Born in Teheran in 1937, he studied at the College of Fine Arts and the College of Decorative Arts in Teheran and began to exhibit his work early in his career, at the Biennales in Paris (1959-63), Teheran (1960-66), Sao Paulo (1963) and Venice (1964), receiving a number of awards. His work showed the influence of Iranian Shi`ite folk art beginning in 1959.

He went to live in Paris in 1961 but continued to take a close interest in the development of art in Iran. At the third Teheran Biennale in 1962, held in the Abyaz Palace in the Gulistan compound, he exhibited canvases that consisted of geometric patterns of squares, triangles and circles, using colors characteristic of religious folk art, and covered with calli...