Aghdashloo's best-known series, "Memories of Destruction," presents fragments of European Old Master paintings, damaged and defaced, overlaid with elements drawn from Persian miniature tradition. The works read as meditations on cultural fragility, made by a painter who helped establish several of Iran's major museums before the 1979 revolution reordered the country's cultural institutions.
Key facts
- Born
- 1940, Iranian[1]
- Works held in
- 1 museum
- Wikipedia
- View article
Biography
Born in Rasht in 1940[1], Aghdashloo enrolled at Tehran University's School of Fine Arts in 1959 and left in 1967 without completing his degree. His first solo exhibition came in 1975 at the Iran-America Society in Tehran. Post-revolution, he continued working in Iran, producing paintings in gouache on canvas that incorporated floating objects, surreal space, and imagery shaped by the Iran-Iraq War. A series titled "Years of Fire and Snow" placed faceless dolls in dreamlike environments.
The filmmaker Bahram Beyzai described Aghdashloo's practice as marked by "imagination and time-sighting and death-aware thought": a phrase that catches something in paintings where destruction and beauty occupy the same surface. He received France's Legion of Honour in January 2016.
Timeline
- 1940Born in Rasht, Iran.
- 1959Enrolled at Tehran University's School of Fine Arts at 19.
- 1967Left Tehran University's School of Fine Arts without completing his degree at 27.
- 1975Held his first solo exhibition at the Iran-America Society in Tehran.
- 1979The Iranian Revolution occurred, reordering the country's cultural institutions.
- 2016Received France's Legion of Honour in January.
Notable Works
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Related Artists
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Aydin Aghdashloo known for?
Aydin Aghdashloo is best known for his series, "Memories of Destruction", which presents damaged fragments of European Old Master paintings overlaid with elements drawn from Persian miniature tradition. These works can be interpreted as meditations on cultural fragility. Post-revolution, he produced paintings in gouache on canvas that incorporated floating objects, surreal space, and imagery shaped by the Iran-Iraq War.Who was Aydin Aghdashloo?
Aydin Aghdashloo is a painter who helped to establish several of Iran's major museums before the 1979 revolution. Born in Rasht in 1940[1], Aghdashloo is known for paintings where destruction and beauty occupy the same surface. The filmmaker Bahram Beyzai described his practice as marked by 'imagination and time-sighting and death-aware thought'.What was Aydin Aghdashloo's art style?
After the revolution, Aydin Aghdashloo produced paintings in gouache on canvas. These paintings incorporated floating objects, surreal space and imagery shaped by the Iran-Iraq War. His series "Years of Fire and Snow" placed faceless dolls in dreamlike environments.When was Aydin Aghdashloo born?
Aydin Aghdashloo was born in 1940[1].
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Aydin Aghdashloo.
- [1] wikipedia Wikipedia: Aydin Aghdashloo Used for: biography, birth dates, death dates, identifiers, movement attribution, nationality.
- [2] book guggenheim-refigur00kren Used for: biography.
- [3] book Prof Mohammed Rustom;, Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation Used for: biography, stylistic analysis.
- [4] book Branfoot, Crispin (Editor), Portraiture in South Asia since the Mughals: Art, Representation and History Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-24. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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