فارسیAlireza Eskandari, born in 1952 in Ahvaz, is one of the artists who linked his life path with art since his adolescence and, over more than four decades of continuous activity, gained a well-known position in the field of calligraphy and coffeehouse painting.He began painting and calligraphy at the age of 13; his first experiences were with watercolors and inspired by the writings on shop windows, and this attention to the ratio of line and color led him to combine calligraphy and images.
Eskandari began painting professionally at the age of 17 under Mahmoud Farshchian and benefited from the teachings of masters such as Majid Mehregan and Rahim Najfar. He completed his academic education at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran and began pursuing his professional career more seriously in 1972, when he entered the Conservatory of Fine Arts.During these years, he became familiar with the airbrush technique; a tool that, by creating elegance in coloring and shading, enabled him to express himself in a different way, and became an important element in the formation of his personal language. His interest in cinema and experience in making movie posters also had an impact on strengthening his visual vision and executive skills.
Eskandari’s inclination towards religious art and Ashura themes is rooted in his lived experiences of ritual spaces, curtain readings, and religious icons. These influences gradually crystallized in his works into a coherent and personal form; works that are shaped along the tradition of coffeehouse painting and, in many cases, combined with calligraphy. He creates a familiar atmosphere for his religious audience by utilizing Shiite-religious motifs and symbols such as images of imams, semi-arches, domes, and ritual elements of mourning groups. In these works, the event of Ashura has a strong presence, and in his calligraphy paintings, he often draws verses from the Quran on the canvas.
From a stylistic perspective, Eskandari’s works can be analyzed in relation to the Saqqakhane school; a movement that was formed by referring to Iranian symbols and ritual spaces.By combining religious forms and geometric shapes, he has taken the figures out of their realistic state and brought them to a simplified and sometimes bold expression; an expression that is neither entirely traditional nor fully fits into modernist frameworks, but rather is the result of a combination of lived experience, personal faith, and a tendency toward abstraction. Eskandari pursued this method in the form of “Khattashi” – combining calligraphy and painting in a geometric structure – and in his later works, especially the “Shamayel” series, he emphasized the relationship between painting and calligraphy.
He established his professional status in the mid-1970s by participating in the “Contemporary Iranian Painters” exhibition and being among its winners; an event in which artists such as Bahman Mohasses, Kamran Diba, and Faramarz Pilaram also participated. Since then, his works have been exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions both inside and outside the country, and collections such as “Shamayel” are a continuation of this artistic path.
In Eskandari’s view, form and content complement each other, and a work of art without meaning cannot be lasting. He believes that religious themes have a high capacity for permanence due to their connection to human nature; as in the history of art, examples such as Ben-Hur and The Passion of the Christ in cinema, or the works of artists such as Raphael, Giotto di Bondone, and Michelangelo in Western art, confirm this connection between faith and permanence.
A significant part of his professional life has been dedicated to teaching and cultural management. He worked in educational centers for many years, and many of his students are now well-known artists and professors in the country. In the early years of the revolution, he went to Sanandaj and took on the responsibility of holding art exams.He has also served as the head of the Martyr Avini Museum and the vice chairman of the Central Council of Visual Arts of the Basij, and in 1379 he was introduced as the chosen artist of the year of Hazrat Ali (AS).
Active presence in the national media, participation in religious and cultural programs, cooperation with the International Exhibition of the Holy Quran, and setting a record of creating 120 calligraphy works in one day are other parts of his career.One of his notable works, titled “The Titles of Imam Reza (AS), is installed in the portico of the Darul-Hodayeh of the Holy Shrine and is considered one of his important honors. Also, the sale of one of his calligraphy paintings with the verse “Wa in yakad” at the Tehran auction reflects his continued presence in the official Iranian contemporary art market.
Overall, Alireza Eskandari’s artistic path can be considered a continuous effort to connect line, image, and spirituality; a path that began in the 1950s with numerous solo and group exhibitions and has continued to this day with loyalty to ritual roots while at the same time tending toward new and geometric combinations.