Naser Assar

Nasser Assar was an Iranian painter born in 1928 (1307 SH) in Tehran. Through his father, a professor of Eastern philosophy at the University of Tehran, Assar became familiar with poetry and philosophy from an early age. He studied painting under Ali-Mohammad Heydarian and from 1949 to 1953 (1328–1332 SH) pursued painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran. He later moved to Paris and continued his studies at one of the city’s independent art academies. He held his first solo exhibition in 1955 (1334 SH) at the Prism Gallery in Paris. Thereafter, his works were shown in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, London, and other European cities. In 1966 (1345 SH), he held his only solo exhibition in Iran at the Litho Gallery. His fascination with nature and Eastern art, inspired by the tradition of Zen painting, forms one of the central foundations of his work. Although he began his artistic career in Iran by painting trees in an abstract atmosphere, after traveling to France and becoming immersed in Western modernist movements, he turned his attention toward Eastern art to such an extent that separation from Eastern spaces became inevitable for him. His acquaintance with Sohrab Sepehri was one of the reasons for his deep attraction to the Far East and to Chinese and Japanese culture. Calligraphic brushwork inspired by Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, set within balanced compositions of filled and empty spaces, is among the defining features of Assar’s paintings. Color in his works appears in diluted or dense monochromatic tonalities, accompanied by the subtle, luminous, and vibrant movement of the brush. Although Assar’s Eastern outlook casts a strong influence over his art, his works consistently maintain an independent identity that distinguishes him from other artists inspired by the East. The viewer of Assar’s canvases is invited, amid dynamism and movement, into a state of calm within a minimalist world. Despite their dreamlike atmosphere, his works convey a sense of tranquility and stillness. Nasser Assar passed away in Paris in 2011 (1390 SH).