TEHRAN – Iranian painter and sculptor Nima Petgar has died. He was 69.
Petgar died of heart disease on March 25, and his body was buried in the Artists Section of Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery on March 29.
His funeral ceremony was held at the courtyard of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) and was attended by TMCA director Majid Mollanoruzi, artists, friends and relatives.
In a brief speech at the ceremony, Mollanoruzi said that Petgar’s name, works and memoirs will be remembered among Iran’s artistic society forever.
Art critic Amir Purya called Petgar a modest person and said, “Nima had a unique personality and was a good example of an individual influenced by art.”
Petgar liked silence, the artist’s friend Issa Jalali said at the ceremony, adding, “One of the things Nima Petgar liked the most was silence. He paid due attention to silence and stressed on the concept ‘full of emptiness’ rather than ‘full of full’,” he explained.
The artist’s son, Dejar, also spoke briefly and said, “When one looks at Nima’s paintings, one does not see much sorrow, or much happiness. He believed man makes his experiences and suffers. Some cause pain for others due to this pain from experiences, but others make use of it for constructive purposes. The ideal of humanity and goodness were what brought joy to my father.”
The artist’s wife, Fereshteh Yamini-Sharif, expressed thanks to all the participants.
Born in 1946 in Tehran, Nima was the son of artist Ali-Asghar Petgar and learned to paint from his father. He traveled to Italy in 1968 and studied at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts.
He returned home in 1976 and continued his career in his personal atelier.
Some of his paintings are preserved in TMCA, one in Abadan Museum of Contemporary Art, and one of his sculptures is on display in the Rome Academy of Fine Arts.
RM/YAW
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