Hossein Behzad

Hossein Behzad was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1894 to Mirza Lotfollah Esfahani. His father was a pen-holder designer. He married Azizeh Khanom in 1921, who gave birth to their only child, Parviz. During the early 1930s, Behzad reorganized Tehran's Sanaye Mostazrafeh Art School. In 1934 he left Tehran for Paris and stayed for thirteen months. During this time which time he studied various Eastern and Western painting styles at the Louvre, Guimet museum and Palace of Versailles. It was during this trip developed a completely new style of miniature painting, combining aspects of traditional Persian painting with contemporary painting from the West. Behzad left behind about 400 miniature works. His miniature style is much closer to Persian attire and culture, and it differs from Western watercolor designs He became internationally known and won many awards including the 'first class medal of the ministry of culture' from Iran in 1949 and the 'first class medal of international painting' from Minneapolis, USA in 1958. In 1968 Behzad was give an honorary professorship by the College of Ornamental Arts, Behzad's works have been displayed across the world. To celebrate the millennium of Avicenna, in 1953 he held an exhibition at the Museum of Ancient Iran. This caused a sensation and was seen by many international visitors. The paintings on show, which took ten years to complete, included the likes of Ferdowsi and the Maedan Arch. The exhibition became particularly important to scholars of oriental studies. In an article for the Vatan newspaper of Istanbul, Professor Soheil Anwar wrote, "Behzad, this great artist does not belong only to Iran. He now belongs to the world." Shortly after, and to much critical acclaim, Behzad held an exhibition, which was sponsored by the French government, at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris. The exhibition was opened by the French minister for culture on 18 May 1955. He first practiced a conservative form of Neo-Safavidism, and later developed a new idiom that merged revivalism and modernism. In 1956, fifty of Behzad's miniatures were put on display at the Library of Congress, Washington DC. As Behzad became a living master, he held exhibitions across the world in cities such as London, Prague, New York, Boston and Brussels, as well as in India and Japan.