Ali Akbar Sadeghi (born 1937) a graduate of the College of Art, University of Tehran, is one of the most prolific and successful Iranian painters and artists.

He began to teach painting in high school in the 1950s, before entering the university in 1958. His early works were with watercolor, but as of 1959, soon after entering college, he began oil painting and drawing.

He initiated a special style in Persian painting, influenced by Coffee House painting, iconography, and traditional Iranian portrait painting, following the Qajar tradition – a mixture of a kind of surrealism, influenced by the art of stained glass.

He did his early works in graphics and illustration. He is among the first individuals involved in the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and the Youth, and was among the founders of the Film Animation department of this institute.

Aside from illustration, he has published a few books for the Center for the Development of Children and the Youth, and has made a few successful films by using his special style in painting.

Films produced by Sadeghi have won more than 15 awards at International Film Festivals. Also, for his book illustrations he has won four international awards.

After the 1979 Revolution, Sadeghi seriously pursued painting. In 1989 he founded Sabz Gallery, which was actively and continuously exhibiting the works of Iranian painters until 2003.

In total, he has participated in over 25 individual and group exhibitions, over 7 volumes of books of the collection of his works have been published, and he has been a member of jury panels in over 10 biennial exhibitions.

Sadeghi has been artistically active in the past 20 years. His style is a kind of Iranian surrealism, based on Iranian forms and compositions of traditional paintings, the use of Iranian iconography, and the use of Persian cultural motifs, signs and myths, full of movement and action, in prominent and genuine oil colors, in large frames, very personal, reminiscent of epic traditional Persian paintings and illustrations, with a conspicuous decorative style.

The present collection is a glance at the works of this prominent Iranian artist, which entails all the periods and styles of his art, a glance at the visual works of an artist whose works date back five decades.


Filmography

• Seven Cities (1971)
• Shower of Flowers (1972)
• I Am He Who… (1973)
• The Castle (1974)
• The Sun King (1975)
• Zaal and Simorgh (1977)