Abbas Kiarostami’s collection of graphic designs exhibited at IAF

TEHRAN –(Iranart) The exhibition of graphic designs by legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami opened in the Iranian Artists Forum (IAF) on June 22, the birth date of the master.

Entitled “In Praise of Life”, the exhibit features a collection of 43 posters collected by the Iranian Graphic Designers Society and Vijeh Art School, a school dedicated to teaching graphic design in Tehran.

Speaking at the ceremony, director of the Iranian Graphic Designers Society Ebrahim Haqiqi said that Kiarostami was one of the members of the society.

“The bitter taste of the death of Kiarostami has not left me alone. Kiarostami used to try to teach his students how to live and how to make a film. His students have found their ways today and make films that are not artificial,” he said.

“I learned more about his simple-appearing perspective when he designed the poster for his film ‘A Wedding Suit’ (1976). He placed all the information on the collar of the suit in his poster,” he said.

“Kiarostami taught us to forget about all the educations we had about graphic design. That is, we do not need to make use of sharp colors in posters, for example,” he added.

“He showed us that films do not possess only scenes about love or need to be action films,” Haqiqi said.

Graphic designer Amrollah Farhadi also in his brief remarks said that the exhibit is a tribute to Kiarostami by his students in Karnameh and Vijeh art schools for all the efforts Kiarostami made throughout his life.

Painter Ali-Akbar Sadeqi next talked about his friendship with Kiarostami and said that he is one of his old friends.

“It was in 1959 that we got to know each other. I had an atelier named ‘Seven’ where Abbas began his graphic designs with me,” he remarked.

The ceremony was followed by a short film containing part of Kiarostami’s films selected by stage designer Amir Esbati including interviews Esbati and Managing Director of Nazar Publications Mahmudreza Bahmanpur had with Kiarostami at the Vijeh School in 2013.

The book “In Praise of Life”, which also contains the interviews along with a selection of Kiarostami’s posters published by Nazar Publications, was unveiled at the ceremony.

Kiarostami who was suffering from a severe gastrointestinal disease, died at a Paris hospital on July 4, 2016.

The exhibit will be running until July 5 at the forum located on Musavi St., off Taleqani Ave.