Alireza Sami Azar

Alireza Sami-Azar (born July 13, 1961) is an Iranian architect, art historian, writer and the
founder of Tehran Auction and Art Tomorrow Institute.
He is one of the most influential figures in the art scene of Iran. He was responsible for
opening up the country’s art scene to international collaboration in the early 2000s when he
was the director of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA).Irving, Mark (2005).https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2005/04/01/ali-reza-sami-azar-director-of-tehrans-museum-of-contemporary-art-has-stepped-down.
The Art Newspaper, International Edition.no 157. April
Since 2005, Sami
Azar has been teaching history of contemporary art and architecture and has written a three-
volume treatise on the contemporary art in the West. His books and teachings had a crucial
impact on the awareness of Iranian artists and art community about development of
contemporary art in Europe and the US.
Sami-Azar was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran from 1998 to 2005. A
trained architect whom Mohajerani, the minister of culture, appointed to head both Tehran’s
Museum of Contemporary Art and the government’s regulatory body for the visual arts, the
minister had a willing accomplice. Sami-Azar reduced censorship, promoted Iranian artists
abroad and built institutional links with the western arts establishment. With two major shows
at the museum; a retrospective of British sculpture and an exhibition of superb modern
western art from the permanent collection, Sami-Azar showed that he was that rare
commodity in revolutionary Iran: a globalist.De Bellaigue, Christopher (2006). “A Conversation with Ali-Reza Sami-Azar”. Bidoun. Fall 2006, Issue 8:
Interview Conversations arbitrary and definitive.
During his tenure, many outstanding
exhibitions were held in the Museum and he provided the opportunity to display the treasures
of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art after two decades of post-revolutionary era.
Sami-Azar opened the borders for Iranian artists to travel and experience the world and to
expose their work to an international audience.Neshat, Shirin (2005).“Mediator of hope”.https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2005/05/01/how-sami-azar-head-of-tehrans-museum-of-contemporary-art-has-been-the-mediator-that-iranian-artists-yearned-for. The Art Newspaper, International Edition. no 158. May.
In 2007 he was named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Letters by the French
Government. Previously in April 15, 2003, he was bestowed the Gold Medal of Honor for his
outstanding achievement in art by The National Arts Club in the United States.
==Personal life==
Sami Azar was born in Tehran, Iran on July 13, 1961. He studied architecture at University of
Tehran from 1978 to 1989. Then in 1996, he received his PhD in architecture from the UCE
(University of Central England), currently known as BCU (Birmingham City University).Alireza Sami Azar was director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran from 1998 to
2005. During this period, the museum witnessed a growth and prosperity in holding major
and well curated exhibitions showcasing works from its permanent collection of western art
which had been kept in the vault since the Islamic Revolution. Some of these exhibitions
introduced, for the first time, the modern art movements such as Impressionism, Cubism,
Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Minimalism to Iranian public.
Also, a series of exhibitions titled Pioneers of Modern Iranian Art displaying the works of
Iranian prominent artists, such as Parviz Tanavoli, Hossein Zenderoudi, Massoud Arabshahi,
Sohrab Sepehri, Mohsen Vaziri-Moghaddam, Morteza Momayez, Behjat Sadr and
Mansooreh Hosseini were held. These exhibitions contributed to introduce the Iranian
modern masters to the young generation as many of them had left the country for Europe and
the US in the aftermath of the revolution and returned Iran after many years.
The historic exhibition of Iranian Conceptual Art held in 2001 is said to have been a turning
point in the history of post-revolution Iranian art.Khalatbari, Arman (2022).https://mohit.art/a-chronology-of-conceptual-experiments-in-iranian-art-of-the-1970s/.
The Independent Artists Group” in Honar-e Jadid: A New Art in Iran, ed. Hannah Jacobi (Berlin: mohit.art, 2022);
published on https://mohit.art/, January 28, 2022.
The show was followed by two annual
exhibitions of new media art entitled New Art. From these events a new generation of Iranian
contemporary artists emerged. The other significant event under Sami-Azar directorship was
a large exhibition titled Gardens of Persia: Old Wisdom, New Vision held at the TMoCA in
the September 2004. The show included a series of antique artworks presented in parallel to
texts and images on historical gardens in Iran. But the larger part of the event was comprised
of installations, photos and videos by contemporary artists such as Abbas Kiarostami, Shirin
Neshat, Avish Khobrehzadeh and Farideh Lashai.Vahabi, Kianoosh (2005).https://www.bidoun.org/articles/reproduced-image. 
Bidoun. Winter 2005, Issue 3: Hair
Art Exhibitions.
In 2004 the museum hosted a show of British sculpture titled Turning Point presenting
substantial works by renowned British artists of three generations namely Henry Moore,
Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Paolozzi, Anthony Caro, Richard Deacon, Gilbert and George
alongside pieces by contemporary artists such as Damien Hirst, Anish Kapoor, Tony Cragg,
Bill Woodrow, Anya Gallaccio and Mona Hatoum. The exhibition was organized in
association with the British Council and included pieces from the collections of the Tate, the
TMoCA, the Henry Moore Foundation and the British Council.http://1995-2015.undo.net/it/evento/18180.
Turning Points. 24/2/2004
Held in Spring 2005 the exhibition of Masterpieces of Persian Painting dedicated to the
introduction of Iranian traditional painting and classical schools was another important event
of the museum during his time. Talking about the exchange of 118 pages of King Tahmasb
Manuscipt (1524-1576) with a superb painting by Willem de Kooning titled “Woman III”
(1953) from the museum collection, occurred in 1994, Souren Melikian, the scholar of
Iranian culture and International Herald Tribune art journalist says: 
Sami-Azar also negotiated the loan of important pieces from the museum permanent
collection to some European museums for their retrospective exhibitions. The museum hence
experienced an unprecedented collaboration with leading European museums. One such case
was the loan of one of the greatest works of the collection, a Francis Bacon’s triptych, Two
Figures Lying on a bed with attendants (1968) to Tate Britain and Edinburgh’s Museum of
Modern Art.Irving, Mark (2005).https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2005/04/01/ali-reza-sami-azar-director-of-tehrans-museum-of-contemporary-art-has-stepped-down.
The Art Newspaper, International Edition.no 157. April
During Sami Azar’s tenure, the museum supported more than 50 exhibitions of Iranian
contemporary art abroad at such venues as the Meridian International Center in Washington,
D.C., London’s Barbican Center and the National Arts Club in New York.Kelly Devine Thomas. (2003).https://www.artnews.com/
ARTnews Magazine, Volume 102, no 7, summer.https://www.diatropebooks.com/product/444/ArtNews-Volume-102-Number-1-January-2003
In 2005, before resigning from directing of the museum, he curated an exhibition titled
Modern Art Movement presenting significant pieces from the foreign artists’ works within
the collection. The list of paintings and sculptures was truly impressive: not only for the
names, but often for the importance of the pieces that appear in the collection. From Monet to
Sol LeWitt, it could be said that the entire major history of the arts from impressionism to
conceptual art was represented. Monet with Degas and Pissarro; and then van Gogh,
Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Vuillard to link the post-impressionist tradition to the
School of Paris (Piscine, Dufy, van Dongen, Rouault, among others); German expressionism:
from Nolde to Beckmann, passing through their roots in Ensor; Picasso, including a
sculpture, and Matisse; Klee and Kandinsky, Leger and Delaunay, Braque and Chagall;
surrealism, figurative and abstract: from Magritte and Dali, to Ernst and Mirò. After the war,
equally extraordinary was the documentation of American art, from the action painting of
Pollock and de Kooning, of Kline and Motherwell, to the splendid Rothkos, to neo-dada
(Rauschenberg, Jones, Dine) to pop art (Indiana, Rosenquist, Lichtenstein and, of course,
Warhol). Finally, (but still skipping a lot) Fautrier, Soulages and Dubuffet, documenting the
first French informal, and the isolated, great figure of Giacometti.FABRIZIO D'AMICO (2005).https://www.repubblica.it/
At the same time (1998-2005) he was a university professor and a member of the Faculty of
Fine Arts at Tehran University. He resigned from his positions as director of Museum in
March 2005, but the minister didn’t accept his resignation because of the Iranian artists
protest.Irving, Mark (2005).https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2005/04/01/ali-reza-sami-azar-director-of-tehrans-museum-of-contemporary-art-has-stepped-down.
The Art Newspaper, International Edition.no 157.
April.
A few months later, he resigned again from the museum and the university in 2005.
Then, he spent his time writing various articles and books about the contemporary art in the
world and also lecturing and teaching these topics.
In 2012 Sami-Azar launched Tehran Auction as an independent and private initiative to
introduce the best of Iranian art ranging from established and emerging artists to Iranian art
collectors and global audience. As the leading art market institution in Iran, Tehran Auction
aims to support the domestic art market as a key basis for the international market. It works
widely with Iranian art galleries and collectors to ensure a vast and strong selection of
paintings, sculptures and photographs.https://tehranauction.com/
In 2018 he founded the Art Tomorrow cultural & educational institute as a center for
exchanging ideas and experiences in the field of culture and the arts. The institute is aimed at
presenting professional and advanced masterclasses in various fields of the arts and literature.
It is intended to enhance artistic knowledge and awareness of young artists, art students and
art lovers. Currently, various courses and workshops are being held in the field of visual arts,
theater, cinema, philosophy, literature, Iranian studies and interdisciplinary studies. The
courses are taught by the most prominent teachers as well as renowned artists and scholars.http://arttomorrow.org/
==Books==
Movements in Contemporary Art: Postmodern Waves (2020)
Movements in Contemporary Art: Conceptual Revolution (2012)
Movements in Contemporary Art: Rise & Decline of Modernism (2009)
The Birth of Iranian Modernism (2017)
Movements in Art Since 1945 by Edward Lucie-Smith, Translated to Farsi (2001)
Category:1961 births
Category:Iranian architects
Category:Iranian people
Category:Art historians
Category:Writers