Painter Presents Personified Buses

Prolific painter Bijan Akhgar has his latest series of works on show at Hoor Art Gallery in Tehran.

On show is a collection of paintings with “bus” as the recurrent subject. In an interview with Honaronline, Akhgar, 54, explained his preoccupation with buses.

“From 1986 to 2001, I traveled a lot on bus, between Tehran and the provinces.” He speaks of his first-hand experience with the atmosphere in the intercity buses including the pop music often played by the long-distance drivers.

“When I was a child, there was a bus terminal near our home. I always loved to go there and spend time watching the long vehicles and travelers. I don’t know what exactly pulled me to them, but I do know that it was not for the attraction of some mode of transportation.

At that time my young mind imagined me being an owner of a bus terminal with buses from various companies,” the artist said.

“Since then until now, I personify buses whenever I see one. First, I used to draw them in sketches, then in the late 1990s, they entered in my paintings with graphic accounts,” Akhgar added.

He has presented buses with human characters. One of them is in a vast desert, symbolizing the loneliness of a human. “Sometimes I paint a bus as an outlaw fleeing  from society. It’s been a while since I started painting buses in a narrative style.

The paintings have not received a good feedback, but I did what I did to give audiences some clue of the history and sociology of the subjects,” he concluded.

The painting exhibition opened August 24 and will end on September 14. Hoor Art Gallery is located at No. 12, Naimi Alley, Mirza Shirazi Street, north of Motahari Avenue.