Iranian cartoonist Derambakhsh to open exhibition in Tehran in mid-Dec.
The show is centered on the themes of discovery and intuition, he said here on Wednesday. Derambakhsh elaborated on his untitled work currently on display at Iran’s 4th Tassvir Celebration at Iranian Artists Forum, saying, “I usually showcase my works in a collection rather than individually. However, I present a cartoon based on the theme of football at the event.”
The work features a heavy-hearted old man walking along the street, hitting a ball with the tip of his cane. “I wanted to show in my work that today’s football hooks everyone in any age. Many Iranians found fault with Iran’s national skipper Ali Daei at 2006 World Cup because they thought he was not young enough to play football properly. Still, I don’t think so.”
He believes that his works are symbolic and every viewer adopts their own interpretation according to their mentality.
Derambakhsh, 63, has won many awards at the international competitions in Canada, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Belgium, and Brazil over the past four decades.
He won the Grand prize at an Istanbul competition in 1990, the grand prize at Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun competition in 1998, the grand prize of a contest in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1998, the bronze medal for third place of a South Korean contest in 1998, and the grand prix of a Polish antiwar caricature contest in 2002.
He began his career in a newsletter his father published for the army many years before the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In 1980, he left Iran to try his luck in Oberhausen, West Germany, where he married a German woman. Now he and his family live in Tehran. He has worked as a cartoonist, graphic designer, and illustrator for 47 years. The Nashr-e Salis coffee shop is his haunt, where he visits his students.