AYDIN AGHDASHLOO
Born: 1940, Rasht, Iran.
Aydin Aghdashloo is an Iranian painter, author, art critic, art historian and graphic designer.
Early in his career, Aghdashloo took great interest in the Renaissance and Sandro Botticelli's paintings in particular. He even used to test his own skills by copying Botticelli's works to the last detail. His admiration for Renaissance paintings lead to the creation of his "Memories of Destruction" series in the early 1970s which became his most celebrated and famous series. In these works Aghdashloo depicts destruction of identity and beauty by painting a complete Renaissance masterpiece and then partially destroying or defacing it.
"Memories of Destruction" continued after 1979 but went through a transformation in which Islamic art became his main model instead of Renaissance art, while in both periods he uses Islamic and Renaissance models simultaneously.
He also used Persian miniatures extensively in his paintings after 1979. The crumpled Persian miniature series are the best example.
Besides painting, Aghdashloo is a well know expert in Iranian pre-Islamic and Islamic art history and artifacts. He assessed items for some of the world's best auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's. Aghdashloo has published eight books; three collections of articles, two collections of paintings and two research papers on Iranian art history.
He has been teaching art and art history in a number of universities in Iran since 1981, and currently lives in Tehran, Iran, and lectures in different Iranian Universities besides his professional work.