Maryam (Saint Mary) Art Gallery in Tehran was officially inaugurated Wednesday (Feb. 25) displaying an exhibition of illustrations titled ‘Story of Prophets’ by artist Hesam-al-din Tabatabaee.
An old building located in Maryam Park , Karimkhan Zand Ave., which previously housed the Iranian House of Cartoon, was reconstructed by Tehran Municipality Art and Cultural Organization and reopened as an art gallery to host works in different fields of visual arts.
The gallery is managed by the organization which owns several cultural centers, cineplexes, libraries, art galleries, and museums in all 22 districts of the capital city.
On the opening of the gallery and the special exhibition, director of visual arts and museum affairs at the organization Hamid Niroomand told Financial Tribune that as the gallery is located in Maryam Park, “we wanted the first exhibition to be on religious themes.” He also noted that the offensive cartoons on the holy Prophet of Islam “made us more determined to launch the gallery with artworks to depict the true face of our prophet.”
At the exhibition of ‘Story of Prophets’, 44 illustrations depicting 21 divine prophets whose names are mentioned in the Holy Qur’an are displayed. The works were previously published in a book under the same title.
The book ‘Story of Prophets’, written by Moslem Ghasemi and published by Navaye Madrese publications, has children and young adults as its target group and narrates, in simple language, the story of the 21 divine prophets whose tales are related in the holy Qur’an.
Tabatabaee’s illustrations help children’s understanding of the stories as well as their imagination and as each picture contains “a lot of details, one should carefully take note of the background story.”
To a question on what aspects of each prophet’s life is seen in each work, the freelance illustrator and sculptor said, “Each work contains more than one story from a prophet’s life. Tales are all the same as the ones in the Qur’an; however, the most prominent parts were selected to illustrate the book.”
Born in 1973, Tabatabaee has illustrated nearly 100 children’s books. He has participated in several exhibitions and has won prizes at a number of foreign festivals.
Enthusiasts can visit the gallery at Karimkhan Zand Ave., corner of north Nejatollahi st., Maryam Park. The exhibition will continue till March 20.
