Mansooreh Hosseini (

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 ...

: منصوره حسینی; born 1 September 1926 – 13 June 2012) was an Iranian

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from approximately 1945 to the present. Contemporary history is either a subset of the late modern period, or it is o ...

artist and one of the pioneers of the country’s modern art.

Life

At a young age, it was discovered that she had a talent for drawing, which compelled her

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

to hire a painting tutor to help her work to her potential. Later on, she was educated at the

University of Tehran The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...

in the Faculty of Fine Arts, from which she graduated in 1949. Mansooreh left

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 ...

in the early 1950s to live in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, where she furthered her education at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts leading up to her artistic début at the 28th (XXVIII)

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 1956. After a moderately successful period in Italy, Mansooreh returned to Iran in 1959 and won several awards in the Tehran Painting Biennial. In 2004 she exhibited at the

Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, (Persian: موزه هنرهای معاصر تهران), also known as TMoCA, is among the largest art museums in Tehran and Iran. It has collections of more than 3,000 items that include 19th and 20th century ...

Styles

Mansooreh is known for having produced works in both figurative and abstract styles. Her works have often included elements of

Kufic Kufic script () is a style of Arabic script that gained prominence early on as a preferred script for Quran transcription and architectural decoration, and it has since become a reference and an archetype for a number of other Arabic scripts. It ...

script. She is known, along with

Behjat Sadr Behjat Sadr ( fa, بهجت صدر, 29 May 1924 – 11 August 2009), also known as Behjat Sadr Mahallāti, was an Iranian modern art painter whose works have been exhibited in New York, Paris, and Rome. Sadr is known for her paintings that utilizi ...

, to use traditional elements of both the Persian culture and that of contemporary Europeans. She is considered to be an experimentalist. She is a Permanent Member of Islamic Republic of Iran's Academy of Arts.

Writer

Mansooreh also wrote many art reviews in various Iranian media. In her critiques she was unbiased, informative, and analytic. For example, in her article ''Why exhibitions have no viewers?'' (reviewing

Guity Novin Guity Novin (''née'' Navran; born 1944) is an Iranian-born Canadian artist, known as a figurative painter and graphic designer. She classifies her work as "transpressionism" (trans- and impressionism), a term coined by Novin in the 1990s. Her ...

's exhibition ''Expression of Silence''), published in

Kayhan ''Kayhan'' ( fa, کيهان, '' en, The Cosmos'') is a newspaper published in Tehran, Iran. It is considered "the most conservative Iranian newspaper." Hossein Shariatmadari is the editor-in-chief of ''Kayhan''. According to the report of the '' ...

in November, 1971, she observed that Iranian intelligentsia ignored important exhibitions such as the recently held exhibition of

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

in the

National Museum of Iran The National Museum of Iran ( fa, موزهٔ ملی ایران ) is located in Tehran, Iran. It is an institution formed of two complexes; the Museum of Ancient Iran and the Museum of Islamic Archaeology and Art of Iran, which were opened in 1937 ...

. She wrote:

''A friend who was just back from Europe was asking me "what’s the matter? Is it possible to see the original works by Henry Moore? This is the event of the century. We have to plan in advance for visiting such an exhibition, we have to be checked by electronic cameras, and security gourds that protect such treasures, etc." and yet when I asked an icon of the Iranian modern poetry in the theatre of museum that "have you visited Henry Moore’s sculptures?" He replied "those torsos? ..yeh, but I thought they are your works?''"

Then she moved to her critique of Novin’s work:''"Expression of Silence, was a poetic designation for Guity’s exhibition in the Negar Galley."'' She concluded the article with her verdict:

''There was a consistency in her selection of subjects -- a testament to perspicacious and enlightened character of the artist. The choice of colours, selection of gradation of hue, which explicitly used more-or-less the same tonality in all the works, revealed the story of artist’s unfaltering and inquisitive mind.''Hosseini, Mansooreh (1971
"Why do exhibitions have no viewers?"
''Kayhan'', November 1971, fro
www.guitynovin.com
- click "articles", then "news publications (scanned"). Retrieved 10 January 2007.

Death

Mansooreh Hosseini's body was found in her home by neighbours on 28 June 2012, 15 days after her death. She was 86 years old. Earlier in 2012 she was moved to hospital due to her heart disease and age.

Notes and references

External links