Bahman Mohasess

Bahman Mohassess, one of the most influential modernist artists of Iran, was born in 1930 in Rasht. He began studying painting under the guidance of Habib Mohammadi in his hometown and later enrolled in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. However, he left his studies unfinished and moved to the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome to pursue his artistic journey. His life and education in Europe played a crucial role in shaping his distinctive visual language. During a brief return to Iran in the 1960s, he was actively involved in painting, sculpture, translation, and theater. Ultimately, in 1969, he settled permanently in Italy. In his works, Mohassess depicted themes of solitude, suffering, death, and collapse through a modern form and deeply personal expression. He was strongly influenced by Greek mythology—particularly the figure of the Minotaur—and created faceless, deformed creatures that merged human and animal forms in timeless, vacant spaces. These figures served as metaphors for both personal decay and collective crisis. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Mohassess distanced himself from Iranian artistic traditions, instead internalizing and transforming European forms. He also had a significant presence in theater, translating and directing plays by authors such as Ionesco and Genet. Mohassess’s works have been featured in numerous auctions and are part of the permanent collections of institutions such as Tate Modern and the British Museum in London. He passed away in Rome in 2010.