TEHRAN -- Javad Mojabi, the Iranian poet, novelist, literary and art critic, painter, satirist and journalist whose work ranged across several of the country’s major literary and artistic movements of the past six decades, died on Saturday following a period of illness. He was 86.
Mojabi’s family announced his death to the Iranian news agency IRNA, saying that a funeral ceremony would initially be held, followed by seven days during which his home would remain open to friends, colleagues and admirers.
He had previously been hospitalized following surgery and was discharged on May 23.
Born in Qazvin on Oct. 14, 1939, Mojabi studied law and earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Tehran in the early 1960s. He worked as an expert at the Ministry of Culture and Arts while pursuing a parallel career in journalism and literature. He later became culture and arts editor at the newspaper Ettela’at and contributed to influential Iranian literary magazines including Ferdowsi, Jahan-e Now, Khusheh, Adineh and Donya-ye Sokhan.
Mojabi began writing poetry in the 1960s, while also producing short stories and researching modern Iranian painting. His career subsequently expanded into novels, poetry, literary criticism, visual-art criticism, painting, cartoons, satire and journalism. The breadth of his work made him one of the more distinctive figures in modern Iranian literary and cultural life. Tirgan’s 2008 festival profile described him as a writer of poetry, short stories, children’s literature, satire, essays, research and plays, as well as a critic of art and culture.
His engagement with the visual arts was particularly substantial. Mojabi wrote extensively on modern Iranian art and produced critical studies of artists and artistic movements, while also leaving behind work in painting and caricature. His published output eventually extended to more than 50 literary works, alongside hundreds of critical essays and articles on art and culture.
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