Biography of Sadegh Tabrizi

Sadegh Tabrizi (1937-2017), born in Tehran, graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in the field of miniature painting. In 1955, he began studying interior architecture at the Faculty of Decorative Arts and graduated from this university in 1964 with a master’s degree. He is one of the pioneers of modern Iranian art, a painter, designer, calligrapher, and a prominent figure in the Saqakhaneh and calligraphy schools.

In addition to creating works, Tabrizi also published dozens of art articles. In 1973, he established Gallery 66 on what is now Somayeh Street and designed the first poster of the Islamic Republic, called Nights of Allah the Great, in 1978.

In addition to Iranian painting, he was also active in the field of pottery and ceramics, and he first performed many of his calligraphy on ceramic pieces, becoming known as the founder of this style. He tried his first paintings on skin.

He continued to experiment with collage techniques, using a variety of decorative pieces and combining them with Iranian motifs, miniature figures, and vibrant colors. His works were first exhibited at the Iran-America Association.

However, after participating in the Tehran Biennials (1962–1966), Tabrizi increasingly turned to using written elements and forms of Iranian calligraphy, and later merged these lines into an eye-catching and poetic combination with the tradition of painting, with a hint of coffeehouse paintings. Gradually, influenced by modern art and with a formalist view of traditional calligraphy, he created original works with an abstract expressionist approach.

Due to his familiarity and artistic experience in various fields such as painting, calligraphy, printing, ceramics, stained glass, and architecture, this artist created many works that cover a wide range of techniques and themes. In general, Sadegh Tabrizi’s works can be divided into three categories in terms of thematic aspects: “Riders and Lovers”, “Khosro and Shirin”, and the “Line Paintings” series.

By the beginning of the 1970s, Tabrizi’s style of work was established, and by exaggerating the dimensions of people and animals, unlike the delicate miniatures of ancient illustrated versions, he achieved a new narrative of the coexistence of line and color across the canvas and innovation in painting, which set him apart from the multitude of traditionalist miniaturist painters of his time.

Sadegh Tabrizi first painted calligraphy on a ceramic panel in 1955, and according to some experts and critics, the artist’s work on this ceramic panel is the first calligraphy painting whose words were not written with the intention of being read.

Along with Parviz Tanavoli, Hossein Zendarroudi, Faramarz Pilaram, Masoud Arabshahi, and Mansour Qandriz, he is one of the pioneers of the Saqqakhaneh school, a school that had its roots in ancient schools and Iranian cultural heritage and was intended to build a bridge between tradition and the modern world.He held his last exhibition outside of Iran in London, coinciding with the “Islamic World Art Week” in 2012. The Irish newspaper “Irish Times” called him a “color-stirring artist” who, with his paintings, brings cultures closer together.

He has also had prominent activities in the field of interior architecture and mural painting, the most notable of which include designing the interior decorations of the Hilton Tehran Hotel and the Shrine of Hazrat Abdul Azim. After completing these artistic projects in the 1980s, he was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and a first-class medal from the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

During his fifty years of artistic activity, he has had over thirty solo and group exhibitions, and his works, in addition to being displayed in major galleries and exhibitions around the world such as Art Fair Italy, Hill London, Manhattan Soho America, Artitude Paris, Art Expo China, and the Swiss International Exhibition, are also kept in important museums such as the New York University Gray Collection, the Han China Museum, and the museums of Bank Melli, Bank Sepah, Bank Pasargad, and Tehran Contemporary Arts.Tabrizi was a serious critic of the currents governing auctions in Iran.

In the works of Sadegh Tabrizi, visual signs are classified into six categories. In general, visual elements are mostly indexical and symbolic. The largest volume of visual elements is of the symbolic-figurative type and consists of figurative and abstract signs that create a simile, and the least amount of signs is naturalistic. In the study samples, many similarities have been observed between visual signs and semiotic divisions of concepts. Written motifs have a special place in Tabrizi’s works, which are combined with religious and spiritual themes and Iranian third-order script. These motifs have been observed in all works. Plant motifs are mostly seen symbolically, and human and animal motifs are mostly seen in an iconographic form.

His later paintings are a mixture of religious figures, sciences, and philosophies with images of Iranian painters. Then, with a cheerful and sometimes humorous spirit, he introduced miniature men and women into his works, and he continued this method for some time, using paint and oil, and in large format.

The main subjects of his work are young lovers and entangled men and women, created in a gripping manner. This plant-like state that brings together the human body in its various forms is the preoccupation of the painter, who, despite his humorous mind, has an emotional attitude and a nostalgic perception. For him, the old space has superior values ​​that, because he knows it well, he does not easily abandon, and at every opportunity he strives to renew it in his own way.

Sadegh Tabrizi was one of the painters who started creating a trend in abstract works with single and mostly brown tones. His inspiration for creating abstract works was more from Persian calligraphy, which he used with new and innovative combinations. Sadegh Tabrizi found and learned his life and art in the context of tradition.

In his works, motifs such as painting and calligraphy constitute the majority of his works. In his paintings, a slight imitation of portraits of the Safavid era can be seen, which has combined literary, artistic and cultural dimensions simultaneously, and has created works in a way that largely stems from Iranian tradition and culture.

These works, using symbols and signs, are important reasons for the strength and richness of Iranian culture and civilization. What makes these works unique is the presence of Iranian motifs and symbols.

The main focus of Tabrizi’s work is calligraphy. At first, he used the decorative aspect and filled the empty space of the line in the margins of his works; but after a while, he began to experiment with new aspects of calligraphy, in other words, calligraphy; He tries to use the element of calligraphy as the basis of the composition of his works. A device that Tabrizi uses in most of his compositions is the musical repetition of letters and decorative motifs widely used in traditional Iranian arts and crafts.

He incorporates the movements and curves of Persian calligraphy into the abstract shapes he creates with the free movement of the pen on the canvas without limiting himself to the constraints of calligraphy. In this way, he demonstrates the peak of his creativity by using traditional motifs in the field of native art. Native signs include: The traditional calligraphy and motifs he uses during this period. In Tabrizi’s works, objectivism is more used and the native symbols are more similar in shape.

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