works include signs of both modernity and modern system of thought along with traditional paradigm of thinking. Shariatpanahi has consciously carried out his role in this historical twist by avoiding the conflicts of modern-traditional worlds.
In the works of Seyed Asadollah, concepts are neither conspicuous between lines and colors, not hidden in such a way that the observer is unable to detect their presence. With careful reading between the lines, the viewer could grasp the shapes and intentions the artist had in mind.
Seyed Asadollah Shariatpahi’s work has been the subject of several solo and group exhibitions. In 2015, his collection of painting was published in Iran in bilingual (Persian-English) called "The Veil of Clarity".
