Bahram Dabiri is an Iranian Postwar & Contemporary artist who was born in 1950. Bahram Dabiri's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from $1,602 USD to $9,768 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork. Since 2013 the record price for this artist at auction is $9,768 USD for Untitled, sold at Tehran Auction in 2013.

Biography

Bahram Dabiri was born in Shiraz in 1950. His family appreciated art; his mother was the daughter of a landowner who loved art and literature, and his father, who took no pride in aristocracy, had a deep interest in literature and history. Dabiri’s childhood was simultaneous with the disintegration of Iran's social system and the emergence of a new elite. Even the remnants of an aristocracy on the verge of extinction could not help keep his family in his hometown, leaving them with no alternative but to migrate to Tehran.
The twelve-year-old Dabiri adopted a strong interest in painting when he saw the movie The World of Suzie Wang, a dramatic story of an artist’s life. Later on he concluded that painting is well beyond an occupation; it is a way of life. Upon entering the College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, in 1969, he studied the processes of modernism and the works of great artists while learning about his cultural identity and the national and historical background of his country. The works of Dabiri are classified into three distinct eras: first, his studying years; second, his big murals and paintings during the Revolution; and third, his works after 1981, which reflect various different dimensions of modernistic painting.
Dabiri is engaged with both modernism and tradition. His works are narratives that, at times, mix his fundamental beliefs with the language of life and contemporary painting to express the concepts within his mind. He has his own narrative and symbolic style, method and criteria and depicts the world sometimes delicately and poetically and at other times violently and horrifically. Nevertheless, he does not paint with the obsolete beliefs of his predecessors. In both cases, he creates a beautiful scene. Dabiri uses certain techniques that he has acquired through his experiences. For instance, he sometimes paints one scene within another, thus demonstrating an event that is taking place inside another.
What is significant in Dabiri’s paintings is his consistency of thought. Each of his works inevitably belongs to his mental world, and he paints with the same language and images that have been constructing his dreams for a very long time. He does not wish to create a world and space in a traditional, systematic easily decodable way. Rather, he tends to develop an atmosphere of infinity in which explicitness is inefficient; consequently, his works enjoy a deeper visual effect. His paintings are often based on epics or tragedies. The tragic essence may not be implied on the canvas directly, but may unveil itself within the dramatic circumstances of the figures in the painting. The forms and conditions encompassing their surroundings exhibit the force of destiny and tell of the pains and sufferings of humankind.
One of the important features of his works, which are combinations of drawing and painting, is that they both reassure the spectator of their being representations of real objects while mystifying him or her as to their actual meaning. There is no doubt over what has been painted; the hesitation arises about the time and place and purpose of the painting, and why the endlessness of space intentionally is broken where it is. At times it seems that certain images have been maintained in a vast but scattered space in which the pulse of life continues beating, and the sound of its breath is clearly audible.

Exhibitions

1968 Solo painting show, Sepid Gallery, Tehran
1975 Solo show, Seyhoun Art Gallery, Tehran
1975 Solo shows, Goethe Institute, Tehran
1976 Solo painting show, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran
1976 Solo painting show, Goethe Institute, Tehran
1976 Group drawing show, Naghsh Gallery, Tehran
1976 Group painting show, Derici Gallery, Shiraz
1977 Group painting show, Derici Gallery, Shiraz
1977 Group drawing show, Naghsh Gallery, Tehran
1977 Solo show, Tehran Gallery, Iran
1977 Shared show with Hannibal Alkhas, Naqsh Gallery, Tehran
1978 Solo painting show, Tehran Gallery, Iran
1979 Group live painting show, "Before the Public", Bagh Ferdows, Tehran
1979 Group painting show, Reopening, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
1979 Show, Tehran Gallery, Iran
1980 Painting show, Reopening Show, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
1980 Live painting show, "In Front of People", Bagh Ferdows, Tehran
1980 Show, The Council of Iranian Writers and Artists, Tehran
1980 Group mobile shows in the northern cities of Iran
1980 Group show, Iranian Writers & Artists Assembly, Tehran
1980 Solo show, Commissioned Works, Mural Painting, Khazaneh Bus Terminal, Tehran
1981 Show, The Council of Iranian Writers and Artists, Tehran
1981 Group painting show, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
1982 Group painting show, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
1984 Landscape studies show, Private workshop, Tehran
1984 Solo show, "Still Life", Personal workshop, Tehran
1984 Solo design show, Personal Workshop, Tehran
1985 Solo show, "Curtains", Personal Workshop, Tehran
1985 Mythological studies show, "Paintings & Drawings", Artist’s workshop, Tehran
1986 Paintings & portraits show, Artist's workshop, Tehran
1986 Solo show, "Figures", Personal workshop, Tehran
1987 Iranian mythological drawings show, Artist's Workshop, Tehran
1988 Solo show, Nashr Noghreh, Tehran
1989 Solo show, Pafar Gallery, Tehran
1989 Solo show, Personal Workshop, Tehran
1990 Drawing show, "Birds & Looks", Open-Air Show, Darakeh Mountains, Tehran, Iran
1990Show, 70 works, Private Viewing, Tehran
1991Show, "Collages", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1992Shared show with Hannibal Alkhas, Abi Gallery, Babol, Iran
1992Group painting show in support of Bosnian Women & Children
1992Solo painting show, 50 Works, Tehran, Iran
1992Solo show, Personal workshop, Tehran
1993Solo show, Arya Gallery, Tehran
1993Group painting show, Abi Gallery, Babol
1994Solo show, Seyhoun Art Gallery, Tehran
1995Solo show, "Felt Rugs", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1996Solo calligraphy and drawing show, Personal workshop, Tehran
1996Solo show, Ceramics and Metals, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1996Group show, Mixed Media: Metal & Ceramic Works, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1996Show, "Felt Rugs: Second Generation", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1996Sole etchings & drawings Show, Tehran
1996Private show, Etchings & Drawings, Tehran
1997Commissioned to produce 120 collages and 3 bas-reliefs for Istiqlal Hotel, Tehran
1997Solo show, Works of the Shiraz School, Personal Workshop, Tehran
1998Solo show, "The Hens and Roosters of Bahram Dabiri", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
1998Solo stained glass show, Passargad Gallery, Tehran
1998Sole shows, "Envelopes", Niavaran Book City, Tehran
1999Show, Tensil Paintings, Pasargad Gallery, Tehran
1999Group show, "Total Arts at the Courtyard", Dubai, UAE
2000Group painting show, Art Expo New York, New York
2000Group show of allegorical themes in Iranian modern paintings, Museum of Contemporary Arts, Tehran
2000Group show, Contemporary Iranian Modern Art, New York
2000Group show, Reagan Center, Washington, D.C., USA
2000Group painting show of Iranian artists, Shevchenko Museum, Kiev, Ukraine
2000Show, Symbolic expression in the Iranian contemporary painting, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts, Iran
2001Solo painting show, 20 selected works, Marbella Country Club, Marbella, Spain
2001Sole show, "Bahram Dabiri's Insects (Metamorphosis)", Ave Gallery, Tehran
2001Sole show, "Bahram Dabiri's Inscriptions", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
2001Sole show, "25 Leaves from a Lost Book", Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran
2001Group show, "Total Arts at the Courtyard", Dubai
2001Group show, Iranian Artists’ Forum, Tehran
2002Group show, "Spring", Hotel Mirage, Dubai
2002Painting show, "Bahram’s Classics", Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran
2003Painting show, House of Artists, Tehran
2003Group show, "Autumn", Hotel Mirage, Dubai
2003Group show, Bernak Gallery, Bremen, Germany
2004Painting show, "Gol va Morgh", Saadabad Palace, Tehran
2005Painting show, Mah Art Gallery, Tehran
2006Sole show, "A Handful of Dust", Tiles and Vases, Golestan Galley, Tehran
2006Sole shows, Neek House Gallery, Yazd, Iran
2006Show, Painting and sculpture by Bahram Dabiri, Simin Ekrami, Ramtin Hotel, Tehran
2007Sole show, Arta Gallery, Toronto, Canada
2007Sole show, Mekic Gallery, Montreal, Canada
2007Sole show, Collages and Drawings based on the Saadie’s Poetry, Shirin Gallery, Tehran
2008Solo painting show, Atbin Gallery, Tehran
2008Group show, Tirgan, Toronto, Canada
2009Group show, Hana Gallery, Tehran
2009Group show, Haft Negah, Tehran
2010Sole shows, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
2012Show, Seyhoon Gallery, Tehran
2013Summer group painting show by 60 Artists
2018Group show, "Free Sale", Tarahane Azad Gallery, Tehran
2018Group show, "6th International Art for Peace Festival", Pardis Mellat, Tehran
2018Group show, "I Sohrab Sepehri", Dd Museum Gallery, Mazandaran
2018Group show, "Painting Show", Sohrab, Tehran
2018Group painting show, Sohrab, Tehran
2018Solo painting show, Golestan Gallery, Tehran
2018Solo show, "Painiting Show", Golestan Gallery, Tehran
2019Group show, "Collector 3", Artibition, Tehran
2019Group show, "Editions", Aria Gallery, Tehran
2019Group show, "Painting and Sculpture Show", Sarv-E Naz Gallery, Shiraz
2019Group show, "Eye of The City", Sarv-E Naz Gallery, Shiraz
2020Group show, "Shabtab (7)", Azad Art Gallery, Tehran
2020Group show, "Shabtab 8 - Online Viewing", Azad Art Gallery, Tehran
2020Group show, "Summer's Color ", Shamideh Art Gallery, Tehran
2020Group show, "Editions", Aknoon Gallery, Isfahan