Bahman Mohasses

Bahman Mohasses (Rasht, Iran, 1931 – Rome, 2010) was an Iranian painter, sculptor, collagist, translator and theatre director, known as the 'Persian Picasso'. His importance lies in a modern body of work that did not draw on Persian artistic traditions, unlike much of his contemporaries' output.

He trained in Tehran at the Faculty of Fine Arts and, as a young man, joined an avant-garde circle that included Nima Yooshij, Sohrab Sepehri and other artists. In 1954 he moved to Italy to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. Back in Iran he directed plays, including Pirandello's Henry IV, and translated Ionesco, Pirandello and Malaparte. His paintings and sculptures, marked by a sombre tone, depict minotaurs and dreamlike creatures in deserts of hopelessness.

After the Islamic Revolution of 1979, several of his public works were destroyed or damaged, and he is said to have destroyed much of what remained in Iran. He afterwards lived in Italy in relative isolation until his death. His works are now scarce and fetch high prices at auction. He appears in the documentary Fifi Howls from Happiness (2013) by Mitra Farahani. Among his students was Parvaneh Etemadi.