A stranger in his own birthplace, Nasser Assar is a well-known painter in the Western world. He was initiated to painting by Ali Mohammad Heydarian, a follower of Kamal-ol-Molk when still quite young. This is when his father had already instilled a deep love of Persian literature and poetry into him. On entering the department of Fine Arts of Tehran University (1950-53), like nearly all other intellectuals of his generation and particularly under the influence of his friendship with Manouchehr Yektai and Mehri Rakhsha, the overwhelming wave of modernism mesmerized him put behind Heydarian's teaching altogether. After graduation in 1953, he first went to Hamburg and a few months later to Paris where he lived to the end of his life, paying on...