The present painting is a remarkable example of Pezeshknia’s typical style and his attention to representation of social issues of society and working class families. People and their lifestyles are represented in a broad range of his works. The young artist was especially touched by the difficult life of people in Abadan when he was employed by the Iranian National Oil Company back in the 1950s. The impact was so huge that Ebrahim Golestan called him “the portrayer of his territory and fellow citizens”. The portrayal of people who were a subject of concern for Pezeshknia was characterized by the usual thick lines in the present painting. Perhaps Ebrahim Golestan offered the best description of Pezeshknia’s portraits when he first met him in Abadan, “What can be seen in the faces is often astonishment, fear, agony, idiocy, or idleness. People are either from rural areas or oil workers. There is a yearning desire for the mountains and country life.”[1]
In his choice of visual language, Pezeshknia reached such an excellence that he could be considered one of the most prominent Iranian modern painters with an expressionist approach. His powerful influence on Iranian art of the last century is so obvious that it has made eminent figures of Persian literature and the Iranian intellectual movement, including Ebrahim Golestan, Najaf Daryabandari, and Jalal Ale-Ahmad, write about him. On the importance of him and his work, Ale-Ahmad writes, “New Art in Iran will eventually find its right path through the work of Pezeshknia.” His incredibly turbulent life made some compare him to Vincent van Gogh. The significance of both artists was realized only after they died, both experienced a life full of tension, and both had a brother who supported them – Theo and Iraj.
Houshang Pezeshknia was among the first artists who adopted a modern way of thinking and drawing. To him, the line was a means of depicting and emphasizing an object. Pezeshknia, who learned painting from Kamal-ol-Molk pupils, was audaciously seeking a new expression of the principles of classic painting when he finished his studies in Turkey.
A similar work was sold at Bonhams Dubai auction for $68,000 in 2008.
[1] Ebrahim Golestan, Tamasha Magazine, 4 January 1973