Mohsen Vaziri Moghadam (born on May 26th 1924 – died on September 7th 2018) was an Iranian designer, painter, sculptor and professor of contemporary art. He was born in Tehran and is considered as one of the first graduates of the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University. He passed away in Rome, Italy, due to illness. Vaziri Moghadam is one of the most prominent modernist painters of Iran, who has created original and unique artworks with a modernist approach and personal style. He was the head of Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University during 1996-1976. He is the only Iranian painter whose artwork was purchased directly by the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
He learned to read and write by his father and started primary education at the age of 5. In 1943, he was accepted in the entrance exam of Faculty of Fine Arts in Tehran University. Ali Mohammad Heydarian and Madame Aminfar were some of his first teachers there. He graduated in 1984 as the first graduates of the Faculty of Fine Arts. He moved to Italy in August 1955 and worked as an artist in Rome until 1963. In 1958, he received the certificate of Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. He wrote his thesis on Mondrian and his influence on the 20th century art.
Waziri Moghaddam is famous for making articulated and moving wooden sculptures, and for the first time he created artworks that the audience could be involved in them.
From 1964 to 1976, he taught art at the Faculty of Decorative Arts (Art University) and Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University. He is also one of the pioneers of modern Iranian art due to the elimination of old educational methods and Kamal al-Mulk’s method in art education. He taught subjects such as drawing, painting, hand printing, and the basis and principles of design in the Faculty of Fine Arts for the first time in 1971. Asghar Mohammadi, Gholamhossein Nami and Mohammad Ibrahim Jafari are some of his famous students.
His books in the field of design, including design methods (1st edition: 1998), had been among the textbooks and basic design books in Iran for many years.
Selected exhibitions
The first solo exhibition; a collection of modernist paintings by Waziri Moghadam, Iran and America Association, 1952.
29th Venice World Biennale; “Iranian City”, 1958
Group exhibition in Brazil (coincided with 2014 World Cup in Brazil), June 2014
Color Intuition Exhibition; Tehran, Khak Gallery, 2014
Finally on Friday, the 16th of September 2018, after a long period of illness he passed away at his home in Rome at the age of 94.