Three Iranian Painters

Iranian artists are taking inspiration from the anti-government protests that swept Iran after the murder of Mahsa Amini last September. After more than four decades of authoritarian clerical rule, the protest movement, and its slogan “Jin Jiyan Azadî,” changed the country, prompting young Iranians—including artists—to dream of a different future for their country. In the violent crackdown that followed, security forces killed some 500 people and detained more than 20,000, according to rights groups.

In April The Washington Post reported on the work of three Iranian painters whose canvases express their hopes and fears about the popular uprising. All three spoke to reporter Miriam Berger on condition that they be identified only by their first names, for fear of government reprisal.

Emad, in Tehran, told the Post he paints “for all the amazing people they have taken away from us.” His oil canvases chronicle the uprising, how it looked and felt. His figures are mostly female because women are at the forefront. He painted a birthday cake for those who were killed in the crackdown.  

Negin, an artist in Kermanshah, Rojhelat, is Kurdish. She creates self-portraits “for my people all over Kurdistan,” the birthplace of the protest movement.  “The sorrow born by the murder and massacre of my people, and especially children, is inexplicable with words,” she told the Post. “I cannot describe it. I only feel it and suffer from it and try to express it in my artwork.” Art is a “shared language,” she said. “It can blow through our bodies like a breeze and carry this message of pain.”

Farnoud, an artist in the northern city of Rasht, paints to remind himself of what he calls the uprising’s inner light. “Wherever we look, there are bodies that do not have life anymore, and we feel death is swallowing us all,” he told the Post. “But finally in the darkest moment, life will show itself,” representing for him “the light somewhere beyond all the ugliness.”

Although the streets of Iran are calmer now, many believe the movement will reemerge with another spark. “We have lost so many valuable friends. So much blood has been shed,” Emad said, “The world needs to see that and be moved by it for action.”

Miriam Berger, “On Canvas, Iranian Artists Capture the Hope and Turmoil of an Uprising,” Washington Post, April 8, 2023.