TEHRAN – The Iranian House of Cartoon and Tehran’s CAMA Gallery paid tribute to Kambiz Derambakhsh, a celebrated Iranian cartoonist who died from COVID-19 in November at the age of 79.

His friends and fans came together at the Iranian House of Cartoon on Monday to attend an opening ceremony of an exhibition, which has been organized to commemorate the artist 44 days after his death. 

“Kambiz Derambakhsh was a unique and prolific artist who had numerous positive effects on the cartoon and contemporary art in Iran,” the Iranian House of Cartoon said in a statement for the exhibition.

“He loved peace, and peace and love of people were always represented in the forms and lines of his works. A line was the simplest element, which circulated in the maze of his mind much like the words in the mind of a poet, and he drew his thoughts on white paper which made up his new world,” the statement added.   

The statement referred to quotes from Derambakhsh and said, “Derambakhsh once said, ‘I am seeking to find a global visual language; I want the world to talk in the same language; I hate borders, I love peace, I hate wars, discrimination, injustice and environmental pollution; I think visually, I work visually, therefore many people in the world know my language and that is a great fortune, however, it is not complete as yet; I try again day and night’.”    

The month-long exhibition is showcasing 40 caricatures of Derambakhsh created by 30 cartoonists from Iran and other countries, including Ahmad Arabani, Javad Alizadeh, Hadi Heidari, Bahman Abdi, Ali Radmand, Alireza Pakdel and Bahram Azimi. 

In addition, a number of his cartoons are also on view on the sidelines of the exhibit.

CAMA – Contemporary and Modern Art Gallery is also playing host to an exhibition of Derambakhsh’s cartoons published by magazines and newspapers in the 1960s and 1970s.

A private collector has loaned the collection to the gallery for the show, which opened last Friday.

The cartoon’s themes are the social and political events of the time, CAMA director Mona Khosheqbal said and added that due to this fact each work in the collection is a historical document.  

The exhibition will run until December 28. 

Derambakhsh’s works were published in the world’s major newspapers and magazines such as New York Times and Spiegel. Museums in Tehran, Paris, Basel, Hiroshima, Istanbul, Warsaw and several other cities across the world display his works.

Photo: A caricature of Kambiz Derambakhsh by Ali Radmand.

MMS/YAW