Many artists find creative inspiration when facing adversity. Mountain View resident Pari Ram counted herself among them when she lived in her native Tehran during the Iranian Revolution and the tumultuous years that followed.
Although she and her husband had lived for some time in Italy, they returned to Tehran in 1979. But she faced hefty financial burdens while caring for elderly parents and a sick sister after her husband was forced to flee the country to escape execution, she says. “My one and only activity that kept my mind busy and away from all these issues was my art and painting,” she writes in a biography.
Art, which decades ago served as a form of survival, continues to be a necessary part of her life in her adopted country. A retrospective of Ram’s painting will be featured in an exhibit opening Aug. 2 at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center (OFJCC) in Palo Alto.
Ram’s warm, hospitable manner is evident as she shows this reporter around her home, offering a slice of homemade cake, and sharing stories about her life. Some of her paintings hang on the walls. She paints in a small but bright, sunlit room in her home, where she displays her most recent paintings. She describes her art as abstract, and she enjoys the freedom that it gives people: “I let people interpret my paintings.”
Ram and her husband lived in Trieste, Italy, from 1961 to 1964. While there and during travels to Rome, Venice, Milan, and Florence, she was inspired by classic Italian art and expanded on her own artistic skills, she recalls.
When she returned to Iran, a family friend who had seen some of her early drawings encouraged her to continue making art, sparking her desire to become a painter. After three to four years of learning how to make classic art while training with masters such as Marco Gregorian and Karl Schlamminger, and at the Tehran University College of Arts, she decided to move on to abstract art.
“I could survive, and little by little, call myself something,” she explains.
Just as her artistic career was kicking off in the 1980s, tensions in Iran began to rise quickly. She experienced tumultuous times in the aftermath of the revolution, exacerbated by being a member of the Baha’i faith, the largest religious minority in Iran. Her husband also sat on the board of a successful technology company, and subsequently, their assets were confiscated by the government. Her husband had to leave Iran immediately.
Ram says that much of her artistic creativity was borne out of chaos and hardships.”The revolution and bad situations I (faced) pushed me to paint,” she said.
Six years after her husband fled Iran, Ram left due to countless difficulties that she faced. She arrived in Darmstadt, Germany, where she stayed by herself for one year and seven months. “It was an excellent city,” she says.
She came to the United States on the Fourth of July in 1989. She and her husband lived in Los Angeles, where they both worked. Eventually they moved to Mountain View to be closer to their son. Since then she has focused all her energy on her art. “It’s not easy when you change 100 percent of your life,” she says, referring to her move to the U.S.
She notes that when she was living in Iran and facing hardship, she used darker colors, but as her life improved, she became attracted to brighter colors such as blue and red. She tried other forms of art such as collage, she explains, but finds painting to be the best fit for her artistic expression.
Ram has moved from using oil paints to acrylics, which dry faster and she finds are easier to work with. When painting, she uses brushes as well as her hands and a painter’s spatula to get interesting textures on the canvas.
Before the revolution, Iran was very Westernized, with American films showing in the cinemas in Tehran. Ram explained that she is influenced by both Western culture and artists such as abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock, along with classic Italian and traditional Iranian art. These many influences come across in her paintings, some of which will be shown at the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center from Aug. 2 to Nov. 1.
Information
A reception is set for Aug. 13 from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibit is on display in the Schultz Cultural Arts Hall at the OFJCC, located at 3921 Fabian Way in Palo Alto. More information is at tinyurl.com/pariram28.