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TEHRAN – A book containing 100 portraits of the legendry wrestler Gholamreza Takhti (1930-1968)painted by veteran artist Behzad Shishegaran have been published in Tehran.
The book has been published by Ideh Publications and is due to be unveiled at Ideh Gallery, an affiliate of the publication, on Friday.
Written notes by Takhti’s son Babak, late anchor Ataollah Behmanesh, and writer and poet Javad Mojabi have been included in the book, the gallery has announced on its website.
“I have long wanted to concentrate on this man in my works and to analyze him from different aspects. I found friendship, generosity and popularity in portraits of Takhti, and I decided to work on his portraits, which rarely have been selected as a subject for a painting, in order to show my artistic views about these portraits,” Shishegaran said earlier.
According to Shishegaran, the portraits have been created with different media including pastel, gouache, pencil and mixed media.
A selection of the portraits will also be showcased at the gallery.
Takhti was born in Tehran on August 27, 1930 and was found dead in a hotel room on January 7, 1968. He was laid to rest at Ibn-e Babouyeh cemetery in southern Tehran where he is commemorated every year by Iranians.
Takhti won a gold medal in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, after defeating Boris Kulayev from Soviet Union in the final match.
He also claimed two Olympics silver medals: Helsinki in 1952 and Rome in 1960. Takhti won two World Championship gold medals: Tehran in 1959 and Yokohama in 1961.
The free-style wrestler also seized a gold medal in the 1958 Asian Games held in Tokyo, Japan.
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