Ruyin Pakbaz

Ruyin Pakbaz (; born 1939), also transliterated as Ru'in Pakbaz, is an Iranian art historian, critic, writer, educator and modernist painter. He has written extensively on the history of Iranian and Western art and has been associated with the development of art-history teaching in Iran since the early 1970s.

Pakbaz is the author of the multi-volume Encyclopedia of Art , one of the principal Persian-language reference works on the visual arts, and Iranian Painting: From Ancient Times to the Present. His writings on Iranian modernism have also been cited in international scholarship on modern and contemporary Iranian art.

Education and teaching Pakbaz studied painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran between 1962 and 1969. He later studied aesthetics at the University of Paris I, receiving a master's degree in the subject.

He taught at the faculty of fine arts at the University of Tehran from 1970 to 1987 and later taught at Alzahra University and Islamic Azad University. He also conducted independent art-history classes from the early 1990s onward.

After Qandriz's death in 1965, Talar-e Iran was renamed Talar-e Qandriz (Qandriz Hall). Pakbaz, Qandriz and Jodat were among the members who remained most closely involved with the institution during its early development. The gallery subsequently developed into an independent art centre that organised exhibitions, discussions, educational programmes and publications on painting, sculpture, graphic design and architecture.

Writing on Iranian painting Pakbaz's Iranian Painting: From Ancient Times to the Present traces the history of painting and pictorial traditions in Iran from antiquity through the Islamic period to modern and contemporary art. It has been widely used as a Persian-language reference work in Iranian art education.

His later publications include In Search of a New Language, a study of the transformation of modern Iranian painting; Visual Art in Iran; writings on the history of Talar-e Qandriz; and a multi-volume series on pioneers of Iranian modern art.

His essays and books have been cited in subsequent scholarship on modern Iranian art, including studies of the Saqqakhaneh movement and the historiography of Iranian modernism.

Recognition In addition to receiving the Iran Book of the Year Award for the expanded Encyclopedia of Art, Pakbaz was honoured for authorship in the Visual Arts Contributors section of the 17th Fajr Visual Arts Festival in 2025.

Selected publications

Pakbaz, Ruyin. Contemporary Iranian Painting and Sculpture. Tehran: Center for Research and Cultural Coordination, 1974. Pakbaz, Ruyin. Iranian Painting: From Ancient Times to the Present. Tehran. Pakbaz, Ruyin. Encyclopedia of Art. Tehran: Farhang-e Moaser, first published 1999; expanded three-volume edition, 2016. Issa, Rose; Pakbaz, Ruyin; Shayegan, Daryush. Iranian Contemporary Art. London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 2001. . Pakbaz, Ruyin. In Search of a New Language: An Analysis of the Development of Painting in the Modern Era. Pakbaz, Ruyin; Mourizi-Nejad, Hassan. Talar-e Qandriz: An Experience in the Social Presentation of Art. Tehran. Pakbaz, Ruyin. Visual Art in Iran. Tehran.