| An Iranian cartoonist
– the concept may first dawn on us with a
sense of surprise. And in fact the cartoon is still
young in Iran. As we may expect, the early work
was raw or drew heavily on Western models. Today,
however, there can be no doubt about it: Iran has
a serious cartoonist, whose talent and originality
are beyond question. More surprising still: if we
seek parallels between the work of Ardeshir Mohasses
and Western caricature, the names that come to mind
are no mean recommendation. His macabre imaginings
often recall Roland Topor; his girl's soccer team
or the way fantastic human features emerge out of
a jungle of swift linear convolutions inevitably
suggest Ronald Searle; and when we observe the acrimony
of his social satire, we are even carried back to
Daumier.
In other words, Ardeshir, as he is known is Iran,
is an artist as much as a cartoonist. He lives
in the no-man's-land which is art, but not for
art's sake: art with a very real cause, art with
a cutting edge as sharp as a knife. Several facts
of his life underline this allegiance to an artistic
ethos. His first cartoons were submitted to Tehran
editors on a take-it-or-leave-it basis –
no modifications whatever were to be made. Then
there is the observation behind his cartoons.
He is not the man to master a few political likenesses
and to leave the rest to routine. He often makes
rapid sketches from life, capturing the expressions
of talkers in coffee shops, the gestures of dancers,
barmaids or people in the street. The public has
already accepted him as an artist. He has had
very nearly that many one-man shows.
Most visitors to his exhibitions at first find
him depressingly pessimistic. Yet this really
misses the point. Ardeshir is essentially a moralist.
His subjects are the whole spectrum of human vice
and weakness: selfishness, tyranny, hypocrisy,
gluttony, verbosity, cruelty, pride, and injustice.
Many of his drawings are no more than visions
of these things, set down with a cold passion,
with an acerbity that offers no quarter. There
is not much laughter in his cartoons, and where
it can be heard it is hard and dry as a bone.
A theme which constantly recurs in his drawings
is that of domination and subjection. He finds
dozens of graphic variations to express the dependence
of the poor on the rich, of the citizen on the
authorities. The predator often hovers in the
air, a bloated creature with simian features wearing
a top hat and holding his poor spider-limbed slave
on a leash below. Elsewhere, the master has tied
a cord to his servant's tongue, bites into his
vulnerable back with sharp, shark-like teeth or
leads him on a chain by a ring that runs through
his lips; or the victim has been cut in two altogether
and the rider has attached his reins to the bottom
of the torso and its still running legs. Dismemberment
is a common term of Ardeshir's vocabulary. Heads
have often gone, or have begun an independent
life in frames. Ardeshir's drawings often challenge
the observer's powers of insight. Simple statements
– bureaucracy epitomized by a man pinned
to a file on his way to the archives, or the crowd's
cruelty suggested by coloured lights on a rope
from which a hanged man dangles – are rarer
than the more recondite graphic messages. Here
again he proves himself the committed artist.
He has his vision, his beaked judges, his top-hatted
horrors, his decapitated sufferers, and he will
not abate one iota of its claim. He gave up a
safe career as a lawyer to expose himself to the
dangers and elations of his art, and he remains
a perfectionist about his work. He carries a bottle
of black ink with him, and we are told that he
goes on retouching and improving his drawings
until the carton is finally snatched from his
grasp.
also see:
Ardeshir Mohasses
& His Caricatures
Ardeshir
Mohasses' Accolades
Ardeshir
Mohasses' Biography
Ardeshir
Mohasses' Caricatures
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