Bahram Alivandi

Bahram Alivandi (1928 – 21 May 2012; ) was an Iranian-born Austrian visual artist. He was known primarily for his modernist paintings, which typically depicted stories from Persian mythology and literature, and expressed mysticism. Then under the tuition of French masters at Tehran's School of Fine Arts (closely modeled on the French École des Beaux-Arts), from which he graduated with distinction.

Alivandi's paintings are typically on a large scale, yet even so they demonstrate the immense skill of his hand in their intricate detail.

Exhibitions

Alivandi's work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Asia, and have received high critical acclaim. Important recent exhibitions include:

Selected solo: Alivandi's work has been shown at the Headquarters of the United Nations in Vienna. 'Art in Exile', a one-man show in Vienna in June 2007, consisting of 73 works of watercolour, oil on canvas, and works on paper. Selected group: In 2008 in Vienna, a highly significant exhibition organised by UNESCO included Ferdowsi – an important work by Alivandi which depicts the Shahnameh, an enormous poetic opus written by the Iranian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 CE that is the national epic of the Persian-speaking world. In December 2007 in Paris, Alivandi was exhibited alongside two French artists at Galerie Art Présent, one of Paris's foremost galleries of contemporary art. Following the exhibition, in January 2008, a French article entitled 'Un grand peintre en exile' ('A great painter in exile') wrote that Alivandi's "synthesis of European training with sixty years of artistic experience derived from a deep knowledge of Persian art and spirituality, has resulted in the creation of a new genre that is unique to him." This critic also noted that Alivandi's paintings represent a "paradise of dots".

Prizes Stockholm, 1994: Alivandi won First Prize at the 1st International Graphic Art Exhibition, an annual juried show in Stockholm, Sweden.