Dr. Nastour Rakhshani, a painter and art researcher, receives the Nowruz Award for
“Personality of the Year in Art and Culture” for:
- A lifetime of tireless work as a valued, admired, and irredentist artist at home and in asylum
- Striving to gain a status similar to that of European artists
- His unique style, combining the art of both Eastern and Western paintings
- Representing Iran and Iranians at major European exhibitions
- Many years of working to introduce Iranian art and culture abroad
- Representing the history and culture of ancient Iran through painting national figures and displaying Iran’s works of architecture and civilization
Dr. Nastour Rakhshani Bio:
Dr. Nastour Rakhshani was born in Tehran in 1947, where he spent his childhood and
adolescence.
He held an interest in painting since childhood and spent a great deal of time on his craft. At the age of sixteen, he participated in a Teen Painting Exhibition, of which he was one of the winners.
Dr. Rakhshani graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Tehran University, and in the same year, during the Mehregan festival, he received the “Gold Medal of Culture” from the Shah of Iran.
After graduation, he displayed his work in several major exhibitions. He also produced
illustrations for several children’s books during his military service.
In 1974, Rakhshani left Iran for France where he enrolled at the Sorbonne University in Paris to study aesthetics.
At the time of the Islamic Revolution and during the political changes occurring in Iran, he returned home and taught graphic arts and public design at the Faculty of Decorative Arts. He quickly became aware of the violent and anti-Iranian nature of the Islamic Republic, and began creating opposition posters against the regime. In 1983, when many of his associates were imprisoned or executed and his life was threatened, he secretly fled Iran through Kurdistan.
Through Turkey, and with the help of the French Consulate, he returned to France and continued on his studies.
In 1988, Rakhshani completed his Ph.D. thesis on “The Art of Graphic Art and Social
Campaigns in Iran” with a high honor, tres honorable.
Dr. Rakhshani’s work has been published in Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, Jeune Afrique, La Cimade, La Chronique D’Amnesty International and a number of opposition papers (against the Iranian regime) outside Iran.
