TEHRAN – An artwork by German artist Karl Schlamminger has been donated to the Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex in Tehran.

The artwork entitled in Persian “In Niz Bogzard”, literally means “And So It Goes”, was owned by the Iranian art lovers Masud Kazari, Behruz Ataifard, Mohammad-Taqi Erfanpur and Mehdi Fakhrizadeh.

They donated the artwork to the complex to preserve it in an appropriate location, Niavaran complex director Maryam Jalali said in a press release published on Tuesday.

The complex didn’t publish any picture of the artwork, calling it a calligraphic painting Schlamminger produced about 70 years ago with 288 wooden frames on a piece of goatskin.

After some slight restoration, “In Niz Bogzard” will be showcased in an appropriate place at the complex.  

As a sculptor, graphic designer, architect and painter, Schlamminger was a lover of Iranian culture and mysticism, and had a close acquaintance with Persian script and calligraphy.

He pursued a teaching career in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran from 1968 until 1979, during which many Iranian artists, including Mohammad Ehsai and Mostafa Dashti, achieved mastery.

An abstract sculpture by Schlamminger is decorating the Niavaran Cultural-Historical Complex in its southern corridor. 

Best known for his design of the logo for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, in which the word Allah is repeated eight times in rectangular Kufic script to create an interlocking central diamond pattern, Schlamminger passed away in 2017 at the age of 82.

He also designed the sculpture of the Global Pluralism Award, wherein the three-dimensional latticework yields a plurality of intersections, offering ever new vantage points, symbolizing pluralism.  

His sculptures were inspired by his obsession with complex geometries and shapes that may at first defy logic. 

Examples of his public sculpture range from a number of works commissioned for the garden sculpture of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art to the “Floating Obelisk” sponsored by the Borusan Company in Istanbul, and his “Pendulum Obelisk” in Joachimstaler Platz in Charlottenburg-Berlin.

Photo: A file photo shows a calligraphic artwork by Karl Schlamminger at the Ismaili Centre, London.

MMS/YAW