He was born in Rasht and was brought up in Lahijan.[1] His parents were from well-to-do, professional families of Lahijan. His father, ʿAbbās-Qoli, was a judge and his mother, Sorur Mahkāma, was the principal of Rasht's first girls' school and was a respected poet and literary figure in her own right.[2] He began drawing at the age of 3, illustrating his mother's bedtime stories.[3]
He graduated from Tehran University in 1962 with a degree in political science and law,[1] but never studied art formally. While still a student, one of his classmates encouraged him to submit his work to Towfiq, a widely-read satirical journal. For the next eight years, he continued to produce work to the journal, and adopted the house style which involved pictorial commentaries on Iranian daily life and satiric editorials on political figures, which exaggerated the figure's facial features and body.[2] He also worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for Kayhan and other local periodicals.
In 1967, he held his debut solo exhibitions at Qandriz Gallery Tehran, where he exhibited works that had virtually all been published in local journals over the preceding five-year period. The exhibition attracted a sizeable audience and earned him considerable praise.[2]
In 1972, the weekly magazine, Jeune Afrique invited him to Paris and he began to produce satirical drawings and cartoons for this journal. Through this medium, he began to develop an international reputation as a visual satirist. Within a year, he was publishing illustrations in the New York Times.[2]
By the mid-1970s, he had come under pressure from Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and the Secret Police, who took exception to his political commentary and satire, and in 1977 he fled Iran, and went to New York.[3] Although he hoped to return to Iran, the revolution of 1979 and the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini led to his settling permanently in New York.[4]
In 2006, New York Museum of Modern Art held an exhibition present some of his work.[5]
In 2008, in the aim to "increase awareness of the complexity of modern history and life in Iran," the Asia Society in New York organized another exhibition of Mohassess' satirical cartoons and illustrations.[6]
In his later life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease and failing eyesight, yet continued to work.[3] He died in New York and is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.[7]
Selected bibliography
Cactus, a special issue of Daftarha-ye Zamaneh, with an introduction by Karim Emami, including drawings from 1961 to 1966, Tehran 1971.
Identity Card, a selection of drawings done in 1972, Tahouri Publications, Tehran, 1973.
Ceremonies, an Introduction by Aydin Aghdashloo, a selection of drawings from 1972, Fine Arts Publications (under the auspices of Gallery Ayeh), Tehran, 1973.
Jahan-e No, a special issue of drawings, including drawings done in 1972, Tehran, 1973.
Ardeshir and Stormy Winds, with an introduction by Ali Asghar Haj-Seyed-Javadi, including drawings from 1967 to 1973, Tous Publications, Tehran, 1973.
Ardeshir Mohassess: Art and Satire in Iran, Asia Society, 2008
Personal life
Mohasses was a cousin of Bahman Mohasses, dubbed by some as the "Persian Picasso", Iranian painter, sculptor, translator, and theatre director.
