Bahman Mohasses

Last year, the death of the exceptional yet reclusive artist Bahman Mohasses, came as a great loss to Modern Iranian Art.  Mohasses was, and will be remembered as, the embodiment of the notion that extraordinary artists are born and not made.

Mohasses was inspired by his native town Lahijan, an area in the Caspian littoral on the Caspian coast. Here, he was inspired to paint fish, fish nets, the sea and sailors and it was only later, when he moved to Tehran, that he eschewed all images of nature to focus on the human form.

When Mohasses first began focusing on his painting, his early compositions would follow the archetypal rules initiated by the artists from Cubism. Abandoning formal perspective, Mohasses was absorbed in defining space and sentiment within his canvases, successfully producing emotionally charged abstract paintings.

As an artist who never painted the female form, Mohasses perfected his representations of the male. He did not see the female figure as the epitome of aesthetics or beauty; rather, he became fascinated with depicting masculine characters as he deemed it to be more important.

This present work affords an enlightening perspective into the isolated nature of Mohasses' disposition. He felt confined by his Iranian identity when he was living in Rome and by developing his distinct style; he fell further into fashioning fresco-style paintings juxtaposed with harsh realism.

Undoubtedly one of the most important and sought after artists from Iran, Mohasses' work allows fascinating insight into the psychology behind a genius and the power behind his tormented works.