● Birthplace: Tehran
● Died: 31 August 2020 in Tehran
● Website: www.massoudmehrabi.com
Biography
He started his professional career as a journalist in 1971 and worked with more than twenty publications until 1985. Masoud Mehrabi was the director and licensee of Film Magazine and Film Yearbook (since its publication in 1992) from 1983 until his death. The publication of the English-language quarterly Film International from 1992 to 2012 is another press work of the late Mehrabi. Film Cinema Monthly, known as: Film Magazine, is one of the most stable publications in Iran on the subject of cinema. This magazine started working in 1982 with the name: Cinema in Video and changed its name to its current name in 1983. Massoud Mehrabi also worked as a designer and cartoonist in the Science and Economics Department of the Network of a Broadcasting Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIB) from 1982 to 1989. “I am from a generation that did not learn ‘literacy’ and information only in the classroom and at school,” he said of his professional activities. From the time we were able to read and write from elementary school, story books, magazines and newspapers were of particular interest to us; There were innocent discoveries. In the fifth grade of elementary school, I became acquainted with the enjoyable daydreams of the pen by reading two novels four hundred and five hundred pages long by Love and the Sword and Bahram Gore; It is also slang and non-intellectual. Around the same time, a series of drawings and simple designs by Kayhan Bachaha weekly and humorous cartoons by Towfiq weekly aired.
Seeing a collection of very simple designs in an English magazine, which had rich and beautiful themes, I realized that with a few simple lines, what could not be said! I started imitating. I drew “things” and posted them for Towfiq magazine. Of those many “things,” several were published in the readers’ section. In this way, a shadow was formed from the path of my future life.
With the publication of the cartoon weekly in 1969, which had a higher “class” due to the presence of the greats in the field of humor (Latifi, Sakhavarz, Darmbakhsh, Mahjoubi, Khorsandi, etc.), my designs and caricatures that I had just discovered should be written in pen and ink. I made a Chinese ink and not a black pen for this magazine, some of which were published. A short time later, in the message column of one of the issues, I was invited to go there to collaborate. At the end of the winter of 1970, one Thursday, instead of going to high school and attending classes, I went to the magazine office on Esfand (former) 3rd Street. I had a strange feeling; Happiness and fear were intertwined. When the magazine employee opened the door of Mohsen Davalloo’s room (magazine manager) and told him to come in, he was looking at the top of the door frame, seeing me, not at the height and height he imagined, with his head down, his glasses It fell from his forehead to his nose. “Mehrabi … are you?” He asked in surprise. I said, “Yes … sir.” I was sixteen years old. Remember Mohsen Davalloo, by taking me over and giving me a complete page to work on one topic in each issue at my own discretion; He played an important role in my professional life. I learned from him that later in Film Monthly he was always open to young people. May his soul be happy!
Over the following years, I collaborated with many publications. My collaboration with some of them lasted several months and some several years; Including: Mardom newspaper (1974 – 1975), Rastakhiz newspaper (1975 – 1978), Talash monthly (1976 – 1978), Youth weekly (1977), Ayandegan newspaper (1978 – 1979), Ferdowsi weekly (1978 – 1979), Monthly Piroozi (1979), Zanrooz Weekly (1978 – 1980), Jahangard Monthly (1979 – 1980), Medicine and Medicine Monthly (1980), Fakahiun Weekly (1980 – 1981), Soroush Weekly (1978 – 1981). Also, as a designer and cartoonist in the economics group of the First Channel of Sima (IRIB) from 1980 to 1989.
From the early 1970s, I acquired a style that later had a great impact on a number of cartoonists and designers of the next generation; A certain type of hatching was characteristic of this style. The hatches that were formed based on the source of variable light and by removing the second dimension, made the characters of my works one-dimensional. In 1979, on the occasion of an exhibition of my work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran – which coincided with an exhibition of works by Palestinian artists – I met the great Palestinian cartoonist Naji al-Ali. Our acquaintance turned into a friendship and our friendship continued until his martyrdom, with letters and exchange of works. This connection made us feel influenced by each other’s work. After returning from Tehran, he replaced Hashour with mixed water to create a light shade in his work, and I used compound water during the period when my work was published in Zenrooz.
In the 1970s, gallery owners were reluctant to hold a cartoon exhibition. In fact, caricature was not considered art and cartoonists were not considered artists. Among the gallery owners, Hamid Saher, the director of Naghsh Gallery, located in Tohid Square (formerly Kennedy) – made an effort to do this and exhibited a period of works by cartoonists. Prior to that, only a few of Kambiz Darmbakhsh’s works were on display at the Ghandriz Gallery. The first exhibition of my works, in fact (after Ahmad Sakhavarz) is the third individual exhibition of cartoons in Iran. This exhibition was held on February 10, 1975. After that, in addition to participating in eight group exhibitions (the most important of which is an exhibition of Canadian cartoonists in Montreal in 1976), thirteen individual exhibitions of my work were held as follows: Aftab House Gallery (1976), Sheikh Gallery (1977), Takht-e Jamshid Gallery (1977), Vesal Shiraz Gallery, (1978), Mani Gallery (Tabriz, 1978), Free Exhibition (Paris, 1979), Aftab House Gallery (1979), Museum of Contemporary Art (1979), Aftab House Gallery (1981), Museum Anthropology (Qazvin, 1981), Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (1982), Golestan Gallery (1991), Classical Gallery (Isfahan, 1992).
Apart from individual and group exhibitions in the country, from 1974 to 1996, I participated in dozens of world cartoon exhibitions. In Germany, Poland, Canada, Bulgaria, Canada, Yugoslavia, Russia, Italy, Greece, Japan, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, France, etc., while receiving several honorary diplomas from these exhibitions (the most important is the honorary diploma of the Berlin World Exhibition , 1975), in 1980, I won a bronze medal and in 1981, I won a silver medal and a cash prize of 200,000 yen at the Yomir Shimbun World Exhibition in Japan.
During this period of my life as a designer and cartoonist, I had other activities. For example, holding the first group exhibition of Iranian cartoonists. I believed that “caricature” was not a good word for our non-journalistic works, so I replaced it with “drawing humor”. This exhibition was held in the winter of 1977 with the title of “The first group exhibition of Iranian comic artists” at the Cultural Association of Iran and the United States (at the current center for the intellectual development of children and adolescents). (Iranian galleries refused to give the venue due to the sharp theme of the works.) The exhibition was met with an unprecedented response, with about 400 people coming to see it every night. Despite my efforts, the next periods of this exhibition were not held due to the nature of Iranian artists who can not stand each other under one roof. I remember that the first protester was Ardeshir Mohasses, who wrote a letter from New York asking why I had exhibited his work alongside the works of others. In Tehran, too, a few people protested why I had participated in Mohasses’ work!
My other activities are membership in the selection committee of the first edition of the Tehran International Cartoon Exhibition, as well as membership in the international selection and judging panel of the same exhibition in its fourth edition. I have also written a detailed article about the history of caricature in Iran, which was published in eight issues in Soroush Magazine (Spring 1981) and is the first extensive research in this field.
Among my works in the field of design and caricature, the following books have been published so far: Roof ladders (1976 – reprint with the addition of censored designs entitled Black Cartoons, 1979), Tooth (1980), Cinematic Caricatures (Collection, 1986) and Between the Shadows of Light (chosen by Aydin Aghdashloo and introduction by Miroslav Bartak, a famous Czech cartoonist, 1992).
In October 1975, I was admitted to the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, but due to an unreasonable encounter with Ms. Behjat Sadr, the director of the Faculty of Art, I did not last a semester and left. In September of the following year, I entered the School of Dramatic Arts and continued my studies in cinema. In 1982, after the Cultural Revolution, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in this field. From the beginning of this year, together with two of my friends, we published a magazine called: Cinema in the video to introduce, critique and review the films that were offered in video clubs; The idea of publishing it was from the late Ahmad Karimi, and with the closure of video clubs and the restriction of our work, we decided to turn it into a cinema magazine. Therefore, its third issue was published under the name of Film Magazine. Earlier, in 1979, I applied for the privilege of a comic magazine called “Obaid”, and when Karimi left us, I went to a movie magazine to change its license. This request was approved, and I took charge of the fourth issue, which was published as the Film Cinema Monthly. This magazine was noticed in the emptiness of those years, and its number increased in number and number of pages. With its innovations, Film Monthly became a model for other Iranian magazines; As if it had at least the greatest role in paving the way for other film publications.
Since 1986, several pages in English and about Iranian cinema have been added to the magazine. This section expanded so much in terms of facilities and manpower that in 1992, as a writer, owner and managing director, with the cooperation of friends, we published another publication called Film International. As the only English-language publication on Iranian cinema and in the history of the Iranian press, it was able to play a constructive role in the development of modern Iranian cinema across borders.
Another of my ideas that was implemented in Film Monthly was the publication of the book of the year of Iranian cinema, the first issue of which was published in February 1992 and has lasted until now; And the cinematic calendar, the release of which became a model for the specialization of calendars and deadlines in other fields. Another idea that came to fruition and played an important role in the expansion of the publication of film books is the publication of twenty-two titles of film books in the fields that until then had no place among such books.
Over the years, working for Film Monthly and International Film Quarterly, I have written hundreds of articles, reports, and film reviews, and written several reference books in the margins. The books in order of publication are: History of Iranian Cinema – From the Beginning to 1978 (First Edition 1984, Ninth Edition 1997), Bibliography of Cinema in Iran (Volume 1: 1988), Culture of Children and Adolescent Films (1989), Culture of Short Fiction Films (1990) ), Bibliography of Cinema in Iran (Volume 2: 1992), Film Posters (1992), Culture of Documentary Films of Iranian Cinema (1996) and Bibliography of Cinema in Iran (Full Text, 2001)
Books
Movie Books
1984 – History of Iranian cinema
1988 – Bibliography of Iranian cinema from the beginning
1989 – Culture of films for children and adolescents
1990 – Short fiction film culture
1992 – Bibliography of Iranian cinema from 1988 to 1991
1992 – Movie poster
1992 – The culture of Iranian cinema documentaries, from the beginning
2000 – Bibliography of Iranian cinema, from the beginning
2010 – Behind the Wall of Dreams: Travelogue of World Film Festivals
2012 – One hundred years of announcing posters and films in Iran
2014 – One hundred and five years of film announcements and posters in Iran
2016 – History of Iranian Cinema
Design and Caricature Books
1976 – Roof ladders
1979 – Black cartoons
1982 – Tooth
1985 – Cinematic cartoons + collection
1992- Among the bright shadows
Exhibitions
From the works of Master Masoud Mehrabi as a designer and cartoonist, before and after the revolution, more than ten individual and group exhibitions have been held and he has received several world awards in this field.
Individual Exhibitions
1976 – Naghsh Gallery, Tehran
1976 – Aftab House Gallery, Tehran
1977 – Sheikh Tehran Gallery
1977 – Takht-e Jamshid Gallery, Tehran
1978 – Vesal Gallery, Shiraz
1978 – Mani Gallery, Tabriz
1979 – Paris Free Exhibition
1979 – Aftab House Gallery
1979 – Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1981 – Aftab House Gallery, Tehran
1981 – Qazvin Anthropology Museum
1982 – Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1991 – Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1993 – Isfahan Classic Gallery
Group Exhibitions
1983 – Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
1978 – Organizer of the first group exhibition of the Iranian Cartoonists Society at the Iranian-American Association Gallery, Tehran
1978 – Goethe Cultural Association of Tehran
1977 – Takht-e Jamshid Gallery, Tehran
1977 – Naghsh Gallery, Tehran
1976 – Obaid Gallery, University of Tehran
1976 – Joint exhibition with Canadian cartoonists at the House of Iranian Culture, Montreal
Participate in World Cartoon Exhibitions
1995 – Japan, Iran
1994 – Turkey, Japan, Italy
1993 – Turkey, France, Italy, Japan, Iran
1992 – Japan, Turkey
1991 – Japan, Turkey, Belgium
1990 – Japan, Turkey, Italy, France
1989 – Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy
1989 – Turkey, Belgium, Japan
1987 – Japan, Canada, Poland, Belgium, Turkey
1986 – Turkey, Poland, Belgium
1985 – Japan, Turkey, Belgium, Canada
1984 – Japan, Turkey, Belgium
1983 – Japan, Belgium, Poland, Netherlands
1982 – Japan, Canada
1980 – Greece, Yugoslavia
1987 – Canada, Greece
1977 – Canada, Yugoslavia, Italy
1976 – Berlin, Poland, Canada, Yugoslavia
Awards
2017 – Celebration in the fifth festival of film writing of the Iranian Cinema Critics and Writers Association
2014 – Recognition and receiving the Golden Pen in the fourth edition of the Iranian Cinema Year Book Award from the Iranian Cinema House
2007 – Honorary plaque of the Iranian Cinema House
1999 – 1975 – Received an honorary diploma from the World Cartoon Exhibitions
1983 – Silver Medal and Cash Prize of 200,000 Japanese Yen from the Yumiuri Shimbun World Cartoon Exhibition, Japan
1982 – Bronze medal from the Yumiuri Shimbun World Cartoon Exhibition, Japan
Other Activities
1999 – 1993 – Member of the jury of the first and fourth biennial of Tehran International Cartoon
1994 – Assistant director, translated and written by Mohammad Haghighat
1991 – The wind blows wherever it wants; Robert Bresson’s Thoughts and Films, by Babak Ahmadi
1990 – Cognition of Cinema, Luis Janati, translated by Iraj Karimi
1991 – Led by Morteza Hananeh, written by Touraj Zahedi
1990 – Tarkovsky, by Babak Ahmadi
1989 – Film Understanding, Ellen Kisbyer, translated by Bahman Taheri
1989 – Film as a film, 28 and F. Perkins, translated by Abdollah Tarbiat
1989 – Literature and cinema, teamwork
1988 – The era of comedy, teamwork
1988 – Sergei Parajanov, teamwork
1988 – Yasujiro Azo, teamwork
1987 – François Truffaut, Life and Works, Translation and Compilation by Hamid Hodaniya
1987 – Acting for the film, teamwork
1986 – Features and Objectives of Film Criticism, Teamwork
Writer, Cartoonist and Graphic Artist
1985 – 1981 – Soroush Weekly
1983 – 1982 – Transportation Industry Monthly
1984 – 1981 – Monthly of humor
1981 – Medicine and Medicine Weekly
1980 – Jahangard Monthly / Weekly
1980 – 1979 – Ferdowsi Weekly
1981 – 1979 – Woman of the Day (Zan -e Rooz) Weekly
1980 – Victory Monthly
1979 – 1978 – Ayandegan newspaper
1979 – Tehran Economist Weekly
1978 – 1977 – Sports World Weekly
1977 – Youth Weekly
1977 – Talash Monthly
1978 – 1975 – Rastakhiz newspaper
1974 – People’s newspaper of Iran
1976 – 1973 – Cartoon Weekly
1972 – Middle East Flag newspaper
1971 – Towfiq Weekly (non-professional)
