Fereydoun Ave, the Unconventional Collector

Over the past fifty years, artist Fereydoun Ave has assembled a singular collection of modern and contemporary Iranian art, the Laal Collection which arrives at the Jamaal Art Center in Dubai after being exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. An eclectic and in many ways unsettling collection, influenced by the history and personal life, by the friendships and sensitivity of the Iranian artist and curator. After the Iranian revolution of 1979, Ave continued to live in Tehran while many of his compatriots fled the country. In the early 1980s he launched 13 Vanak, an independent art space housed in a disused garden shed in an iconic Tehran square. An extemporaneous gallery that until 2009 proposed avant-garde art exhibitions, often irreverent and unconventional, which attracted a heterogeneous public and not a little attention from local authorities. After the closure of 13 Vanak, Ave continued to be a mentor to many artists both inside and outside Iran and his dual role as artist and curator offers an interesting perspective on the fascinating and controversial cultural history of his country. The exhibition, which brings the works of over 30 Iranian and international artists to Dubai - among which the name of Fereydoun's friend Cy Twombly stands out - is curated by Negar Azimi and Sohrab Mohebbi from Bidoun and Kathe and Jim Patrinos from Carnegie museum.