Bahman Mohasses was an Iranian artist best known for his sculptures and paintings of stylized animals, objects, people, and mythological creatures. Mohasses had a complicated relationship with his home country of Iran, where he was treated as a cultural icon, while being censored and defamed by the regime established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini. His work across media share the dark tones and monumental forms of David Alfaro Siqueiros, and the abstract vernacular of Pablo Picasso, artists whose oeuvre’s include responses to the politics of their native land. Born on March 1, 1931 in Rasht, Iran, he studied under Habib Mohmmadi, and planned to study at the Fine Art Academy in Tehran, but due to political instability, fled to Italy where he studied at the Fine Art Academy in Rome. The artist died on July 28, 2010 in Rome, Italy.