Massoud Arabshahi

• Name — Massoud Arabshahi • Native Name — مسعود عربشاهی • Born — 1935 • Birthplace — Tehran, Imperial State of Iran • Died — September 16, 2019 • Place of death — Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran • Education — College of Decorative Arts, Tehran • Occupation — Artist • Known for — oil paintings, bas-relief sculptures • Movement — Saqqakhaneh movement

Massoud Arabshahi was born in 1935 in Tehran, Iran. He attended the Public High School for Fine Arts in Tehran. He studied painting under Shokouh Riazi. In 1968, he graduated from the College of Decorative Arts at Tehran University (now University of Art).

His sources of inspiration comprise Achaemenid and Assyrian art as well as Babylonian carvings and inscriptions. Combining tradition and modernity. Arabshahi held his first solo exhibition at the Iran-India Centre, Tehran, in 1964, four years before graduating from university. Arabshahi work's was created in various mediums, including oil paint-on-canvas, architectural bas-reliefs, and other sculptures. Arabshahi's bas-reliefs were commissioned for the Office for Industry and Mining (1971), Tehran; and for the California Insurance Building (1985) in Santa Rosa, California, U.S.. Arabshahi played a pivotal role in the establishing the Iran Gallery (Talar-e Iran) in Tehran, founded in 1964 by Arabshahi, Mansoor Ghandriz, Rouin Pakbaz, Faramarz Pilaram, Sadegh Tabrizi, Mohammad-Reza Jodat, Ghobad Shiva, Sirus Malek, Farshid Mesghali, Parviz Mahallati, Morteza Momayez, and Hadi Hezareiy. After the death of artist Mansoor Ghandriz in 1966, the Iran Gallery was renamed Ghandriz Gallery (Talar-e Ghandriz) in his honor; and it remained open until the summer of 1978 during the Iranian revolution. In 1975, Marcos Grigorian founded the Independent Artists Group in Tehran. The other founding artists included Arabshahi, Sirak Melkonian, Gholamhossein Nami, Morteza Momayez, Mir Abdolrez Daryabeigi, and Faramarz Pilaram. Arabshahi's work has been shown in a number of solo and group exhibitions in Iran, Europe and the United States including Two Modernist Iranian Pioneers, at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, 2001; and Iranian Contemporary Art, Barbican Centre, London, 2001. He died on September 16, 2019, in Tehran, Iran.

• 1964, Tehran, Iran, India Artistic Center • 1965, Tehran, Iran, Tehran University • 1965, Paris, France, Biennial • 1967, Paris, France, Galerie Solstice • 1967, Paris, France, Museum of Sacred Arts • 1968, U.S.A, Mobile Exhibition of Contemporary Iranian Arts • 1970, Tehran, Iran, Modern Iranian Art: a Retrospective, Iran American Society • 1971, Tehran, Iran, Negar Gallery • 1973, Paris, France, Grand Palais • 1973, Paris, France, Galerie Guiot • 1973, Monaco, France, Monaco International Exhibition, Monte Carlo • 1974, Tehran, Iran, International Exhibition of Arts • 1975, Tehran, Iran, Blue, Takhte Jamshid Gallery • 1975, Tehran, Iran, Volume and Environment, Iran America Society