70 Years of Painting

Iranian Literary Icon Javad Mojabi Unveils Hidden Art in Landmark Exhibition "70 Years of Painting" in the first public showcase of polymath’s private visual archive at Azad Gallery.

Azad Gallery presents a historic cultural event: "70 Years of Painting", the debut exhibition of visual works by Javad Mojabi—celebrated Iranian poet, novelist, and art critic—running from 9 to 29 January 2024. This unprecedented showcase reveals over 200 drawings and paintings Mojabi created in private across eight decades, offering a visceral counterpart to his prolific literary legacy.

Mojabi (b. 1939, Qazvin) describes his art as "mental diary-keeping":

"Poetry, fiction, and painting are all recordings of a mind curious about the world for 80 years. I never abandoned drawing my imaginings—this hidden affair was a furtive love sustaining my astonished joys."
The exhibition spans works from 1959 (including a student-era oil self-portrait) to the 2020s, with most pieces created in the 1990s during periods of seclusion. Eschewing public scrutiny to preserve "boundless freedom," Mojabi’s intimate sketches—often annotated with poetry—merge surreal figuration with emotional rawness. They reflect what he calls "involuntary acts of love," where hand and mind collaborated beyond the constraints governing his public writing.

Javad Mojabi’s artistic journey embodies a profound duality within Iranian modernism. For decades, he navigated two identities: the public intellectual and the private visionary. As a critic, he authored thousands of influential art reviews for Ettela’at newspaper between 1968 and 1978, meticulously documenting Iran’s avant-garde movements while championing pioneers like Behjat Sadr and Bahman Mohasses. His scholarly contributions, including the seminal book Ninety Years of Innovation in Iranian Visual Art, cemented his reputation as a cultural archivist.

Yet beneath this public persona lay a secret practice spanning seventy years. Mojabi began drawing at age five but concealed his art after his brother, the painter Hossein Mojabi, declared, "One painter per family is enough." This private act became what he describes as a "liberated sanctuary"—a space of uncompromising freedom where societal expectations dissolved. Now aged 84, Mojabi breaks this lifelong silence, transforming hidden sketches into public testimony. His exhibition reveals art not as performance but as an intimate, unmediated truth—a rebellion against compartmentalised creativity.

The collection features rare glimpses into Mojabi’s subconscious, including a 1959 self-portrait painted during his university years in Tehran’s Amir-Abad, satirical cartoon-inspired sketches from the 1960s, and diary-like mixed-media works from the 1990s that blend poetry with abstract marks. These "noticeboards of a poet’s life" capture fleeting moments he once guarded from external judgment.

Curator Suzanne Carte observes:

"Mojabi’s hidden oeuvre is Iran’s cultural subconscious made visible. It bridges literary and visual modernism, proving creativity cannot be partitioned into public and private realms."