Tehran gallery to put paintings by Abbas Kiarostami on display

Tehran’s Golestan Gallery has scheduled to open an exhibition of rarely-seen paintings by the late-great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami.

The exhibition titled ‘Abbas’s Pen’ is scheduled for November 8-20, 2019. A book with the same title, containing the paintings by the filmmaker, will also be released during the exhibit.

Golestan Gallery owner Lili Golestan said “More than 30 paintings mainly done in the years between 1980 and 2000 have been borrowed from private collectors to be showcased during the exhibition.”

Noting that the works will be on display for two weeks, she added “Holding an exhibition of paintings by Kiarostami was discussed several times before his death, but Kiarostami always said that he has only a few paintings at home and does not have enough time to do more.”

A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, Kiarostami has won many awards, including the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 for ‘Taste of Cherry’.

He is mostly known as a screenwriter, film editor, art director and producer as well as a poet, photographer, painter, illustrator, and graphic designer.

The veteran Iranian filmmaker who passed away on July 4, 2016, following a heart attack at the age of 76, was honored at more than 300 film events around the world.

MG/MG