Mohammad Hossein Maher was born in Abadan, 1957. Before he was admitted to the Tehran College of Decorative Art in 1975, he was the student of Shahab Moosavi, from whom he learned the principles of drawing. He furthered his knowledge of drawing and painting with prominent professors such as Hossein Kazemi and Bahram Boroojeni, and he started teaching at the same college after graduation, while he was studying for a graduate degree.

Maher's strong attachment to his hometown and the ancient ethnic beliefs and traditions of the Persian Gulf region, inspired him to return to Abadan and portray its everyday life realistically. This, however, was nor a romantic journey so much as attempt to rid him of a inevitable illusion of modern metropolitan lifestyle. In depicting his surroundings, he discovered that he needed a new language of expression, since he found an academic and realistic approach incompatible with the region intense sunlight, fast rhythms and bright warm colors. Maher experimented with different techniques and styles, including those exhibited in the published works of Manichaeism art and the techniques and colors that ancient artists applied in their works. In this way, he eventually succeeded in adopting a form of painting that satisfied his pictorial requirements. He employed his newly found style in portraying the people, to which he was so attached.

When an artist is overflowing with love for his hometown, even the smallest even can inspire artistic creation. An artist like Maher can find the strength and glamour of myths and legends in normal people around him, and the stronger the motivation and inspiration, the more valuable work. Yet, Maher is not simply attempting to depict a way of life; he is also concerned with his paintings formal value. He uses dynamic lines to define his shapes, but it is color that ultimately expresses the space and atmosphere in his paintings. Employing a wide range of bright colors, he often creates a symmetrical balance of strong, rhythmic color combinations, as if he had viewed his concepts though a mental kaleidoscope.

Although the design and the composition of Maher's paintings are done meticulously, it is his colors that lead to a coherent music and poetry, in the images and forms he portrays. This is how Maher endeavors to be beyond the genre of folk painting and create modern works that penetrate deeper than the eye, finding visual forms for human dreams.

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Iranian Painters