“Art is an act of destruction. It seeks to arouse people and unshackle them from daily life either by praising beauty or by unveiling dreadful deities”. This was Mohassess’ motto and the leitmotif of this new documentary, focused on the strength of the creative process which led Mohassess to produce and destroy, at the same time, many of his masterpieces. What remains of it today is mostly in the hands of Iranian and international collectors and offered at the most famous auction houses in the world.
Born in Rasht in 1931, Mohassess moved at the age of 23 to Italy where he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome. In the capital of Italy he quickly became an integral part of the Italian contemporary art scene. Painter, sculptor, theatre set designer, translator - during his long artistic career he has experienced a profound stylistic evolution which can be admired in his numerous art collections. Particularly noteworthy are the mythological figures, in part man and in part bull, from the “Minotaurs” series, which represent the conceptual core of Mohassess’ vision of humanity and of his artistic expression.
Mohasses died in Rome in 2010 at the age of 79 while interpreting himself in Mitra Farahani’s documentary "Fifi Howls from Happiness". He left an artistic collection of inestimable value, although unknown in its real entity, which includes wide selection of paintings and sculptures from the collections "Fifi", "Human Bodies", "Minotaurs", "Still Life", "Collages", and "Birds and Fish".
The documentary "Bahman Mohassess in Rome. The Persian Picasso" was produced in cooperation with local artists, with Mitra Farahani and the "Estate of Bahman Mohassess" foundation. The video, and the previous episodes of the series Twitter).(“Tapesh” feat. Bizhan Bassiri, “Hands in Earth” feat. Mohsen Vaziri Moqaddam & “King of the Scene” feat. Khosrow Khorshidi) are available for viewing on the social media platforms of the Italian Embassy in Tehran (YouTube,Instagram,