Changiz Shohough and Revolution of Modern Iranian Sculpture

Date: 02 September 2025 - 21:42

News ID: ۱۴۳۱۱۹

TEHRAN -- Changiz Shohough
occupies a singular place in the trajectory of Iranian sculpture, an artist who refused the suffocating strictures of academic orthodoxy and instead sought to forge a new language for contemporary art in Iran.
Born in Baku in 1933 and passing in Tehran in 1996, Shohough’s work is a bold rupture from both the ornamental traditions of Iranian folk art and the rigid historicism of earlier sculptural practices. In doing so, he brought modernism to bear on a terrain often resistant to experimentation.
From his earliest days as a student, Shohough found the conservatism of the academy stifling. “I couldn’t breathe there,” he once remarked. This restlessness propelled him into a practice that defied convention.
His sculptural vocabulary incorporated unconventional materials—plexiglass and polyester—that, at the time, seemed radical and even risky. Far from mere novelty, these choices embodied a deeper interrogation of materiality and form, one that challenged the dominant expectations of what sculpture in Iran could be.
Shohough’s time in France in the late 1960s was a pivotal moment, exposing him to the vibrancy of European contemporary art and the significance of international biennials.
Upon his return, he collaborated with contemporaries such as Parviz Tanavoli and Grigorian to establish Iran’s first biennials, creating platforms that amplified emerging voices and facilitated critical dialogue in the Iranian art scene.
In the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, many artists retreated or were silenced, but Shohough persisted. He famously declared, “I don’t know another job, and I don’t know another way,” embracing art as both vocation and survival.
His 1987 solo exhibition at Tehran’s Carpe Gallery underscored his continued vitality and commitment amidst a climate of upheaval.
Central to Shohough’s legacy is his tireless advocacy for the institutional support of sculpture. He was instrumental in reopening sculpture departments, founding the Iranian Sculptors Association, and securing official permissions for public works.
His sculptures in Tehran’s Mellat Park stand as testament not only to his artistic vision but to his determination to cement sculpture’s place in post-revolutionary Iran’s public sphere.
Shohough’s work resists easy categorization. His sculptures dismantle traditional notions of monumentality and portraiture, favoring instead compositional interplay and an emphasis on creative autonomy that invites the viewer into a more active engagement with meaning.
His practice embodies a sustained dialogue between material innovation and conceptual rigor, a tension that continues to resonate in contemporary Iranian art.
Despite facing considerable institutional and cultural obstacles, Shohough’s unrelenting pursuit of new forms and expressions has left an indelible mark.
He lit a path forward—one characterized by courage, experimentation, and an unyielding commitment to rethinking Iranian modernism. His legacy persists not only in his sculptures and paintings but in the spirit of defiance and renewal he instilled in the generations of artists who followed.