Although highly abstracted, the Sassanian and Achaemenid imagery of Ancient Iran is quite evident in Massoud Arabshahi's work of the 1960s. In the 1970s he began to apply to his canvases various materials including card, gold leaf, ceramics, even concrete. His compositions became more three-dimensional, but even as the symbols he used became less explicit and ever more abstract, through his subtle layering of different media he managed to imbue them with the gravity of the rock-cut art which was his primary inspiration.