Mansureh Hosseini, a pioneer of Iranian modern art, has died at the age of 86. She was suffering from heart disease for the past few years.

Hosseini was living alone in her home in Tehran and her body was found dead after two weeks by neighbors, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Saturday.
Details of her funeral procession are yet to be announced, the report added.

Hosseini was a graduate of the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran and left Iran for Rome to continue her studies.

In 1959 she held her first painting exhibitions in Iran when she returned. Her paintings were a combination of calligraphy, line and paintings that seemed a little strange in those years and were hard for visitors to digest, and received different criticism in those years, she had told Tehran Times in an interview in 2004.

“However, in 1962, my paintings and earthenware had all the motifs of lines and calligraphy, and I expected to receive the same criticism, but did not. It was then when I obtained permission to hold exhibitions throughout Europe,” she had said.

She continued, “Later, when I was in Italy, I met Professor Venturi, there in Italy. Leonello Venturi was a celebrated Italian art expert and critic. It was a turning point in my artistic career. He looked at my paintings, saying that he sees the arabesque of Iranian paintings, and encouraged me to focus on my own style of work and make use of Iranian calligraphy and motifs. Then I began with Kufic lines.”
Hosseini had attended numerous solo and group exhibits in Iran and other countries. Her exhibitions of paintings were last held in Niavaran Cultural Center in 1998 and at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art in 2004.

Untitled – Painted in 1965 by Mansoureh Hosseini
oil on canvas – 88 x 177cm.
 

Source: Tehran Times