A painting exhibition titled 'Bells of Shahnameh', containing 10 large-scale oil on canvas works of Ali Esmail-lu, is held at 'Art Center'. Inspired by Shahnameh narratives about champions, these surrealist works are displayed to the public at the Art Center of Tehran.

IBNA:  Modern elements such as the 'gramophone' are set in these works beside mythological elements. The 'bell' is a recurrent element in most of the paintings, hence the title 'Bells of Shahnameh' is chosen.

Esmail-lu was born in 1982. An architecture graduate, he is currently working as painter and sculptor and has held 9 solo and group exhibitions within and without the country.

"My works in this exhibition depict main characters and symbols of Shahnameh that are somehow forgotten now," he explained.

Having visited the exhibition, painter and Professor Kazem Chalipa said: "The works of Esmail-lu is getting closer to postmodernism. There is a rich sense of expression in the works, but the faces imply dual forms. The settings sometimes step into imagination and humor and this should not dominate over the content."

During the inauguration, Esmail-lu performed a modern rework of ancient odes that was accompanied with theatrical plays in proportion with the paintings. Musician Farshad Fozouni, Touraj Jafari playing Tar and Setar, and Master Moshen Mirza Ali, the naqqal of Shahnameh stories accompanied the performance and Bahram Deldar acted as the director.

Many well-known Iranian figures has paid a visit to the exhibition including: poet Shams Langroudi, actor Behzad Farahani, Mehdi Ghanbeigi, Fariborz Arabnia, Asghar Hemmat, Abdolreza Abri, Hamid Pazouki, Kazem Chalipa, Bahman Mofid, Amir Mahdikia, Mahdi Miami, Yarta Yaran, and Rasoul Najafian.

The Art Center was founded in October 2009 as the first sponsor of WFP program in Iran. Thanks to its cultural activities in the field of visual arts, it has made over 150 thousand meals in support of anti-hunger programs. Meanwhile, works of more than 800 artists have been displayed in the Art Center and a certain percentage of total sales of art galleries are allocated for anti-hunger programs. Among these artists are eminent figures such as: Farah Osouli, Yaqoub Emdadian, Ahmad Esfandyari, Babak Etminani, Hamid A'jami, Mohammad Ahsayi, Nasrollah Afjei, Taha Behbahani, Jamal Bakhshpour, Javad Bakhtiari, Faramarz Pilaram, Sadeq Tabrizi, Zhazeh Tabatabaei, Mohammad-Ebrahim Jafari, Sedaghat Jabbari, Mohsen Javadipour, Ebrahim Haghighi, Hamidreza Hakimi, Mansoureh Hosseini, Mostafa Dashti, Hossein-Ali Zabehi, Hossein Zenderoudi, Bijan Raf'ati, Ali-Akbar Sadeghian, Rezvan Sadeghzadeh, Mahdi Sahabi, Maryam Salour, Ghobad Shiva, Saeid Shahlapour, Iraj Shafei, Ali Shirazi, Hossein Kashian, Parviz Kalantari, Asadollah Kiani, Marco Gerigorian, Alireza Karami, Ali Golestaneh, Farideh Lashayi, Hossein Mahjoubi, Leili Matin Daftari, Nosratollah Moslemian, Hossein Maher, Reza Mafi, Enayatollah Nazari, Gholamhossein Nami, Manouchehr Niazi, Ahmad Vakili, Gizella Varga Sinai, and Hadi Hazavei.

The Art Center will showcase Esmail-lu's artworks until November 23, 2011. The Art Center is located at No. 1716, north of Sadr Expressway, Shariati Avenue, Tehran.

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