Aziz art march 2018

NOROOZ
Alfred Basbous
Marcos Grigorian
Reza Khodadadi
Aziz Art
March2018
Competition

Director: Aziz Anzabi
Editor : Nafiseh Yaghoubi
Translator : Asra Yaghoubi
Research: Zohreh Nazari
http://www.aziz-anzabi.com
1-Norooz
11-Competition
12-Reza Khodadadi
16-Alfred Basbous
21-Marcos Grigorian

Norooz
( "New Day") is the name of the
Iranian New Year,
also known as the Persian and
Kurdish New Year, is celebrated by
Iranian peoples worldwide as the
beginning of the new year. It has
been celebrated for over 3,000
years in the Balkans, the Black Sea
Basin, the Caucasus, Central Asia,
and the Middle East.It marks the
first day of the month of Farvardin
in the Iranian calendar.
Nowruz is the day of the
astronomical vernal equinox (or
northward equinox), which marks
the beginning of the spring in the
northern hemisphere and usually
occurs on March 21 or the
previous/following day depending
on where it is observed. The
moment the sun crosses the
celestial equator and equalizes
night and day is calculated exactly
every year and families gather
together to observe the rituals.
Although having Persian and
religious Zoroastrian origins,
Nowruz has been celebrated by
people from diverse ethnic
communities and religious
backgrounds for thousands of
years. It is a secular holiday for
most celebrants that is enjoyed by
people of several different faiths,
but remains a holy day for
Zoroastrians.
Origin
Nowruz is partly rooted in the
religious tradition of Iranian
religions such as Zoroastrianism or
even older in tradition of Mitraism
because in Mitraism festivals had a
deep linkage with the sun light. The
Persian festivals of Yalda (longest
night) and Mehregan (autumnal
equinox) and Tiregān (longest day)
also had an origin in the Sun god
(Surya). Among other ideas,
Zoroastrianism is the first
monotheistic religion that
emphasizes broad concepts such as
the corresponding work of good
and evil in the world, and the
connection of humans to nature.
Zoroastrian practices were
dominant for much of the history of
ancient Persia (modern day Iran &
Western Afghanistan

Nowruz is believed to have been
invented by Zoroaster himself in
Balkh (modern-day Afghanistan),
although there is no clear date of
origin. Since the Achaemenid era
the official year has begun with the
New Day when the Sun leaves the
zodiac of Pisces and enters the
zodiacal sign of Aries, signifying the
Spring Equinox. Nowruz is also a
holy day for Sufi Muslims,
Bektashis, Ismailis, Alawites,Alevis,
Babis and adherents of the Bahá'í
Faith.
The term Nowruz in writing first
appeared in historical Persian
records in the 2nd century CE, but
it was also an important day during
the time of the Achaemenids (c.
550–330 BCE), where kings from
different nations under the Persian
Empire used to bring gifts to the
Emperor, also called King of Kings
(Shahanshah), of Persia on Nowruz.
The significance of Nowruz in the
Achaemenid Empire was such that
the great Persian king
Cambyses II's appointment as the
king of Babylon was legitimized
only after his participation in the
New Year festival
History and tradition
The celebration has its roots in
Ancient Iran. Due to its antiquity,
there exist various foundation
myths for Nowruz in Iranian
mythology. In the Zoroastrian
tradition, the seven most important
Zoroastrian festivals are the
Gahambars and Nowruz, which
occurs at the spring equinox.
According to Mary Boyce,
“It seems a reasonable surmise that
Nowruz, the holiest of them all,
with deep doctrinal significance,
was founded by Zoroaster
himself.Between sunset on the day
of the 6th Gahanbar and sunrise of
Nowruz, Hamaspathmaedaya (later
known, in its extended form, as
Frawardinegan) was celebrated.
This and the Gahanbar are the only
festivals named in the surviving text
of the Avesta.
The Shahnameh dates Nowruz as
far back to the reign of Jamshid,
who in Zoroastrian texts saved
mankind from a killer winter that
was destined to kill every living
creature. The mythical Persian King
Jamshid (Yima or Yama of the Indo-
Iranian lore) perhaps symbolizes
the transition of the Indo-Iranians
from animal hunting to animal
husbandry and a more settled life
in human history

In the Shahnameh and Iranian
mythology, he is credited with the
foundation of Nowruz. In the
Shahnama, Jamshid constructed a
throne studded with gems. He had
demons raise him above the earth
into the heavens; there he sat on
his throne like the sun shining in
the sky. The world's creatures
gathered in wonder about him
and scattered jewels around him,
and called this day the New Day or
No/Now-Ruz.
This was the first day of the month
of Farvardin (the first month of the
Persian calendar).
The Persian scholar Abu Rayhan
Biruni of the 10th century CE,
in his Persian work
"Kitab al-Tafhim li Awa'il Sina'at al-
Tanjim" provides a description of
the calendar of various nations.
Besides
the Persian calendar, various
festivals of Arabs, Jews, Sabians,
Greeks and other nations are
mentioned in this book. In the
section on the Persian calendar ,
he mentions Nowruz, Sadeh,
Tiregan, Mehregan, the six
Gahanbar, Parvardegaan,
Bahmanja, Isfandarmazh and
several other festivals.
According to him: It is the belief of
the Persians that Nowruz marks the
first day when the universe started
its motion.The Persian historian
Abu Saʿīd Gardēzī in his work titled
Zayn al-Akhbār under the section of
the Zoroastrians festivals mentions
Nowruz (among other festivals) and
specifically points out that
Zoroaster highly emphasized the
celebration of Nowruz and
Mehregan.
History
Nowruz in Persia
Persepolis all nations staircase.
Notice the people from across the
Achaemenid Persian Empire
bringing gifts. Some scholars have
associated the occasion to be
either Mehregan or Nowruz.
Shah Tahmasp I and Humayun
celebrating Nowvruz festival, 16th
century, Isfahan, Persia
Although it is not clear whether
proto-Indo-Iranians celebrated a
feast as the first day of the
calendar, there are indications that
both Iranians and Indians may have
observed the beginning of both
autumn and spring, related to the
harvest and the sowing of seeds,
respectively, for the celebration of
new year.

Boyce and Grenet explain the
traditions for seasonal festivals
and comment: "It is possible that
the splendor of the Babylonian
festivities at this season led the
Persians to develop their own
spring festival into an established
new year feast, with the name
Navasarda 'New Year' (a name
which, though first attested
through Middle Persian
derivatives, is attributed to the
Achaemenian period). Since the
communal observations of the
ancient Iranians appear in general
to have been a seasonal ones, and
related to agriculture, it is
probable, that they traditionally
held festivals in both autumn and
spring, to mark the major turning
points of the natural year".
We have reasons to believe that
the celebration is much older than
that date and was surely
celebrated by the people and
royalty during the Achaemenid
times (555–330 BC). It was,
therefore, a highly auspicious
occasion for the ancient Iranian
peoples. It has been suggested
that the famous Persepolis
complex, or at least the palace of
Apadana and the Hundred Columns
Hall,
were built for the specific purpose
of celebrating Nowruz. Although
there may be no mention of
Nowruz in recorded Achaemenid
inscriptions (see picture),there is a
detailed account by Xenophon of a
Nowruz celebration taking place in
Persepolis and the continuity of this
festival in the Achaemenid
tradition.in 539 BC the Jews came
under Persian rule thus exposing
both groups to each other's
customs. According to
Encyclopædia Britannica, the story
of Purim as told in the Book of
Esther is adapted from a Persian
novella about the shrewdness of
harem queens suggesting that
Purim may be a transformation of
the Persian New Year. A specific
novella is not identified and
Encyclopædia Britannica itself
notes that "no Jewish texts of this
genre from the Persian period are
extant, so these new elements can
be recognized only inferentially".
The Encyclopaedia of Religion and
Ethics notes that the Purim holiday
is based on a lunar calendar while
Nowruz occurs at the spring
equinox (solar calendar).

The two holidays are therefore
celebrated on different dates but
within a few weeks of each other,
depending on the year. Both
holidays are joyous celebrations.
Given their temporal associations,
it is possible that the Jews and
Persians of the time may have
shared or adopted similar customs
for these holidays. The story of
Purim as told in the Book of Esther
has been dated anywhere from
625–465 BC (although the story
takes place with the Jews under
the rule of the Achaemenid
Empire and the Jews had come
under Persian rule in 539 BC),
while Nowruz is thought to have
first been celebrated between
555–330 BC. It remains unclear
which holiday was established
first.
Nowruz was the holiday of
Arsacid/Parthian dynastic Empires
who ruled Iran (248 BC-224 CE)
and the other areas ruled by the
Arsacid dynasties outside Parthia
(such as the Arsacid dynasty of
Armenia and Iberia). There are
specific references to the
celebration of Nowruz during the
reign of Vologases I (51–78 CE), but
these include no details.Before
Sassanids established their power
in West Asia around 300 CE,
Parthians celebrated Nowruz in
Autumn and 1st of Farvardin began
at the Autumn Equinox. During
Parthian dynasty the Spring Festival
was Mehragan, a Zoroastrian and
Iranian festival celebrated in honor
of Mithra.
Extensive records on the
celebration of Nowruz appear
following the accession of Ardashir
I of Persia, the founder of the
Sassanid dynasty (224–651 CE).
Under the Sassanid Emperors,
Nowruz was celebrated as the most
important day of the year. Most
royal traditions of Nowruz such as
royal audiences with the public,
cash gifts, and the pardoning of
prisoners, were established during
the Sassanian era and persisted
unchanged until modern times.
Nowruz, along with Sadeh
(celebrated in mid-winter), survived
in society following the
introduction of Islam in 650 CE.
Other celebrations such Gahanbar
and Mehragan were eventually
side-lined or were only followed by
the Zoroastrians, who carried them.
It was adopted as the main royal
holiday during the Abbasid period.

In the book Nowruznama
("Book of the New Year", which is
attributed to Omar Khayyam,
a well known Persian poet and
mathematician),
a vivid description of the
celebration in the courts of the
Kings of Persia is provided:
“From the era of Kai Khusraw till
the days of Yazdegard, last of the
pre-Islamic kings of Persia, the
royal custom was thus: on the
first day of the New Year,
Now Ruz, the King's first visitor
was the High Mobad of the
Zoroastrians, who brought with
him as gifts a golden goblet full of
wine, a ring, some gold coins, a
fistful of green sprigs of wheat, a
sword, and a bow. In the language
of Persia he would then glorify God
and praise the monarch. This was
the address of the High Mobad to
the king : "O Majesty, on this feast
of the Equinox, first day of the first
month of the year, seeing that thou
hast freely chosen God and the
Faith of the Ancient ones; may
Surush, the Angel-messenger,
grant thee wisdom and insight
and sagacity in thy affairs.
Live long in praise, be happy and
fortunate upon thy golden throne,
drink immortality from the Cup of
Jamshid; and keep in solemn trust
the customs of our ancestors, their
noble aspirations, fair gestures and
the exercise of justice and
righteousness. May thy soul
flourish; may thy youth be as the
new-grown grain; may thy horse be
puissant, victorious; thy sword
bright and deadly against foes; thy
hawk swift against its prey; thy
every act straight as the arrow's
shaft. Go forth from thy rich
throne, conquer new lands. Honor
the craftsman and the sage in equal
degree; disdain the acquisition of
wealth. May thy house prosper and
thy life be long!"
Following the demise of the
Caliphate and the subsequent re-
emergence of Persian dynasties
such as the Samanids and Buyids,
Nowruz was elevated to an even
more important event. The Buyids
revived the ancient traditions of
Sassanian times and restored many
smaller celebrations that had been
eliminated by the Caliphate.
According to the Syrian historian
Yaqut al-Hamawi, the Iranian Buyid
ruler ʿAżod-od-Dawla (r. 949-83)
customarily welcomed Nowruz in a
majestic hall,

wherein servants had placed gold and silver plates and vases full of fruit
and colorful flowers.The King would sit on the royal throne (masnad),
and the court astronomer came forward, kissed the ground, and
congratulated him on the arrival of the New Year. The king would then
summon
musicians and singers, and invited his boon companions. They would
gather in their assigned places and enjoy a great festive occasion.
Even the Turkic and Mongol invaders did not attempt to abolish Nowruz
in favor of any other celebration. Thus, Nowruz remained as the main
celebration in the Persian lands by both the officials and the people.

Dr. Reza Khodadadi
born Ardabil,lives and works in
Tehran. Iranian contemporary
artist, Academic, painter, sculptor,
Urban artist & Muralist Ph.d in Art
Reseauch and Professor of Art,
was born in 1961, Ardabil, Iran.
Faculty member of Tehran
University of Art.
Author of "Mural techniques"
book.
Author of eight books in the field
of Public art and murals Entitled
"Rules and Regulations Urban
Beautification".
Authored several articles and
essays.
Project study “ Murals of Tehran:
musts and musts no
Painting
Perplexity by Lines
The Works of Reza Khodadadi
present various of aspects of
assembling patterns and shapes
alongside each other in mixed
media. Continuity and colored
material play an integral part in
his art. His love for Rumi′s poetic
narrative to his paintings. in series
'Heyrani'(Perplexity) the viewers
face an abstract work which allows
them to make a literal 'Reading' of
visual expression.
The Perplexity series is Created
with carefully drawn overlapping
lines. These lines stand out in the
background even though they are
at times diluted, and their
resemblance to straw and hay gives
the painting the feel of a landscape.
These landscapes seem distant
from eastern landscapes yet during
his creative process Khodadadi
distances his work from these
familiar scenes. The over-stacking
and criss- crossing of lines confer
on the painting a feeling of pattern.
Straight lines begin to curl and give
a feel of wind and dishevelment
that can be fathomed as
tantamount to perplexity or
bewilderment. The Contrasting
lines play an integral part in the
aesthetics of this painting while the
colors are form the same group
(unless used for background
spacing). Line segments are the
simplest of visual ingredients yet
the artist,

Through detailed stacking and
shading, has turned them into
patterns.A sort of optical illusion is
produced by this stacking that
concentrates how they are viewed.
This can clearly be seen in the
works of Victor Vasarely (1906-
1997) and Bridget Riley (b.1931)
whose works stress
the relationship of form and
narrative. In fact Khodadadi
endeavors to portray these
accomplishments of modern
painting on a few level in his
work. The envisioning of either a
waxing or waning process while
looking at the
Perplexity(Bewildered) series
is an example of this artifice. The
relief-type textures Khodadadi
also adhere to the amassing
of one form and its
transformations. By changing
integral aspects
of shapes, patterns and patina he
creates diversity within the
redundant rhythm of shapes. The
painting of Khodadadi′s 'Perplexity'
series focus on the flow of a
landscape and its transformation to
patterns and on how a chaotic
atmosphere and immense and
graduated space can be reproduced
on canvas or vice versa.It is as if
perspective appears and disappears
through the brushing aside of the
fields of straw. Simultaneously
these are simply works of art with
visual elements that under their
own layers find connections to
literary subjects.
Exhibitions
Several solo exhibitions in :Golestan
Gallery, Barg Gallery, Haft Samar
Gallery, Mah Art Gallery,Hoor Art
Gallery and Boom art
Gallery.Participation in the
collective exhibition of more than
140 domestic and foreign

Alfred Basbous
Born in Rachana in1924, three
years following the birth of his
brother Michael, Alfred Basbous
spent a peripatetic childhood: In a
family that has constantly to move,
according to the mission of the
father, who was a parish priest.
The Basbous family regularly
returned to Rachana, their home
village, their indelible mark.
As a child, Alfred Basbous was
impressed by the feather reed
used by his father to illustrate the
Bible. Later, Michael proposed to
his teenage brother to help him
polishing the stone sculptures
and working on the hardest
stone blocks. This was the
first step towards sculpturing.
Alfred Basbous did not last long in
the company of British Railways
where he worked as a mason. By
the late 1950s, he began carving
works in wood, metal and stone,
he first started up reproducing
animals - poultry, rabbits, reptiles -
and nude females. Encouraged by
Michel, Alfred exhibited in Beirut,
at Alecco Saab gallery in 1958; this
exhibition has shown a success and
introduced him into the world of
sculpture.
In 1960, he received a scholarship
from the French government and
became a pupil of the sculptor
René Collamarini at "The National
Fine Arts School in Paris" (L'Ecole
Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris).
In 1961, his works included the
International Sculpture Exhibition
at the Musée Rodin, in Paris.
Upon returning home, Alfred
Basbous noticed his career
exploding. He chose to settle in the
village of Rachana that his brother
was planning to rehabilitate. If one
draws its inspiration from the
modernism of Auguste Rodin,
Henry Moore and Jean Arp, Alfred
became impregnated with the
nature of Lebanon and was
passionate in the forms of the
human body, especially the
feminine curves.

The following years, he acquired an international reputation, and
collaborated in international exhibitions:
1961 - Superior National School Of Fine Arts, Paris.
1961 - Rodin Museum, Paris.
1971 -Halles Gallery, Paris. The three brothers displayed 101
sculptures.
Open air exhibitions in Faubourg of Saint Honoré, Paris.
1974 -Collamarini workshop at Rodin Museum in Paris.
- Biennial of Alexandria, Egypt.
- UENO Museum, royal museum in the city of Tokyo, Japan.
1982 -"Decoline" Gallery, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
1988 -Kuwait Hilton International Hotel, Kuwait.
-"Platform International" Gallery, Washington,
United States.
1993 -"Shroder & Asseili" Gardens, London, England.
1994 -The "Ashmoleum" museum in Oxford-England
appropriated a sculpture of Alfred which is on permanent display.
1998 -Abu Dhabi Cultural Center, Emirates
Dubai Cultural Center, Emirates
Oman Gallery, Oman.
Throughout his life, Alfred won many awards including the "Prix de
l'Orient" in Beirut in 1963 and the price of Biennale in Alexandria in
1974.

In 1977, he got married to Marie
Abi Saab with whom he has two
children, Fadi and Zeina.
Several galleries in his native
country organized solo exhibitions
of his works, which include:
"Salle du Quotidien l'Orient"
(1962), Gallery One (1963),
Excelsior Hotel (1965), Phoenicia
Gallery (1966), Amateur Gallery
(1967), gardens of the Modern
institute in Fanar (1967), Excelsior
Hotel (1970), Contact Gallery
(1972), Damo Gallery (1979),
Gallery One (1982), gardens of
Halate Sur Mer (1984), ELCIR
Gallery (1984), Rimal La Toile
Gallery (1985), SNA Tabaris (1996),
Surface Libre Gallery (2005).
The monumental works of Alfred
Basbous are present in the public
areas of Beirut and many
Lebanese cities, acquired by
municipalities and private projects,
such as the Municipality of Zahle,
the Municipality of Rayfoun, the
Port of Beirut, Jdeit el Metn,
Tabarja Beach, "House of the
Future", the Municipality of
Antelias, the Municipality of Zouk
Mkayel, gardens of Halate Sur Mer,
the Municipality of Tannourine.
When his brother Michel passed
away in 1981, Alfred Basbous
collaborated with his younger
brother Youssef to promote
Rachana and cultivate the family
heritage.
From 1994 to 2004, Alfred
organized the International
Symposium of Sculpture in
Rachana, where famous sculptors
from around the world were invited
to create, sculpt and exhibit their
works with those of Basbous, at the
sight of tourists and art lovers.
In 1994 he was awarded the
"Medal of the National Order of
Cedar, order of Knight" by the
President of the Lebanese Republic.

In 1998, he founded and chaired the "International Sculpture Park of
Rachana" which included 72 sculptures by artists who participated in
the Symposium of Rachana.
In 2004, the President of the Lebanese Republic decorated him with the
"National Medal of the Order of the Cedar, Officer Order ‫ط‬."
When he died in 2006, the President of the Lebanese Republic, in order
to honor him, awarded him the "Medal of the Lebanese Order of Merit
in Gold."
The works of Alfred Basbous are part of the permanent family
exhibition in Rachana, Lebanon, like those of Michael and Joseph
Babous.

Marcos Grigorian
December 5, 1925 – August 27,
2007 was a notable Iranian-
Armenian artist
and a pioneer of Iranian modern
art.
Biography
Grigorian was born in Kropotkin,
Russia, to an Armenian family
from Kars who had fled that city
to escape massacres when it was
captured by Turkey in 1920.
In 1930 the family moved from
Kropotkin to Iran, living first in
Tabriz, and then in Tehran. After
finishing pre-university
education in Iran, in 1950 he
studied at the Accademia di Belle
Arti in Rome. Graduating from
there in 1954, he returned to Iran,
opened the Galerie Esthétique, an
important commercial gallery in
Tehran. In 1958, under the
auspices of the Ministry of Culture,
he organized the first Tehran
Biennial. Grigorian was also an
influential teacher at the Fine Arts
Academy, where he disseminated
his enthusiasm for local popular
culture, including coffee-house
paintings, a type of folk art named
after the locations in which they
were often displayed.
He lived in the 1960s in the United
States first moving in 1962 to New
York City, and then moved to
Minneapolis to work at Minnetonka
Center for the Arts. In Minneapolis
he started Universal Galleries which
became an influential center for
Iranian art in Minneapolis, and it
existed at the same time along with
a quickly growing Modern Iranian
art collection that could be found at
artist Abby Weed Grey's home.Grey
went on to later become an art
dealer and gallerist and specialized
in Modern Iranian art with her large
collection and influencing many
artists.
In 1975 Grigorian helped organize
the group of free painters and
sculptors in Tehran and was one of
its founder members. Artists
Gholamhossein Nami, Massoud
Arabshahi, Morteza Momayez, Mir
Abdolrez Daryabeigi, and Faramarz
Pilaram were amongst the other
members of the group. As a
modernist pop artist Marcos
Grigorian turned to ordinary
objects and popular ethnic forms
and approaches.

He used ethnic food such as "Nan
Sangak" and "Abghousht"
to evoke authenticity in his work.
Grigorian was a trend setter in
experimenting with Earth Art, in
Iran.
Grigorian eventually moved to
Yerevan, Armenia
(which was then still a republic of
the Soviet Union). In 1989, he
traveled to Russia at the invitation
of the Union of Russian Artists,
visiting Moscow and Leningrad.
He exhibited his clay and straw
works in Yerevan in 1991. He later
donated 5,000 of his artworks to
the government of Armenia. In
1993 he founded the "Museum of
the Middle East" in Yerevan: 2,600
exhibits are on display,
with most of them coming from
his own collection.
Some of his works are now on
display at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York City, the Tehran
Museum of Contemporary Art, the
Museum of Contemporary Art in
Kerman, and the National Gallery of
Armenia.
On 4 August 2007 Grigorian was
assaulted and beaten about the
head by two masked robbers who
had broken into his Yerevan home.
It was speculated that the robbers
believed, erroneously, that there
was a large sum of money in the
house, proceeds from the sale of
Grigorian's summer residence in
Garni. After an anonymous phone
call to police, Grigorian was
discovered injured and taken to
hospital. He died of a suspected
heart attack on 27 August 2007, a
day after leaving the hospital

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