TEHRAN – A group of young artists has accused filmmaker Tahmiand Milani of plagiarism by copying from Russian illustrator Jenny Meilihove’s works for her first painting exhibition.

In posts published in social networks, they asked their followers to compare Meilihove’s artworks and Milani’s works currently on display at Tehran’s E1 Gallery.

In a statement published last week, Milani, the director of acclaimed movies “Ceasefire” and “Two Women”, announced her exhibition of paintings that she said are from the stories she failed to turn into films. She named her collection “The Films I Never Made”.

Art critics and young artists have said that Milani has abused her position as a renowned filmmaker to draw people to her exhibition of paintings, which they view as inept.

The artists and critics attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Friday, holding copies of artworks by prominent Iranian artists such as Mohsen Vaziri-Moqaddam and Bahman Mohasses. They asked the visitors to go the exhibitions displaying works by real artists.

Meanwhile, a group of artists has also asked their professional colleagues to boycott galleries such as E1 for organizing similar exhibitions.

Speaking to the Persian service of MNA, painter Saeid Fallahfar addressed the director of E1 Gallery and said, “Should we view the exhibition as the level of your knowledge about art or have you been lured into organizing the exhibition by fame and money?”

He also asked Milani to respect professional artists and not to tarnish her professional reputation by organizing such an exhibition. 

“Each painting has a story,” Milani said earlier about her paintings and added, “Since I’m a storytelling filmmaker, I used different methods and techniques to depict the story of each painting.”

However, she noted, “My paintings represent no specific technique or method, they go their own ways, but they come from a single soul, my soul, why not?”

Photo: This combination photo published on Iranian social networks shows paintings by Iranian artist Tahmiand Milani (above) and Russian illustrator Jenny Meilihove.

MMS/YAW