Hossein Nuri (also written Hosein Noori or Hussein Nouri) (
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
: حسین نوری, born
1 July
July is the seventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the fourth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., it being the mont ...
1954
Events
January
* January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany.
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...
) is an Iranian
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
,
playwright
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
and
film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
. One of Nuri's pre-eminent characteristics is that despite his physical limitations he has gained professional acclaim in three fields of painting, theater, and cinema.
Early life
Hossein Nuri was born on the first of July 1954 in
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. He lost his father at the age of three and, despite all the difficulties, her mother raised him along with his brother who was a year older than him. He showed interest in painting at elementary school. After finishing elementary school in
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, he gained a scholarship to continue studies at Farah Industrial School in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
Torture and disability
Farah Industrial School was deeply monitored by
SAVAK
SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prime ...
, Iran's pre-revolution secret service. In 1972, Nuri wrote a play which was a political satire criticizing the system and defending the human rights. Minutes after the play was staged, it was interrupted by military forces present at the school. Nuri was tortured severely and after a series of harsh tortures, he lost the ability of moving hands and legs and his internal health started to deteriorate. He was sent to hospital as he was still under control. Finally as the result of fatal damages to Nuri's body,
SAVAK
SAVAK ( fa, ساواک, abbreviation for ''Sâzemân-e Ettelâ'ât va Amniat-e Kešvar'', ) was the secret police, domestic security and intelligence service in Iran during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty. SAVAK operated from 1957 until prime ...
reduced its control and he came back to his family who were then residing at
Torbat-e Jam
Torbat-e Jawm ( fa, تربت جام, Torbat-e Jām; also known as Torbat-e Sheykh Jām and Turbat-i-Shaikh Jam) is a city and capital of Torbat-e Jam County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 100,449. Torb ...
. Nuri continued painting by holding the brush with his mouth and uses a wheelchair.
Marriage
After the revolution, Nuri again decided to write plays and staged them in different cities. In a speech he made for the students of
Sharif University of Technology
Sharif University of Technology (SUT; fa, دانشگاه صنعتی شریف) is a public research university in Tehran, Iran. It is widely considered as the nation's most prestigious and leading institution for science, technology, engineering ...
,
Nadia Maftouni
Nadia Maftouni ( fa, نادیا مفتونی, born 14 January 1966) is an Iranian academic, philosophical author and artist. She is best known as a leading Researcher on Farabian, Avicennian and Suhrawardian philosophy with her modern reading ...
, who was a student of
Applied physics
Applied physics is the application of physics to solve scientific or engineering problems. It is usually considered to be a bridge or a connection between physics and engineering.
"Applied" is distinguished from "pure" by a subtle combination ...
, fell in love with Nuri and proposed to him. Nuri accepted and she left her studies to live with Nuri in
Torbat-e Jam
Torbat-e Jawm ( fa, تربت جام, Torbat-e Jām; also known as Torbat-e Sheykh Jām and Turbat-i-Shaikh Jam) is a city and capital of Torbat-e Jam County, in Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 100,449. Torb ...
. They have two sons; Abolfazl Nuri and Mahmoud Nuri. Later, they moved to
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, and afterwards to
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
.
Painting style
In 2004, Nuri introduced his new style of painting in an exhibition he held in Paris. It was based on the painter's intention to create a certain design out of an abstract process. The outcome was a combination of improvisation and calculated design. French painters suggested the name "Reflection" (Réflexion) for the style, which Nuri approved. Nuri does this process with materials such as oil-color and acrylic on large canvas and particularly the large scale of his works is one of his contributions to abstract painting. The use of bright colors and recurrence of butterflies are other characteristics of his style.
Theatrical career
![Hossein Nuri Theater](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c3/Hossein_Nuri_Theater.jpg)
Nuri's theatrical career was revived after the revolution and it wasn't ever secondary to his painting career. In the 80s and 90s He wrote and staged several award-winning plays including ''The Purgatory Stop'' (1981), ''The Crimson Robe'' (1982), ''The Last Festival'' (1983), ''The Circus'' (1985), ''Companion'' (1990), ''Beloved'' (1991), ''Intuition'' (1994), and ''The Seeker'' (1996). As an established character in Iranian theater history, a theater in city of
Mashhad
Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, which is one of Iran's theatrical poles, was named after him as ''
Ustad
Ustād or ostād (abbreviated as Ust., Ut. or Ud.; from Persian language, Persian ) is an honorific title used in West Asia, North Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is used in various languages such as Persian language, Persian, , Azerbai ...
Hossein Nuri Theater''.
Television and cinema
Nuri directed several documentaries and television programs in the 80s and 90s. In early 2000s he directed some of his plays for television including ''The Last Festival'', ''The Circus'', ''Beloved'', ''Intuition'', and ''The Seeker''. He was co-writer of the
Saint Mary project of which a movie version was primarily released in theaters in 2000 and later the extended TV version was televised on multiple global networks and became a hit.
In 2019 Nuri wrote and directed the feature film ''
My Arms Flew
Hossein Nuri (also written Hosein Noori or Hussein Nouri) (Persian: حسین نوری, born 1 July 1954) is an Iranian painter, playwright and film director. One of Nuri's pre-eminent characteristics is that despite his physical limitations ...
'' which was based on some actual events in his life. The film was screened and awarded in festivals and events in Iran, India, Germany, Italy, US, and Canada. After the screening of the film at
Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...
of Canada,
Patricia Gruben
Patricia Gruben is an American born filmmaker who taught film studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada until 2018.Ed. Kuhn, Annette; Radstone, Susannah. (1990). "Patricia Gruben." In ''The'' Women's Companion to Internationa ...
said: "I saw many things the second time that I had not understood on first viewing. The way it works with narrative is fascinating. I very much liked the visual construction of
mise-en-abyme, where an image is inside another image, as with the dirt-bike footage and the cats in the window, and the paintings themselves. Also the dialectic between anger and spiritual beauty — the anger expressed in those violent paintings and suggested in the struggle to get off the floor, and in the brief cruelty of the cat against her kitten. And yet the ethereal beauty of the paintings, and of both Hossein and Nadia's faces, transcends that violence. It's really a wonderful film, and beautifully shot."
Tributes
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...
mentioned Nuri in the final part of an academic talk with
Nadia Maftouni
Nadia Maftouni ( fa, نادیا مفتونی, born 14 January 1966) is an Iranian academic, philosophical author and artist. She is best known as a leading Researcher on Farabian, Avicennian and Suhrawardian philosophy with her modern reading ...
. As he was close to tears he said: "And incidentally, I know this will appear very low, but I mean it so sincerely... It made me cry when I read about this. Listen Nadia! Sincerely all the best to your husband."
Ian Linden, Professor of Religious Studies at
SOAS
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...
who teaches on Christian-Muslim relations, recounts a story from his time in
Tehran
Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
: "When there was a demonstration in front of the Danish Embassy in protest against the cartoons negatively caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad, an artist, who had lost the use of both arms, had managed while holding the paint brush in his teeth, to create a beautiful painting of Mary. He displayed the image and asked a question: This is our faith. What is yours?"
See also
*
Persian Art
Persian art or Iranian art () has one of the richest art heritages in world history and has been strong in many media including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and sculpture. At different times, influences f ...
*
Cinema of Iran
The Cinema of Iran (Persian: سینمای ایران), also known as the Cinema of Persia, refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame a ...
*
List of Iranian artists
The following list of Iranian artists (in alphabetical order by last name) includes artists of various genres, who are notable and are either born in Iran, of Iranian descent or who produce works that are primarily about Iran.
Cinema artists
Ac ...
*
List of Iranian film directors
This is a list of Iranian film directors representing various genres and periods of Iranian cinema.
A
* Narges Abyar
*Saber Abar
* Ali Abbasi
* Mostafa Abdollahi
* Mohammad Ahmadi
* Mania Akbari
* Shahram Alidi
* Reza Allamehzadeh
* Cyrus ...
*
Islamic Art
Islamic art is a part of Islamic culture and encompasses the visual arts produced since the 7th century CE by people who lived within territories inhabited or ruled by Muslim populations. Referring to characteristic traditions across a wide ra ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuri, Hossein
1954 births
Living people
Iranian painters
Contemporary painters
People from Mashhad
Iranian theatre directors
Iranian contemporary artists
Iranian documentary filmmakers
Iranian film directors
Iranian screenwriters
People from Tehran
Persian-language film directors