Timeless

In the 1960s, a significant movement emerged in the realm of artistic theory and critique—one that brought renewed attention to two major terms amid a sea of artistic concepts: figurative painting and abstract painting. Fueled in part by the cultural Cold War between the Eastern and Western blocs, this dichotomy quickly became a global discourse. The confrontation between these two artistic modes, which began in that period, has continued into the postmodern era and persists to this day. Many contemporary painters still reflect, in one way or another, the influence of this ideological and aesthetic divide. Asghar Aharipour consciously chose his path within this dynamic artistic landscape. In the ongoing encounter between abstraction and figuration, he embraced the latter, establishing himself as a key figure in narrative figurative painting in Iran. Art, in its essence, is a subjective phenomenon that finds expression in tangible form. The people, flowers, and figures seen in Aharipour's works are not literal representations of the external world but manifestations of his creative mind. None of the portraits or bodies he paints are based on live models or photographic references. Rather, his deep understanding of human anatomy and the structural forms of plants (flowers, trees, etc.) gives him a rare ability to depict his subjects from imagination. This capability places him among the few artists capable of generating such imagery deeply rooted in his personal world: a realm entirely customized and distinct from others. Born in 1953 in Tabriz, Aharipour comes from a family of creatives. He graduated from the School of Fine Arts in 1971 and was later admitted to the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran. He is regarded as one of Iran’s contemporary narrative figurative painters. In the world of painting, there are two kinds of “signatures.” The first is the literal signature placed at the bottom of a finished artwork, often accompanied by a date. But the second is far more vital: it is the invisible signature—the overall atmosphere of the piece, the artist’s vision, his inner mood, and personal lens. Aharipour’s works bear both of these signatures, though one could argue that the second—the intangible one—is far more present and identifiable in his art

Seroj Barseghian July 2025