Farshid Mesghali - Part 01 - فرشید مثقالی - قسمت اول

Farshid Mesghali (born in 4th of July, 1993) Iranian contemporary illustrator and painter

Childhood and Education
He was born in Isfahan and after finishing the high school course, entered the Faculty of Fine Art of Tehran University in the branch of painting. Among his masters in this period he recalls Ali Mohammad Heydarian, Mahmood Javadipoor and Javad Hamidi.

Professional Activities
He started his job with illustrating and picturing for various journals and his first professional experience was working with the Negin Journal within the years of 1964 to 1965. He also worked for a while in the public relation office of the Organization of Budget and planning and then as illustrator joined the journal of Keyhan Bacheha, the special magazine for the children. The books of the Black Colt and the Gold Rooster and The Shirt of Pari are his first experiences in the field of illustration. In 1967 he joined for a few years the center for the Intellectual Growth of Children and Young Adults and undertook the illustrations of some children books which was started by Amoo Norooz. Among his other works in this period one may points to the celebrated book of The Black Small Fish that wins the first award of Bologna Biennale (Italy), in 1969. He also with the cooperation of Arapik Baqdaracian founded the film-strip section of the center and among his works in this field are Mr. Monster and Misunderstanding.
His other professional experience is establishing “the graphic atelier of 42” by the cooperation of Morteza Momayyez and Ali Asghar Ma`soomi that the life of the atelier lasts not for a long time. Then Mesghali turns to sculpturing and his volumetric products and in addition to using variety of colors, started to employ of various uncommon items like glue, and paper.
Farshid Mesquali after the victory of Islamic Revolution, left Iran for England and then resided in France. In Paris he earnestly worked on the technique of Papier-mâché and sculpturing and created various works. But in 1986 he left Paris for USA and resided in California. He continued his artistic activities with establishing a private graphic studio under the name of Desk Top Studio. At length Mesquali returned to Iran and his last exhibition was held in Tehran in Homay Gallery in 2011.

A Selection of His Books
• The Paper Statues of Farshid Mesquali edited by Tabasiyan and Saaed. Mah Riz Publication, 1999
• Game and Toys with the Persian and English words, Tehran Farzan-e-Roze Publication, 2003
• An Introduction on Graphic Design, Tehran, Nazar Publiscation, 2010
• Typography (letterset) Nazar Publication, 2014
• Illustration. Nazar Publication, 2014

Awards
• The first award of the Bologna Biennale (Italy) for picturing the book of the The Black Small Fish (1969)
• The award of the Bratislava Biennale (Czechoslovakia) for picturing the book of The Black Small Fish (1969)
• The award of Bologna Biennale for illustrating the book of Hero (1971)
• The award of Golden Apple of Bratislava Biennale (Czechoslovakia) for the illustration of Arash, The Archer (1972)
• The special award of Venice Film Festival, Italy for the Film of The Boy, The Lute and The Bird (1973)
• The award of Hans Christian Anderson (the Noble of Children and Youngsters Literature) for the illustration of children books (1997)
• The special awards of Moscow Film Festival for the film of “Look Again” (1975)
• The great award of the Giffoni Children Film Festival, Italy for the film of “Look Again” (1975)
• The third award of poster Biennale of Warsaw Poster, Poland (1977)
• The award of Nova from Japan for the picturing the book of Me, Porcupine and My Doll (1985)