From his rich, colourful and uncompromising oeuvre, it’s easy to see why Khosrow Hassanzadeh is one of Iran’s leading contemporary artists. A former fruit seller and volunteer soldier, he cuts an unusual figure in Tehran’s high society art scene.

Hassanzadeh works primarily with painting, silkscreen and mixed media, often layering contemporary and historical images with his own texts – philosophical musings, love poems or political statements.

Treating subjects as diverse as the Iran-Iraq war, murdered prostitutes, Iranian wrestlers, and the War on Terror, Hassanzadeh’s work offers a visual commentary, at once personal and critical, on Iranian society.

Each series of art works is prefaced by an essay by a leading scholar or critic contextualizing Hassanzadeh’s work in terms of the global art scene.

ABOUT THE EDITOR

Mirjam Shatanawi is curator of Middle East and North Africa at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Khosrow Hassanzadeh was born in Tehran, where he studied painting at Mojtama-e-Honar University. He has had solo shows in Amsterdam, Beirut, Dubai, London, Phnom Penh and Tehran. His work is held by the British Museum, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, the Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), and the World Bank (Washington DC).

REVIEW

«One of Iran's leading contemporary artists.» Iftikhar Dadi