TEHRAN – A museum was inaugurated in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on Sunday to house artworks by the 76-year-old Iranian Azarbaijani sculptor and painter, Ahad Hosseini.

The museum, also known as Heidar Baba Art Center, has been built by the Municipality of Tabriz. The center is located in the Maqbarat al-Shoara Complex.

The artworks were previously preserved at the Azarbaijan Museum in Tabriz, which is the capital of East Azarbaijan.

“Tabriz has always been a home to many great artists and outstanding cultural figures, and the management of the city has always regarded the artists and figures,” Tabriz Mayor Iraj Shahin-Baher said earlier.

Born in Tabriz, Hosseini worked as a teacher-soldier during his military service in a small mountain village located on the Caspian coast. A sense of loneliness in this remote village drove him to find his talent in sculpture. 

His first works of sculpture were of Einstein, Bertrand Russell, Beethoven and several other world-renowned figures. He then worked for a short period at the atelier of prominent Iranian sculptor Parviz Tanavoli in Tehran.

He left Iranian for Italy in 1972 to study art at the Accademia di Belle Arti (Academy of Fine Arts) of Florence.

After returning to his hometown, he concentrated upon his work and created 12 sculptures he called “Misery Around the World”, which he presented to the Azarbaijan Museum. The works are made of bronze and consist of different depictions of human misery.

He then chose to live in Turkey, making some sculptures for Istanbul University. His work “Thinking Man” has been set up at the Faculty of Political Sciences at Istanbul University.

From 1984 until 1990, Hosseini studied and worked at the (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs) (School of Decorative Arts) in Paris.

His works have been showcased in many major cultural centers in France.

Photo: Art aficionados visit the Ahad Hosseini Museum during the hours after its inauguration in the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz on March 14, 2021. (ISNA/Maryam Ebrahimi) 

MMS/YAW