Visual Music in Shiva’s Posters ( فارسی )

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Writen By vahid sabeti

There was an exhibition called “A Revisit of Ghobad Shiva’s 1960s and 1970s Posters” at Khak Art Gallery in December 2006. This exhibition, held short after Shiva’s first individual exhibition in Isfahan, was a selection of his posters during the mentioned decades. I believe there is no graphic designer in Iran like Ghobad having designed so many cultural posters or being that successful. Ghobad is a great traditional artist and at the same time he believes in modernity. His ability in mixing these two different qualities has made him a unique artist. He well knows the theory of both traditional and modern art and he too can practice them in his best ability. Despite the relation that Shiva’s works have with the old Eastern- Iranian art, they are created in a greatly modern way, therefore; you wouldn’t get the so-called nostalgic feeling that you may get. The good point about his work is that although he has designed most of the posters by the television orders while he was working in Radio and Television organisation, has never been influenced by the job conditions. This is more obvious in his 1970s works, when he got more experienced in designing and created some new works containing a sort of visual music. One of the key features of graphic designs is that it is defined by the taste of the client thus graphic designing is more known as a job than an art. The beauty of the designs mostly depends on how intelligent the client is and how much he relies on the designer. So visiting Ghobad’s works which have the great deal of artistic value as well as Iranian identity is a unique opportunity for young designers to learn many things from the master. Khak Gallery is considering holding periodic exhibitions of Ghobad Shiva’s works up to his latest ones.