I Will Greet The Sun Again (Portrait of Pouran Shapoori) , 2023
Egg tempera on calf Vellum
Painting Size:
16.7 x 13.6 cm
6 5/8 x 5 3/8 in
Framed Size:
40 x 30 cm
15 3/4 x 11 3/4 in
Copyright The Artist
Pouran was born Farhdokht Abbasi Taghany in 1934 in Tehran, Iran. She became one of Iran’s most famous pop stars and actors. She came from a wealthy and conservative family,...
Pouran was born Farhdokht Abbasi Taghany in 1934 in Tehran, Iran. She became one of Iran’s most famous pop stars and actors. She came from a wealthy and conservative family, her aunt was a famous classic Iranian singer named Ezat Rohbakhsh (1908-1989) and her sister was Mahin Oskouei (1929-2006), Iran's first female theatre director and first woman to appear on stage. Despite coming from a performing artist family her childhood dreams of being a singer conflicted with her family’s goals for her; she escaped an arranged marriage by running away and embarked on a course to study music. Her fear of family reprisals led her to perform under a series of assumed names throughout her career. Rising to fame on Radio Tehran in the 1950s, she was initially known simply as ‘Anonymous Lady’. After she married her music teacher Abbas Shapoori in 1951, she appeared as ‘Lady Shapoori’. He helped her to a glittering career and supported her in making 5 films and 100 hit songs. With a demure public persona – she sang but did not dance and in her acting roles she was chaste – she was at home with both pop and classical Persian music styles. After seven years and the birth of a son their marriage ended in divorce; and she became known as “Pouran”. She later married Habib Roshanzadeh, a TV sports presenter, that resulted in two children but sadly that marriage also ended in a divorce. At the time of the revolution in 1979 she was travelling in the US with her children where she chose to remain. Her contemporaries in Iran were forced to sign a letter of penitence and banned from their platforms. In 1990, Suffering from kidney and breast cancer, she returned to Tehran to visit her family and to continue her treatment. It is said that on her deathbed she had a visit from Abbas Shapoori, they both cried and forgave each other. She died on 4 th Oct 1990. This painting is titled after a poem by Iranian feminist Forough Farrokhzad. This hopeful poem captures the spirit of Pouran, a woman who was strong in her determination and spirit, standing defiantly and confidently in a lush garden as the golden sun shines on her. After the revolution both Pouran and Farrokhzad’s (posthumously) art were banned by the Islamic Republic of Iran. More importantly, the poem speaks to the courage of the protestors in Iran since September 2022 after the death of Jina Mahsa Amini by the morality police and reflects the hope of Iranian women who want to greet the sun again. I Will Greet the Sun Again I will greet the sun again and the little river that once ran in me and the clouds that were my ruminations and the aching blooms of poplar trees, my companions in those seasons of drought. I will greet the crowd of crows again, who brought me their rich perfumes, gifts from gardens of the night, and my mother who lived in the mirror and whose shape was the shape of my own old age.
