Farewell to Behzad Gharibpour, illustrator and graphic artist of children’s books

According to Fars news agency’s education department, Behzad Gharibpour, a designer, graphic artist, illustrator, and one of the prominent artists of children’s and youth books and intellectual education center, died on the 22nd day of December 1401 due to illness.

Gharibpour was born in 1336 in Sanandaj and in 1358 he started his activity at Kanun as a part-time painting instructor at Kanun Center No. 1 in Tehran and after that in December 1360 he continued his artistic activities as a painter and graphic artist in the publishing department of Kanun.
During his academic years, he studied English language and literature at the Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, visual communication at the University of Fine Arts, and had a doctorate in graphic design.

His collaboration with Kanon’s graphic department introduced him to the art community as one of the leading artists of Kanon, and valuable works have been left from him in the field of children’s and youth books and poster design over the years.
Illustrating and designing the covers of the memorable books “The Secret of Water”, “Moving Crafts”, “Bandits”, “Black Panther”, “Love Bird”, “A Piece of Sky”, “The Sound of Poplar” and the plays of “Kuragluvi and Chenly Bell” , “Kechel Kaftar Baaz” and “The Puppet Master Learns” as well as the posters of the Iranian and European Children’s Literature Festival, the play “Tafil and Arrow and Thirst”, the show “An Incident in the City of Dolls”, the show “Ganjashkak Eshi-Mashi” and the cover design of the poet’s voice and play cassettes. Khrousak Parshan is one of the remaining works of this veteran artist in the center of intellectual development for children and teenagers.

In March 2011, after 31 years of service in Kanon’s graphic department, Gharibpour joined the group of Kanon’s retirees, but during these years many works of his have been published by various publishers of children’s and youth books.

In addition to teaching at university centers, this prominent graphic artist and illustrator was the judge of several international exhibitions such as Bratislava, Noma, Bologna and Catalonia of Yugoslavia and national festivals such as the Tehran Illustration Biennial, the Literary Masterpieces Illustration Festival and the Fajr Visual Arts Festival, and he himself twice Succeeded in receiving the NOMA Japan illustrator award in 1994, 1998 and domestic festivals such as Kanon’s children’s and adolescent book, as well as the “Aban” badge of the Iranian Illustrators Association.

Setting up educational workshops in Bratislava, establishing the “Tino Graphics” studio and being a member of the first board of directors of the Iranian Illustrators Association are among other cultural and artistic activities of this prominent artist in the field of illustration and graphics.

A few years ago, he spoke about his concerns in the field of illustration of children’s books in a specialized meeting at the reference library of the center and considered that there is no place for creative works in this field.

Gharibpour said: Some works of illustration force children not to follow and add something of their own to the work. Unfortunately, in our society, it is thought that a text should be written and an illustration should be done for it, while playing with books is not very serious in Iran. not taken Sometimes books allow children to expand their mental world.

This artist turned old in the ritual that Kanun had set up to honor him and several prominent artists and writers when he retired, and in short words he said: “I am Kanun and I am proud to be Kanun.”
Behzad Gharibpour died abroad at the age of 65 on December 22, 1401, after a long illness.

After the death of this outstanding artist in the field of illustration of children’s and teenagers’ books, Hamed Mahgati, CEO of the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Adolescents, honored his memory and expressed his condolences to all family members, including his artist brothers, Ostad Behrouz and Kianoosh Gharibpour.

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