Ghasem Hajizadeh is a contemporary Iranian painter who uses old family photographs and historical images as the basis of his works. In 1967, he graduated with a degree in painting from Tehran Conservatory of Fine Arts. Later, he was hired by the National Radio and Television of Iran, but quit his job to dedicate his life to painting.
After attending two group exhibitions in Saba Gallery and the open space of Tehran Student Park in 1965, Hajizadeh held his first solo work in 1969 in Ghandriz Hall and continued his collaboration with this hall until 1971. After that, his works were exhibited individually in the former Iran-US Association, Goethe Institute, Seyhoun Gallery, etc. His works have always been participants of international group exhibitions with prominent artists from the Middle East and Iran. Major art centers in cities such as Washington, Nice, London, Basel, Paris, Seoul and Belgrade have showcased his work. He has lived in Paris for many years and continues his artistic activities outside of Iran.
Hajizadeh's fascination with the world of photography dates back to his childhood When he became acquainted with the camera and the process of photography and the printing and emergence of photography through a neighborhood with a photographer from Lahijan. This fascination has continued till this day in his paintings and has become the main feature of his works. Old photographs are the central and enduring subject of his paintings, including Images selected from family photo albums, historical archives, or clippings from old magazines: "I like new photos, but I love old ones."
The legends about Mirza Koochak Khan and the foresters in his hometown of Lahijan had a profound effect on him and were the basis for the creation of an important part of his works. But Hajizadeh does not take a photorealistic approach to reconstructing these photographs, but mischievously interferes with them, using measures such as blurring, surprising use of colors, manipulating face components, emphasizing the shapes of figures, resizing or positioning them paradoxically, characterizes the grotesque of these images which belong to an individual and collective memory. It is as if the painter actively and critically recounts history by recalling memories.
Ghasem Hajizadeh is one of the most well-known Iranian painters in the international arena and many critics have written about his works. "His paintings not only reflect the message of the camera, but they also show how the eye distinguishes facts," writes Dana Stein, an art critic at the New York Museum of Modern Art. "For us, as for his compatriots, Hajizadeh's works are like the works of a historian and a very careful keeper of thousands of details of the people’s taste," François Gareine wrote in the Gippi Hebdomadaire about the historical aspect of his work.
Hajizadeh's first appearance in the auctions dates back to November 2008 at the Christie's Auction House. Until September 2021, his work had appeared 53 times in domestic and foreign auctions, and 49% of his works were sold in international auctions. His most expensive work until 2021 was hammered at the Christie's Auction House for $ 72,500 on October 20, 2014.