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Aydin Aghdashloo (; born October 30, 1940) is an Iranian painter, graphic artist, art curator, writer, and film critic.
In 1959, at 19, after successfully passing the university entrance examination, he enrolled in Tehran University's School of Fine Arts. In 1967, he decided to leave the program during its final year." AYDIN AGHDASHLOO". Assar Art Gallery.
Aghdashloo was the holder and coordinator of several exhibitions after the Iranian Revolution. While none of them were special exhibitions of his works, they played an important role in introducing contemporary Iranian art to the people inside and outside Iran. He took multiple exhibitions from Iran to other countries, including "Iranian Art, since the Past until Today" in China, "Past Iranian Art" in Japan, and the contemporary Iranian paintings with a traditional background sent to Bologna, Italy. Aghdashloo is also a recipient of the Legion of Honour.
Aghdashloo's interest in including surreal spaces in his works and painting floating objects began at his 30 years of age. During the period, his works were of floating objects having a shadow on the ground. In a surrealistic environment, he painted dolls having no faces influenced by Gergeo Deki Riko, and they later became a large part of his series "Years of Fire and Snow". According to him, painting of such faceless dolls helped him say the subconscious suspicious and illusive words in the form of a painting.
After the 1979 revolution and the eight-year war, most of Aghdashloo's works were about memorials and objects proceeding to doom and damage; abandoned huts and views, green wooden rotten windows with broken glasses, old doors with rusted locks, and deadly blades as symbols of missiles hitting the cities; all of them showed the painter's thinking of gradual doom and damage as the passing of hard times. Using Iranian miniature continued in his works and he used every Iranian classic style and space for transferring his subjective concepts about the contemporary world.
Aghdashloo paints most of his works by gouache on canvas. Bahram Beyzai writes in a part of his article: "Why shouldn't I be rude and say that if there's a value in copy-painting, the patterns of the previous celebrities of painting and visualizing aren't in our reach; so that as evaluation criteria, they can testify for the level of accomplishment of those masters in copy-painting; but their works, which Aydin has remade, are proof of Aydin's skill in copy-painting. Copy-painting wasn't all of their art, as it's not all of Aydin's. It's Aydin's imagination and time-sighting and death-aware thought that's the final maker of his work. The notches that time has made in the paintings and the oppressions that the cosmos – or man's hand – has inflicted upon them. In Aydin's repaintings, these masters' praise is accompanied by sorrow for their own and their works' mortality."
In a ceremony that was held in the French embassy in Iran on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, Aghdashloo received the Legion of Honour.
Aghdashloo participated in the exhibition "Memling Now" in October 2021, which aimed to showcase the enduring impact of Hans Memling on the realm of contemporary art. The exhibition prominently featured the works of Aghdashloo alongside other notable artists.
In Summer 2022 Aydin Aghdashloo was a speaker in commemoration of his longtime friend and collaborator Abbas Kiarostami.
His work was also part of August 26 – September 22, 2022 "A Nostalgic Glimpse Into the Recent Art of Iran" at Homa Art Gallery in Tehran.
Barbad Golshiri, son of Iranian author Houshang Golshiri, announced that the new edition of his father's novel, Prince Ehtejab, would not include Aghdashloo's painting.
After the release of the New York Times article, one of the cited sources, Solmaz Naraghi, publicly stated that the report misrepresented her statement. Subsequently, the New York Times made an amendment, incorporating the term 'verbal' into the abuse allegations in the Persian-language article (not reflected in the English-language version).
In an interview with Houman Mortazavi for Tajrobeh Magazine, Aghdashloo shared insights into his perception of power and responsibility within society.
"One of the reasons I started lecturing and teaching was to share of my knowledge with others. I have never abused this position. At least consciously, I never used it. Maybe I got the love of the community because of it, but it was nothing more."Furthermore, he acknowledged making mistakes in life but refuted the claims made in a New York Times article and by a source blogger, labeling them as documents and forgeries aimed at ulterior motives such as tarnishing his reputation.
205 individuals, including artists, gallery owners, and art critics, have raised concerns about similarities between the New York Times article and narratives about Mr. Afshin Parvaresh, a social media investigative reporter, over the past four to five years. They question if the article relies on Mr. Parvaresh's information and why it hasn't been presented in court if accurate. This inquiry adds complexity to discussions about Aghdashloo's situation, prompting questions about information credibility and legal processes.
On September 25, 2022, Aydin Aghdashloo was the first prominent Iranian painter to release a personal statement in support of the protests that were sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini by Guidance Patrol. He was also one of the signers on a collective statement by Iranian artists, scholars, critics, art historians and curators in support of the student protests in the country published on October 20, 2022.
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