TEHRAN – Expressionist Habibollah Sadeqi, who was best known for his paintings on the Islamic Revolution and the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, has become the topic of a documentary.

Mohammad-Saleh Hojjatoleslami is the director of the as-yet-untitled film, the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization announced on Sunday.   

About 20 artists and cultural figures appear in the documentary, talking about Sadeqi, who died of heart failure in July at the age of 65.

The film will premiere in the upcoming edition of Cinéma Vérité, Iran’s major international festival of documentary films, which will take place in Tehran in December.

Sadeqi was a member of the Iranian Academy of Arts and the Visual Arts Office of the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.

He also served as the director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) from 2003 to 2008.
 
Sadeqi started painting at eight and then was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Tehran. He studied painting in the Fine Art Faculty at the University of Tehran.

Continuing his academic education he obtained a Ph.D. in art at Tarbiat Modarres University.

He also carried out several research projects on different topics such as “An Analysis of Forms, Images and Colors in the Holy Quran” and “Images of Humans in the Mirror of Art after the Advent of Islam in Iran”. 

His works have been showcased in over 100 solo and group exhibitions in Iran and have received great critical acclaim. 

One of his solo exhibits entitled “Piece of Paradise” was organized at Tehran’s Sareban Gallery in January 2012.

He said that the collection was the product of 15 years of study and 5 years of constant work.

“The beauty revealed in the artworks is inspired by the beauties hidden in every individual around me; it is as if their love and affection is lying on the canvas,” he said in his statement for the exhibition.

“I have examined the relationship of people with the beauty of nature in this paradise, and I believe that, despite the complications and cruelty that exist in the world, people’s behavior can make it beautiful,” he said.

In his latest painting project, “A Requiem for the Manifestation of Simorgh”, done at the Khial Gallery of the Saba Art and Cultural Institute, Sadeqi paid a tribute to General Qassem Soleimani.

He said that the project narrates the concepts derived from the resistance, bravery and martyrdom of the commander.  

Photo: A picture of Habibollah Sadeqi is seen during a memorial for the artist at the Art Bureau in Tehran on August 1, 2022. (AB/Mohsen Seyyedi)

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