Mohsen Vaziri-Moghaddam

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Mohsen Vaziri (Persian: محسن وزیری مقدم , born 1924 in Tehran) is an Iranian painter and a professor of art.

[edit] Education

In 1946 he received Diploma of Fine Arts Academy from University of Tehran. In 1955 he moved to Italy for further studies. In 1958, he was awarded Diploma of Fine Arts from Accademia di Belle Arti of Rome.

Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam was born on May 26th 1924 in Tehran: the first child of Zinat-Ossadat and Seyyed-Mahdi, his parents. Their parentage goes back to Mirza-Issa and Mirza-Mussa, senior citizens of Tafresh, who entered the court of Qajar, and received the title of honour: "Vazir-Moqaddam (i.e. Prime Minister). Mahdi Vaziri-Moqaddam was a high rank officer in Reza-Shah army. He used to compose poems, write patriotic plays, and he acted some roles in them.

Mohsen started primary school days when he was five; however, he had had some writing and reading lessons with his father. His father, then, was the governor of Behbahan. Near their home, there was a hill with some ruins of an ancient fortress that had become the children's playground, and Mohsen used to play there with dust. "I used to fill my school hat with dust and stones, fix it with a string and pull my so-called car up and down the hill."2 While he played this way, he used to find some pieces of patterned earthenware, clean them neat, and collect them in his room. The earthen vessels, typically, had white backgrounds, with some red, green, or blue marks that had remained from their original patterns. Years later, creating the "Fear 'n Flight" series, he must have recalled the earthenware to memory.

While he attended the primary school, Mohsen was fond of geography. "In grade five and six, I was unique in geography. It was because I had always loved touring countries, and through my books, I was travelling around the world. I did know the smallest cities, the rivers, the mountains, and every single capital of every country, and I could easily point them on maps... One day they told us to draw Asia, Europe and America's geographic maps as homework. I used to copy the maps of my books on large sheets of paper, and paint different countries with different expressive colours: red, yellow and green, and the oceans with cobalt blue... I dare say those maps were my first contacts with colours and painting."3

The chorus teacher had noticed Mohsen's voice only and his talent in singing delicately. He liked singing very much, but his father didn’t allow him to practise music. Years later, while studying at the Faculty of Fine Arts, he had an about two-year practice of violin. Still today he’d like to play a musical instrument.

Vaziri spent his childhood years in Behbahan and Ahwaz. In 1935, his father was transferred to Tehran, and brought his family with him; however, they soon left Tehran for Orumiyyeh. It was the time when Mohsen, then sixteen, practiced oil colour painting for the first time in his life. Finally, he finished his secondary school at the Karaj School of Agriculture. In those times his parents were separated, but both were living in Tehran.